# FAQ ### Getting Started #### What is Miso? Miso is a music platform where your listens, purchases, and relationships with artists live directly on the Sui blockchain. Artists publish music, listeners buy records that actually belong to them, and every play is traceable, verifiable, and — if you choose — visible to the artists you support. #### How is this different from Spotify or Apple Music? On Spotify, your plays and purchase history are locked inside the platform and royalties take months to reach artists — with middlemen taking a cut at every stage. On Miso, records are owned by you, plays can be publicly verified by the artists who made the music, and artists are paid instantly when a record sells. There's no label in the middle. #### Do I need a crypto wallet? No. You sign in with your Google account. Miso uses zkLogin, which creates your account on the Sui blockchain without you ever having to install a wallet, write down a seed phrase, or hold cryptocurrency. #### Do I need to pay anything? Playing music is free. You only pay when you buy a record. Miso covers all blockchain gas fees. #### Is Miso live? Miso is currently running on Sui testnet. #### What's the $100 in my balance? On testnet, you're credited with $100 of FakeUSD, a stand-in currency for testing. It isn't real money and has no value outside Miso. When Miso goes live on mainnet, balances will be denominated in [USDSui](https://blog.sui.io/sui-unveils-usdsui-native-stablecoin/), a regulated stablecoin issued by [Bridge](https://bridge.xyz/). #### What devices and browsers are supported? Miso works in any modern browser on desktop or mobile. *** ### Playback & Listens #### Does it cost anything when I play a song? No. Miso covers all blockchain fees. Playing is free, always. #### What's a "verified play"? Every public listen on Miso goes through a verification pipeline. The pipeline is a series of verifier\ functions that determine whether a listen qualifies as a play. For example, one verifier checks whether the user listened to at least 30 seconds of the song. Traditional streaming platforms run similar checks on listens, but their methods operate inside a black box. Miso's verification pipeline is transparent and fully auditable onchain. #### Why do some plays show "not verified"? The listen might not have met the minimum playtime, or there was a network issue when the play was submitted to the chain. Verified plays are always genuine; unverified ones just don't yet meet the bar. #### Can I skip, scrub, or replay tracks? Yes, freely. Use the player like any other streaming app. #### Can I listen offline? Not yet. Miso streams audio from optimized servers, so an internet connection is required. ### Privacy & Public Mode #### What's the difference between public and private mode? In **private mode** (the default), nothing about your listening is written to the blockchain, and Miso doesn't track your activity client-side either — no analytics, no event logging back to our servers, nothing leaves your device. You listen like you would on any other app, except nobody is watching. In **public mode**, every listen is recorded permanently onchain. The goal is to build a verified source of music engagement that helps artists reach their most loyal fans — no guessing, no middlemen, no black boxes. You appear in your favorite artists' top-fan lists and leaderboards, and they can act on that directly. #### Why would I turn on public mode? Because the current music industry keeps listener data locked inside platforms. Artists never really know who listens to them, and platforms aren't incentivized to share and cross-reference data with each other in a way that supports artists. Public mode breaks that. If you want to support artists by being directly visible to them, public mode is how. #### Can I change my mind later? You can switch between modes anytime. Switching to private stops new listens from being written. But listens you emitted while in public mode stay onchain permanently — they can't be deleted. #### Who can see my top-fan status? Everyone. When you're in public mode, your listening activity is onchain and visible to anyone querying the blockchain — the artist, other listeners, anyone. #### Is my identity visible, or just a pseudonym? Sui is a public blockchain, and you should treat your wallet address and identity as pseudonymous. Miso's interface usually shows handles (usernames), but anyone technically skilled can link a handle back to the address. #### What does signing the consent mean when I toggle public mode? It's a cryptographic record that you understood what you were agreeing to. It's signed with your Google-derived keys and stored for later reference — proof that you, not someone else, chose to make your listens public. ### Your Player #### What is a Player? A Player is your personal music device on Miso, represented as an NFT on Sui. It holds your records and tracks what you've been listening to. You get one automatically when you sign up. #### Can I have more than one Player? Yes, every user is eligible to claim a free Player on sign up. Additional players can be purchased as well. #### What happens if I lose access to my Google account? Miso is strictly non-custodial — we don't hold your keys, and we can't help you recover your account. If you lose your Google, you lose access. This is the tradeoff for not having to give Miso any personal information: we protect your privacy by not being able to protect you from yourself. We recommend setting up [Google account recovery options](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/183723?