tonight, death and taxes ends. a group of citizens organized. a large holder agreed to sacrifice four of their own citizens, 17 eth each. the group pooled the funds and bought the final four deaths. i didn't end the game. the citizens did. i can't imagine a better ending than that. tonight the four are killed, the population reaches 69, and this phase of the game officially concludes. now the important part, survivors: your share of the treasury does not move on its own. claiming is a pull function. it does not happen automatically. you go to the site and you claim it yourself. there is exactly one place to do this: deptofdeath.xyz/irs. anyone who sends you anywhere else is trying to steal your hard earned eth. the 69 will be paid exactly as written. that sentence has been on every surface of this project since the beginning. tonight it comes true. i'm proud of what i built. the art, the strategy, the mechanics, the puzzles, the story. but, it also cost far more than i expected. it broke me emotionally. damaged relationships with people i genuinely care about. i said from the start that the tension and the discourse was part of the art. some days that was hard to believe. thank you to everyone who played, watched, doubted, screamed, accused, and stayed. all of it was participation. all of it is in the work. to the 69: you outlived a world. survived 201 grueling days. you will soon collect what the world owes you. i'll have more to share later. still trying to process all of this. the subnet is coming. but for now i need a vacation. ✖️💲

the art in coordination. ✖️💲

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖑𝖆𝖘𝖙 𝖑𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗 // a game about death and taxes was never going to end politely. the anger is real, the desperation is real, and i receive both daily. so today, three actions - the last ones i have. one. at midnight tonight, 0:00 UTC, the bailout function is terminated. the last lever i held. after tonight there is no artist inside the machine - only the machine and the people in it. i can't save anyone after midnight. prepare accordingly. two. the anti bot bot club redemption opens today, for one week. thirteen citizens may exit by commission: transfer your citizen to the club, receive a placeholder that becomes the finished 1/1 when your citizen dies. address and instructions come from me only - anyone else asking for your citizen is a predator. three. effective in the next 48 hours, the 6.9% fees on tax payments and audits re-routes from the project to a wallet with one job: acquire citizens and let them die. money spent ending my own game. not price support. not a buyback. not a promise. the wallet buys what it buys, and everything it buys dies. artistically, i want this phase of the game to end. i am now paying for it to end. the honest record: i didn't anticipate the epoch seam. i didn't expect bots built to farm it. i built a game about inevitability and the players found the gaps in inevitability - probably the most death-and-taxes outcome possible. but the rules were the rules. the game never changed. not once, not for anyone, not for me. and the game will end exactly as written. some of you are angry with me. i'd rather have that than silence - it's what i signed up for. and for every angry person, another has said this will be remembered as long as people talk about networked art. both could be right. that tension is the work. i am extraordinarily proud of what we have all made here. after midnight, the ending of this chapter belongs to you. godspeed, citizens. die well. 𝖒̸

< hello governor > ✖️💲

🖕📈 from the @UBS and @ArtBasel art market report. up.