I built something weird. Want to help me break it?

Well... this isn't the newsletter I expected to be writing.

A couple of weeks ago I accidentally wandered into a blockchain hackathon.

As one does.

The timing was terrible. I was busy, traveling, and already had more on my plate than I should have. Naturally, I signed up anyway.

And I created a... something.

It's called Eigenthrope.

It's an interactive mystery where the community votes and influences what happens next. Every week the story branches based on those votes. It runs on the XRP Ledger, which is a sentence I never imagined I'd write, and I had an absurd amount of fun building it.

I'm a writer and and engineer. I expected to enjoy writing the story. I was a little surprised how much fun I had with the coding side of things. Maybe because it wasn't "work" for somebody else and because I learned more about blockchain.

So here we are.

The premise is simple.

Three people slip between parallel universes, losing some of their memories every time they cross.

The readers don't suffer with the same problem (most of them).

Each universe reveals another piece of a much larger mystery, and over time the community starts uncovering clues the characters themselves can't remember.

Universe One begins in the 1960s.

There's a hero convinced he's saving the world.

A villain playing a much longer game.

I think it's good, or at least a solid idea.

I'm also aware I'm probably the worst possible judge.

So I'd love your help.

The first chapter is live right now and completely free—no setup required.

If you'd like to influence where the story goes, though, you'll need a Xaman wallet. It's free and only takes a few minutes to set up. I built the instructions right into the site because I'm trying to learn how difficult that process actually is. The cost of voting is some fraction of a cent (like one-thousandth of a cent or so... the game will tell you), but Xaman makes you store a few dollars worth in your wallet.

If you get confused... wonderful.

Seriously (kind of).

Tell me where you got stuck. Tell me what made sense and what didn't. That's exactly the feedback I need.

One warning: during testing I'm going to reset Universe One several times while I figure things out. Don't get too attached to anything just yet.

If this sounds like your kind of experiment, I'd love to have you along.

👉 eigenthrope.sjmorriswrites.com

And if setting up the wallet makes you want to throw your phone across the room... I'd especially like to hear about that.

One quick housekeeping note before I go.

I updated my privacy policy this week to better explain how I want to use subscriber email addresses for advertising—for example, matching subscribers on platforms like Meta so I can avoid showing ads to people who already own my books and hopefully find more readers who enjoy the same kinds of stories.

Nothing about the emails you receive is changing. I just wanted the policy to better reflect what I'm planning on doing.

May you get lost this week in another world.