Help & FAQ

An AlpenPass is a verified GPS point at the summit of an Alpine pass. You collect it by physically riding there and your phone confirming the position via GPS detection — no photo upload, no self-report. GPS detection writes the pass into your collection and credits you with RideCoins (RC). Optionally you can mint the pass afterwards in the Pro Shop as a Soulbound Token (SBT) on Stellar Mainnet — then it is permanently on-chain proven, visible in Lobstr/Freighter, independent of whether our app keeps running.

Open the app · tap „Start ride" · grant GPS and motion permissions · ride to the pass · the point is automatically captured via GPS detection as soon as you are within radius · the pass lands in your collection and you get RideCoins (RC) credited. That's it — everything up to here is automatic and free. Optional premium steps (see FAQ below): make the Nostr badge public, or mint as a Stellar SBT permanently on-chain. Both only happen when you buy them in the Pro Shop and sign with your wallet.

Standard is 200 m radius around the pass coordinate. For especially high-value passes the radius can be tighter (75 m). The app shows you live how close you are — once 'Pass detected' appears, it has validated you.

AlpenRide: a predefined loop (start = finish) with multiple passes (e.g. Innerschwyzer ride: Etzel → Sattelegg → Ibergeregg → Raten → Etzel). AlpenCrossing: point-to-point tour across multiple passes in one direction (e.g. Ticino → Valais). Both count as completed once you collect all passes of the tour in one ride via GPS detection — you get a tour entry in your collection plus the RC points. The corresponding Soulbound Token can be optionally minted in the Pro Shop.

You collect all passes of the tour in a single GPS session. The app matches your tour ID with the required passes and writes the tour completion to your collection — you instantly get RC points. These RCs are automatically converted to ARC every day at 23:59 CET proportional to the available pool. If you additionally want the tour as a Stellar SBT permanently on-chain, you mint it in the Pro Shop — that is a separate user action with Stellar TX signature and does not happen automatically.

We check speed plausibility (no teleport between passes), elevation profile (baro sensor matches GPS altitude), corner analysis (acceleration profile indicates motorcycle) and map matching via Valhalla engine (your points must lie on real roads). Mock locations are detected.

ARC is the native token of AlpenRiderChain on Stellar Mainnet. Asset code: ARC, Issuer: GD3ZKTQ…VM7L3M76. Total supply is hard-capped at 1 000 000 000 ARC (see /tokenomics for live lock status).

No. ARC is a pure utility token inside the app — no cashout, no DEX listing, no market price. You earn ARC by riding and spend it on Pro Shop features or zap it to other riders. It is not an investment and not a security.

RC (RideCoin): off-chain points counter in app. You get them immediately when collecting a pass/ride (for gamification). ARC: on-chain token on Stellar — converted from your RCs once every 24h (exchange rate depends on remaining pool). RC disappears on conversion.

1 000 000 000 ARC total: 580 m Pool (rewards), 250 m Treasury (operations), 90 m Community (governance/promo), 80 m Team (vesting). Live values and all wallet addresses at /tokenomics — straight from the blockchain.

Conversion runs every 24h at 23:59 CET — all users' accumulated RCs are distributed across the available pool share. You get a Nostr notification when your ARC is ready. Claim window: 4 days (Stellar Claimable Balance).

Currently partial — master key still active (weight=1), auth flags not yet immutable. Live status shown at /tokenomics in real time. Final lock TX (SetOptions with auth_immutable + master weight=0) is planned — we'll announce via Nostr.

Your Stellar wallet is generated directly on your phone at first app start (BIP-39 seed, 12 words). We have no access to your private key — it's stored in Secure Enclave (iOS) or Keystore (Android). You control your ARC.

On your user wallet and your Nostr key: No. Both live exclusively in your phone's Secure Enclave. Cloud backups are encrypted with your PIN — we cannot decrypt them. What the server does hold is the treasury key (pool and issuer wallets) to run the daily RC→ARC distribution automatically. Think of it as the master key of a loyalty program — not user assets.

At first start the app shows you the 12 words once — write them on paper, store in a safe place. Never store digitally (cloud, screenshots). If you lose them and the phone breaks, your ARC is gone — we cannot recover anything.

With your seed phrase: install app on new phone → 'Restore wallet' → enter 12 words → all ARC + SBTs are immediately back (they live on Stellar, not on the phone). Without seed phrase: no recovery possible.

Nostr is a decentralized social protocol. We use it for: public activity feed (posts, reactions, follows — kinds 0/1/3/7), NIP-58 badges (kind 8 issuer awards per pass/ride/crossing + kind 30008/30009 user profile badges), encrypted DMs (NIP-04, e.g. Bierdeckel amounts), blog articles (NIP-23 long-form, kind 30023), ARC zaps (NIP-57 lightning-style tips mapped to ARC), conversion notifications (RC→ARC confirmations), Speed Shield crypto (your Nostr secret key encrypts your speed blobs — the server cannot read them) and NIP-05 DNS verification (name@alpenriderchain.ch as identifier). We run our own strfry relay on our NAS and mirror to public relays (nos.lol, damus). Everything you publish on Nostr belongs to you — not us.

Standard for achievements on Nostr. For every GPS-verified pass the AlpenRiderChain issuer records a badge definition (kind 30009) + award (kind 8) for you — they are ready, but not yet on your profile. Only when you publish the pass on your profile via the Pro Shop (a user action: pay ARC + sign kind 30008 with your nsec), the badge appears on your Nostr profile (Damus, Amethyst, Primal, Coracle). Just like an SBT — you decide yourself when a badge becomes public.

Only you. Your nsec is derived from the same 12-word seed as your Stellar wallet at first app start (BIP-39 / NIP-06) and stays in your phone's Secure Enclave. Whenever you sign a badge or post, it happens locally. The server only signs issuer awards (Kind 8) with a separate system key — never with yours.

Stellar Mainnet (not testnet). We use Stellar for 5s settlement, ~0.00001 XLM TX cost and native asset support. All passes/rides are on-chain verifiable as asset memos via stellar.expert.

Soroban is Stellar's smart-contract engine. We use it for (1) SBT wrapping (1 ARC in SAC wrapper as technical baseline, no user lock), (2) future: identity contracts for pseudo-anonymous profiles, (3) future: Soroban indexer for mint→badge bridge. Status: /tokenomics.

All payouts go through a Soroban escrow contract on-chain. Meaning: After every distribution your ARC sit in a smart contract reserved for you, payable only with your signature. No middleman, no server trust needed — even a compromised pool key cannot redirect your reserved ARC. You sign the claim locally on your phone; the server only relays the transaction.

GPS tracking engine, Stellar integration, Nostr sync and Issuer pubkeys are traceable. Code repo will be published under MIT after SCF application decision. Stellar verification works without our code anyway — everything's on-chain.