Terms of Service

1. Service Overview

Hokusai operates infrastructure for shared AI decision layers, including routing systems, evaluation systems, benchmarks, contributor reward systems, tokenized incentive mechanisms, APIs, analytics, and related developer tools.

The Service may provide recommendations, routing decisions, evaluations, rankings, benchmarks, attribution systems, reward mechanisms, and related outputs.

Hokusai may add, modify, suspend, replace, or discontinue any portion of the Service at any time.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least thirteen (13) years old to use the Service.

If you are under eighteen (18), you must have permission from a parent or legal guardian.

If you use the Service on behalf of a company, organization, or other entity, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity to these Terms.

3. Accounts and Organizations

You may be required to create an account to access portions of the Service.

You agree to provide accurate information and maintain the accuracy of your account information.

You are responsible for:

• maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials;
• securing your API keys, wallets, and authentication methods;
• all activity occurring under your account; and
• all activity performed by your employees, contractors, agents, Authorized Users, and customers.

Organizations may designate administrators who can manage permissions, billing, integrations, reward settings, and organizational controls.

4. Definitions

Customer

A “Customer” is any individual or organization that uses the Service to obtain routing decisions, model recommendations, evaluations, analytics, API responses, or other outputs from Hokusai.

Contributor

A “Contributor” is any individual or organization that submits Contribution Data to Hokusai for purposes of training, benchmarking, evaluation, model improvement, reward eligibility, attribution, or protocol participation.

A user may be both a Customer and a Contributor.

Contribution Data

“Contribution Data” means any task data, task outcomes, evaluations, benchmark submissions, routing information, performance measurements, metadata, labels, annotations, acceptance signals, rejection signals, feedback, or other materials intentionally submitted through designated contribution workflows for purposes of improving Hokusai decision layers, benchmarks, evaluations, or related models.

Contribution Data does not include ordinary paid API usage unless explicitly submitted through a designated contribution workflow.

5. Credits, Billing, and Payment

Certain features of the Service require prepaid credits.

Credits may be purchased using payment methods supported by Hokusai.

Credits may be consumed based on API usage, routing decisions, evaluations, or other Service usage metrics.

Hokusai may establish minimum purchase amounts, maximum purchase amounts, expiration periods, auto-recharge functionality, billing thresholds, and refund policies.

Unless otherwise stated at the time of purchase:

• unused credits may be refundable only within any stated refund window;
• used credits are non-refundable; and
• blockchain and cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible and non-refundable.

You are responsible for all applicable taxes, transaction fees, gas fees, and payment processing fees.

Hokusai may modify pricing or fees upon notice.

6. Integrations and Customer Responsibilities

Customers are solely responsible for:

• determining whether the Service is appropriate for their use case;
• validating routing decisions before use;
• operating their own applications, harnesses, workflows, and infrastructure;
• protecting proprietary information, repositories, credentials, and customer data;
• compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
• compliance with third-party model, software, and service terms; and
• implementing appropriate human review and safeguards.

Hokusai provides recommendations and decision-support infrastructure only.

Hokusai does not guarantee successful outcomes from any routing decision, recommendation, evaluation, benchmark, or model selection.

7. User Content

You may submit content, information, data, prompts, evaluations, outcomes, benchmarks, metadata, feedback, and other materials through the Service (“User Content”).

You retain ownership of any intellectual-property rights you hold in User Content.

You represent and warrant that:

• you have the right to submit the User Content;
• the User Content does not violate any law, contract, confidentiality obligation, privacy right, or third-party intellectual-property right; and
• you have authority to grant the licenses described in these Terms.

8. Contribution Data Rights and Training

8.1 Contribution Data License

By submitting Contribution Data through designated contribution workflows, you grant Hokusai a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, transferable license, with the right to sublicense, to host, store, reproduce, process, analyze, transform, benchmark, evaluate, and use such Contribution Data for purposes of:

• training and improving Hokusai models and decision layers;
• evaluating performance;
• benchmarking;
• attribution;
• reward determination;
• protocol governance;
• auditing;
• fraud prevention;
• protocol security;
• protocol administration; and
• operation of the Service.

8.2 Irrevocable License

The irrevocable nature of the Contribution Data license is a material condition of participation in Hokusai contribution and reward programs.

Once Contribution Data has been accepted into a training corpus, benchmark corpus, evaluation corpus, attribution system, reward system, governance process, or related protocol infrastructure, the Contributor may not revoke, terminate, withdraw, rescind, or otherwise invalidate the rights granted under these Terms.

Contributors acknowledge that accepted Contribution Data may become incorporated into trained models, benchmark datasets, evaluation systems, reward calculations, attribution records, governance records, and protocol infrastructure, making removal impractical or impossible.

Contributors retain ownership of their underlying Contribution Data, subject to the rights granted to Hokusai under these Terms.

8.3 Paid API Usage Is Not Training Data

Except for Contribution Data intentionally submitted through designated contribution workflows, Hokusai will not use paid API usage as training data for Hokusai models.

Task routing requests, prompts, metadata, outcomes, and other information processed solely to provide the paid Service are used only to:

• provide the Service;
• secure the Service;
• monitor the Service;
• support customers;
• prevent abuse; and
• administer billing and operations.

8.4 No Sale of Customer Data

Hokusai does not sell customer API data or Contribution Data to third parties.

Hokusai uses Contribution Data solely to operate, evaluate, improve, benchmark, secure, audit, and administer Hokusai decision layers and protocol infrastructure.

Hokusai may publish aggregate, statistical, or anonymized information derived from submitted data, provided such information does not reasonably identify any individual, organization, repository, proprietary project, or customer.

