Meridian: a world charted on chain

Abstract

Meridian is a fully on-chain world map that does not exist until it is explored. A single immutable seed fixes the terrain of the entire world from the first block, but no land is minted in advance. An explorer spends the token $ATLAS to send an expedition, which runs the deterministic terrain function for a region and writes the result, including a name of the explorer's choosing, on chain. Half of every expedition's cost is paid to the owners of bordering land, so the map funds its own expansion. Completed Ages of the map seal into one-of-one Chart NFTs rendered entirely on chain, and a five percent duty on every $ATLAS trade is paid in ETH to Chart holders and stakers.

I. The world and the seed

The world is a coordinate field whose every tile has a fixed elevation and moisture, derived from one seed by coherent value noise with a radial sea falloff. Because the function is deterministic, the same coordinates always resolve to the same terrain, which is why the world can be enormous without storing anything until it is charted. Biome follows from elevation and moisture: water below the shoreline, then plains, forest, desert, mountains, and ice as the values climb.

This is the meaning of the phrase that runs through the project: the land does not exist until you reveal what the math already held. Nothing about an expedition is random. The only thing in question is who looks first.

II. Expeditions

An expedition targets a fog tile adjacent to charted land. The explorer pays the current expedition cost in $ATLAS. The contract evaluates the terrain function for that tile, records its biome and coordinates, mints the explorer's chosen name, and assigns ownership. The cost rises gently as the world fills, so the earliest expeditions are the cheapest and the frontier always has a price that reflects how much remains.

Names are permanent and unique. The first cartographer to reach a region keeps the pen, and every chart ever drawn of the world will carry that name.

III. Border income

Half of every expedition's cost is divided among the owners of all regions bordering the newly charted tile, weighted by shared frontier. This is the engine of the virtuous loop. Charting is rewarded, which funds more charting, which rewards the neighbours who came before. Owning the edge of a continent is therefore an income, while owning its centre is merely quiet.

pay(n) = 0.5 × cost ×  sharedEdges(n, tile)
                        --------------------------
                          totalEdges(tile)

IV. Ages and Charts

The map advances in Ages. When the region defining an Age is fully charted, that Age seals into a single one-of-one Chart NFT, drawn entirely on chain by the same engine that renders this site. A Chart is both a record of an era and a claim: its holder receives a share of the ETH duty for as long as they hold it. Once an Age seals, a fresh frontier opens beyond it, so there is always a new edge to reach.

V. Tokenomics

$ATLAS has a fixed supply of one hundred million tokens. The entire supply is placed in the Uniswap V4 liquidity pool at launch. There is no team allocation, no private round, and no mint function, so the supply can never grow and no unlock schedule hangs over the map. The market is the only distributor of the token.

Supply

100,000,000 $ATLAS

Into liquidity

100%

Trade duty

5% in ETH

Duty split

50% charts / 50% stakers

Expedition cost

paid in $ATLAS

Border payment

50% of cost to neighbours

VI. The duty

Every $ATLAS trade routes through a Uniswap V4 hook that collects a five percent duty and settles it in ETH. The duty is never taken in the token, so rewards do not dilute the fixed supply. Collected ETH is split evenly: one half streams to Chart holders as dividends, the other half to $ATLAS stakers as yield. Both accrue continuously and can be claimed at any time.

duty   = 0.05 × v            (settled in ETH)
charts = 0.5  × duty
stake  = 0.5  × duty

VII. Contracts

Meridian is a small set of audited contracts. Each address is published here once the contracts are deployed.

VIII. Risks

Meridian is experimental software. Token values can fall as well as rise, duty income depends on trading volume that is not guaranteed, and smart contracts carry risk even after audit. Nothing here is financial advice. Explore with what you are willing to commit to a frontier.

This document describes intended mechanics for a preview build and may change before deployment.