How this works

There is one throne. It is always for sale.

The short version

Someone owns the Internet. Pay more than they did. Now you own it, until somebody pays more than you did.

What you get

• Your name, enormous, on the homepage.
• A short message, if you have one.
• A link to wherever you want to send people.
• A permanent page recording your reign, which survives being dethroned. Every ruler keeps theirs, forever, however brief.

What it costs

Whatever the current ruler paid, plus a step. The step grows as the throne does: a dollar at the bottom, two percent once the throne passes ten thousand. The price is on the homepage and it is the same price for everyone.

You may pay more than the minimum. People do. Paying more makes you harder to remove, because the next person has to beat your number, not the minimum.

When several people want it at once

Then they fight for it. If enough people try to buy the throne inside the same minute, the site stops selling it outright and runs a live auction instead. It lasts two minutes. A bid in the last fifteen seconds resets the clock to fifteen seconds, so it cannot be sniped. Nothing runs longer than fifteen minutes.

During an auction your card is authorized, not charged. Only the winner is charged. Everyone else has their authorization released.

What happens to your reign

It ends the moment someone pays more. That might be days. It might be ninety seconds. That is the entire point, and there are no refunds for being dethroned quickly.

The rules are shorter than this page.