9. Contributor Rewards and Token Programs

Hokusai may offer token rewards, credits, attribution, governance rights, recognition, or other incentives for eligible contributions.

Eligibility for rewards may depend on factors including:

• model improvement;
• benchmark performance;
• evaluation outcomes;
• attribution methodologies;
• data quality;
• reproducibility;
• uniqueness;
• governance decisions;
• fraud-prevention measures; and
• other criteria established by Hokusai.

Hokusai may modify, suspend, replace, or discontinue any:

• reward program;
• token program;
• benchmark;
• evaluation methodology;
• attribution system;
• reward formula;
• vesting schedule;
• governance process; or
• protocol parameter

at any time.

Hokusai shall have sole discretion to determine:

• whether a contribution qualifies for rewards;
• whether a contribution materially improved a model or decision layer;
• reward amounts;
• reward timing;
• contributor attribution; and
• the methodology used to make such determinations.

Except in cases of manifest error, fraud by Hokusai, or as otherwise required by law, such determinations are final and binding.

Nothing in these Terms guarantees that any contribution will receive rewards or that rewards will have any value.

10. Tokens, Protocol Risks, and No Investment Representations

Hokusai may issue, distribute, facilitate, reference, or support protocol tokens, governance tokens, reward tokens, or similar digital assets.

Tokens involve substantial risk.

Hokusai makes no representation or warranty regarding:

• present or future value;
• liquidity;
• transferability;
• secondary markets;
• appreciation;
• redemption rights;
• utility;
• governance outcomes; or
• regulatory treatment.

Tokens are not bank deposits and are not insured by any governmental authority.

Hokusai does not guarantee that tokens will maintain value, remain transferable, remain available, or continue to be supported.

Participation in token programs is entirely voluntary and undertaken at your own risk.

11. Smart Contracts and Blockchain Risks

The Service may include smart contracts, wallets, token contracts, registries, reward systems, bonding curves, reserve mechanisms, governance systems, and other blockchain-based infrastructure.

Blockchain transactions are generally irreversible.

You are solely responsible for:

• your wallet;
• your private keys;
• transaction review;
• taxes;
• gas fees;
• compliance obligations; and
• all blockchain interactions you initiate.

Hokusai is not responsible for losses arising from:

• wallet compromise;
• user error;
• smart-contract vulnerabilities;
• network outages;
• chain reorganizations;
• governance actions;
• third-party infrastructure failures; or
• other blockchain-related risks.

12. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to:

• violate any law;
• submit unauthorized or unlawful data;
• submit data you do not have rights to submit;
• submit confidential third-party information without authorization;
• manipulate rewards, benchmarks, evaluations, or attribution systems;
• falsify outcomes or performance data;
• attempt to exploit token programs or governance systems;
• interfere with operation of the Service;
• bypass security controls;
• scrape the Service without authorization;
• reverse engineer the Service except where legally permitted; or
• assist others in engaging in prohibited conduct.

13. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time.

Hokusai may suspend, restrict, or terminate access to the Service if it reasonably believes that:

• you violated these Terms;
• you submitted fraudulent data;
• you manipulated reward systems;
• you created legal, security, or operational risk; or
• suspension is otherwise necessary to protect the Service or its users.

Hokusai may discontinue any API, benchmark, decision layer, reward program, token program, smart contract, bonding curve, reserve mechanism, governance process, protocol component, or Service feature at any time.

14. Intellectual Property

The Service, including software, documentation, interfaces, benchmarks, routing systems, evaluations, designs, trademarks, and related materials, is owned by Hokusai or its licensors and is protected by law.

Except as expressly permitted by these Terms, no rights are granted to you.

Any feedback, suggestions, or ideas you provide may be used by Hokusai without restriction or compensation.

15. Confidentiality

Each party agrees to use reasonable care to protect confidential information disclosed by the other party and to use such information only for purposes related to the Service.

Confidential information does not include information that:

• becomes publicly available through no fault of the receiving party;
• was already known by the receiving party;
• is independently developed; or
• is lawfully obtained from a third party.

Hokusai may disclose confidential information where required by law.

16. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.”

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, HOKUSAI DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, SECURITY, AVAILABILITY, AND ACCURACY.

HOKUSAI DOES NOT WARRANT THAT:

• THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED;
• ROUTING DECISIONS WILL BE CORRECT;
• EVALUATIONS WILL BE ACCURATE;
• CONTRIBUTIONS WILL RECEIVE REWARDS;
• TOKENS WILL HAVE VALUE; OR
• THE SERVICE WILL BE SUITABLE FOR ANY PARTICULAR USE.

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR HUMAN REVIEW, TESTING, SECURITY CONTROLS, LEGAL REVIEW, AND COMPLIANCE REVIEW.

17. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, HOKUSAI SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES.

HOKUSAI’S TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF:

(A) THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO HOKUSAI DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM; OR

(B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

18. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Hokusai Labs, LLC and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, contractors, and agents from claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses arising from:

• your use of the Service;
• your User Content;
• your Contribution Data;
• your token activity;
• your blockchain activity;
• your violation of these Terms; or
• your violation of applicable law or third-party rights.

19. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

20. Dispute Resolution and Arbitration

Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be resolved by binding arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association.

You and Hokusai waive any right to a jury trial and any right to participate in a class action.

The arbitration shall be conducted in New York, New York unless otherwise required by law.

Notice to Hokusai shall be sent to:

21. Changes to These Terms

Hokusai may modify these Terms from time to time.

For material changes, Hokusai will provide notice through the Service, by email, or through another reasonable method.

Continued use of the Service after updated Terms become effective constitutes acceptance of those updated Terms.

22. Contact Information