1. Get a Verus Wallet

First things first — you need a Verus wallet. Grab Verus Mobile (iOS or Android) or Verus Desktop. You'll need some VRSCTEST (Verus) to get started. Questions about wallets or Verus in general? Join the Verus Discord.

2. Get JAKES

JAKES is a basket currency on Verus — an asset backed by a reserve of VRSCTEST, issued and converted through the protocol's built-in DeFi. You can swap VRSCTEST into JAKES inside your wallet with no centralized exchange.

Because JAKES is a native Verus currency, every entry, pot balance, and round result is secured by the same chain that powers Verus identities and public markets — not a private database or custodian.

3. Enter a Round

Send the entry price shown on the dashboard (in JAKES) to jakes@ using your wallet. That amount is set on-chain and can change between rounds — always check the live value before you send. Your transaction ID (txid) automatically becomes your entry. No tickets, no sign-ups.

On the dashboard, tap the QR code button next to the entry price. It opens a scannable VerusPay invoice — point Verus Mobile at it to fill in the amount and destination automatically.

• Timing:Your transaction must confirm within the current round's block window (from the round start block through the end block). Both are shown on the dashboard. Sends before the window opens or after it closes do not count for that round.
• Over the entry price? Still counts as one entry — the extra is a generous donation to the pot.
• Under the entry price? Disqualified — treated as a donation to the pot.
• Multiple entries? Absolutely — each send is a separate entry with its own txid.
• Operator IDs excluded: jakes@ and any sub-ID of it (such as ledger.jakes@) cannot enter a round. That keeps the operator from playing using the identities that control the pot and on-chain ledger.

4. The Pot

The pot is the prize pool — and it's always growing. Here's how it works:

• Starting a round:The pot already has funds in it. This comes from the "retention" portion of the previous round's split (or the entire pot if nobody won — it rolls over untouched).
• During the round: Every entry fee paid gets added to the pot in real-time. You can watch it grow on the dashboard as entries come in.
• Winner hits: The pot is split — the winner receives the prize share, a portion is retained to seed the next round, and the rest goes to burn and operations.
• No winner: The entire pot rolls over to the next round. It just keeps growing until someone wins. This is why the prize can get large — consecutive rounds without a winner compound the pot.

The split percentages, current pot size, and all balances are always visible on the dashboard — nothing is hidden.

5. How Scoring Works

At the end of each round, the evaluation block's hash is revealed by the blockchain. Your entry's txid is compared character-by-character against this hash (leading zeros in the block hash are skipped).

• Each matching hex digit at the same position = +1 match
• Your score = sum of the numeric values of your matched characters (each hex digit is worth 0–15)
• You must meet both the minimum matches AND minimum score to qualify

6. Winner Selection

There's only one winner per round. If multiple entries qualify, tiebreakers are applied in this order:

1. Most matches
2. Highest score
3. Lowest txid (lexicographic — pure luck of the hash)

If nobody meets the threshold? No winner — the pot rolls over to the next round, making it even bigger. The round still records a top entry (best matches/score) on-chain even when no one qualifies.

7. Pot Split

When there's a winner, the pot is split into shares:

• Winner's prize — the largest share, sent on-chain to the winner
• Retention— seeds the next round's prize pot
• Burn — permanently removed from the JAKES supply
• Operations — keeps things running

The exact percentages are shown on the dashboard and configured on-chain — fully transparent.

8. Round Timing

Rounds are measured in blocks, not clock time. The current round number, start block, end block, and round length are always shown on the dashboard. Once a round ends and is evaluated, the next one starts automatically at the following block — no downtime.

9. The Ledger

Every single round result is written on-chain to ledger.jakes@. This includes:

• Entry count and block range
• Evaluation block hash
• Top entry — best matches/score for the round (recorded every round with entries)
• Winner — only when an entry meets both minimums; prize amount and prize tx

A round can have a top entry but no winner (nobody met the threshold). Check Last Round Results on the dashboard for the latest round either way, or browse Round History for every past round.

Anyone running a Verus node can read the full history using getidentityhistory. All the data needed to independently recreate and verify any round is publicly available.