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid\&hl=en\&utm_source=chatgpt.com) to reduce the chance of losing access to your Miso account. #### What's "storage capacity"? Each Player can hold up to 200 records. If your Player is full, you'll need to purchase another Player before you can purchase additional Records. ### Records & Pressings #### What is a record? A record is your personal copy of a release — the digital equivalent of a vinyl or CD. When you buy one, it becomes a token in your Sui wallet that nobody can take away. #### What is a pressing? A pressing is an artist's active offer to sell records. Listeners buy from the pressing, paying the artist directly. #### Pressings don't expire? No. An artist can keep a pressing open indefinitely. They can withdraw the funds collected at any time, even if the pressing is still ongoing. #### What's the difference between Fixed, Floor, and Pay-what-you-want pricing? * **Fixed** — one set price. Everyone pays the same. * **Floor** — a minimum price. You can pay more if you want to support the artist. * **Pay-what-you-want** — you set the price. #### Who gets the 15% platform fee? The platform fee goes to Sona Labs to cover the cost of running Miso — sponsoring blockchain fees for every user, hosting optimized audio for fast streaming, and continued development of the platform. #### Can I resell or gift a record? You can transfer a record to another Miso user. A dedicated marketplace for resale is on the roadmap for after mainnet launch. *** ### For Artists #### How do I publish music? Use Miso's publishing tools (coming soon in the artist dashboard) or work directly with the Move smart contracts. Any artist can publish; Miso's frontend curates which releases appear in Discover. #### How are royalties split? Royalty splits are defined in the release metadata you prepare when publishing. Funds from each sale flow directly into on-chain royalty pools, which every rights holder (performers, songwriters, producers) can claim from. #### When do I get paid? Instantly. The moment a record sells, funds are split and deposited into the appropriate royalty pools. No waiting months for statements, no middleman cuts, no recoupment calculations — it's direct. #### How is this different from a traditional distributor? Traditional platforms take months to calculate and distribute royalties, with various middlemen taking cuts at each stage. Miso's royalty distribution is instant and there is no middleman. You publish, you sell, you claim, it's yours. #### Can I see who my fans are? Yes — anyone who has opted into public mode will appear in your top-fan lists and on leaderboards. Private-mode listeners stay invisible. #### Do I need a contract with Miso? No. Miso's smart contracts are permissionless — anyone can publish. Sona Labs only curates what shows up in its own frontend. ### Money & Balances #### What currency is my balance in? On testnet, it's FakeUSD — a stand-in currency for testing. On mainnet, it will be USDSui, a real stablecoin backed 1:1 by USD. #### Can I deposit real money? Not yet — we're on testnet. On mainnet, USDSui will be available through stablecoin on-ramps. #### Can I send my balance to another user? Yes — Miso supports peer-to-peer sends from your balance to another Miso user or any Sui address. #### Can I withdraw to a bank? Direct bank withdrawals aren't part of Miso itself. On mainnet, because your balance is in USDSui (a real stablecoin), you can send it to any Sui address and cash out through any stablecoin off-ramp you prefer. #### What happens if Miso shuts down — is my balance safe? Yes. Your balance lives on Sui, not on Miso's servers. Even if Miso disappears, your USDSui and your records remain accessible via any Sui wallet. ### Ownership & Permanence #### If Miso goes away tomorrow, do I keep my music? Your records remain yours — they live on Sui, independent of Miso. The audio files themselves are hosted by Sona Labs for fast streaming; in the event of a shutdown, the protocol's open metadata lets anyone (including you) resolve and access the underlying music. #### Can someone "take back" a record I bought? No. A record is owned by your wallet; neither the artist nor Miso can revoke it. #### Is my music actually on the blockchain, or just a link? A reference and ownership proof are on Sui. The audio file is hosted separately (for streaming performance), but it's referenced by the onchain record so the ownership chain is verifiable end-to-end. ### Security & Account Recovery #### How secure is my account? Miso uses Sui's zkLogin, which derives your blockchain keys from your Google credentials without Miso ever holding those keys. As long as your Google account is secure, your Miso account is. #### What if my Google account is compromised? Whoever controls your Google account controls your Miso account. Enable two-factor authentication on your Google account — Miso's security follows from Google's. #### Is there account recovery without Google? No. Miso is strictly non-custodial — we can't recover accounts, because we have no identifying information about users. This is intentional: it means no one at Sona Labs can access your account even under subpoena. #### How do I verify a transaction actually happened? Every transaction on Miso produces a digest you can look up on any Sui block explorer. Receipts in the app link directly to the onchain transaction. *** ### Technical / Developers #### Is Miso open source? Miso's smart contracts are licensed under BUSL 1.1 — source-available and free to use non-commercially, with commercial use permitted after the change date. #### What blockchain does Miso run on and why? Sui. It's built for low-latency, high-throughput consumer applications — fast enough to write a play event for every song without cost or delay to users. #### Is there an API or SDK I can build on? Yes. Sona Labs publishes a TypeScript SDK (`@sona/sdk`) and a public HTTP API for reading platform data. Developer docs cover both. #### Can I run my own instance? The smart contracts are permissionless, so you can build your own frontend against them. Sona Labs runs the Miso frontend, audio streaming, and gas sponsorship infrastructure — those aren't redistributable parts of the platform. #### What's Walrus? Walrus is Sui's decentralized storage network. Miso uses it to store release metadata and cover art so that the data is credibly neutral — not controlled by a single party. ### Future #### When is mainnet? No public date yet — Miso is on testnet while we refine the experience. #### Will my testnet activity carry over to mainnet? No. Testnet data is for testing only; mainnet will start fresh. #### Is there a mobile app? Miso is a Progressive Web App, so you can install it to your phone's home screen and use it like a native app. Dedicated iOS and Android apps may come later. #### What's on the roadmap? Mainnet launch, artist publishing tools, a record marketplace, and expanded messaging between artists and collectors. ### About Miso is operated by **Sona Labs, Inc.**, a Delaware-incorporated company. The Miso smart contracts are licensed under BUSL 1.1.