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2. About

2.1. Whitepaper

Circles Handbook

Circles Money System Overview

A decentralised Universal Basic Income platform based on personal currencies

https://joincircles.net

Abstract

We propose a new money system called Circles that is based on individualized cryptocurrencies and a social graph of trust between these currencies. This money system will be for the purposes of distributing money in a way which will, over time, lead to the equalization of wealth and function like a globally accessible Universal Basic Income. When new users join Circles, a new personal cryptocurrency is created for them on a smart contract-enabled blockchain. This currency is then regularly minted and added to their account, forming the basis of Circles' UBI properties. Users have the ability to trust the personal currencies of other users, which requires them to treat this personal currency as identical to any other Circles currencies that they hold. As the social graph becomes more interconnected, these personal currencies converge on one single global monetary system.

Introduction

Universal Basic Income is one of the most cross-culturally appealing political movements of the modern era. It has attracted the support of thinkers from every background including Thomas Paine, Martin Luther King Jr, Stephen Hawking, Guy Standing, Milton Friedman, and David Graeber. It is seen as a utopian project that could finally unlock the creative potential of all people, the culmination of centuries-old humanist ideals.

The topic of UBI has exploded in popularity in recent years, as wealth inequality grows and inflation-adjusted wages fall all across the world. Until now, the conversation has primarily been viewed through the lens of public policy and bureaucratic action. Public support for the idea of UBI has never been higher, but plans for implementation are progressing slowly and without cooperation at the international scale. It seems that UBI systems have received a "too big to implement" label at the highest levels of government, similar to climate change action, making development and rollout unlikely to happen any time soon.

The introduction of global blockchain networks changes the conversation about UBI significantly. Now for the first time in history, it is trivially easy to create financial applications that are universally accessible to anyone on the internet. Starting with Bitcoin and moving on to smart contract platforms like Ethereum, blockchain technology has achieved widespread popularity by routing around the gatekeepers and roadblocks that make innovation so difficult in the legacy financial system. Smart contracts and the blockchain create a very promising environment in which to implement a new UBI system.

Circles proposes to be the blockchain's native UBI money system. It has its own built-in resistance to Sybil attacks (i.e. fake accounts) and anyone can join the network at any time without asking permission from anyone. It has been designed with the expectation that it will be bootstrapped in a completely organic and grassroots fashion, but is extensible to allow any arbitrary governance systems to operate on top of the base protocol. Circles is an entirely new way of looking at the nature of money and what value exchange means in a post-UBI future.

Minting Currency

Circles is a money system that is made up of individual currencies. These currencies work together to form a unified “monetary fabric” that behaves like a Universal Basic Income.

When a new blockchain account joins Circles, the system creates and assigns them a unique currency via a smart contract. This is called a Personal Currency, and all personal currencies operate according to a shared set of rules.

Each personal currency continuously mints new coins and awards them to its associated person. Moreover, the amount of coins minted is inflating every year. This is the only way that new money is created in Circles and forms the basis of its UBI characteristics. All currencies mint new coins at the same rate, meaning that new money is co-produced and distributed equally to all members of the system at all times.

Alice joins the system, creating AliceCoin PersonalCoins are all minted at a rate of, for example, 1 per minute Five minutes later Alice has 5 AliceCoin and Bob joins the system, creating BobCoin Five minutes later Alice has 10 AliceCoin and Bob has 5 BobCoin

It’s important to note that new currency units are only awarded to the person associated with each personal currency:

Alice joins the system, creating AliceCoin PersonalCoins are all minted at a rate of 1 per minute Five minutes later Alice has 5 AliceCoin and Bob joins the system, creating BobCoin Alice transfers her 5 AliceCoin to Bob Alice has 0 PersonalCoins and Bob has 5 AliceCoin Five minutes later Alice has 5 AliceCoin while Bob has 5 AliceCoin and 5 BobCoin

Inflation

In order to disincentivize hoarding and to encourage economic activity, the system will introduce an annual inflation schedule. This is demurrage by other means, where all personal currencies will issue progressively larger amounts of tokens per year, paid out per second. New users will always start issuing at a rate that is consistent with all other personal currencies.

Alice joins the system, creating AliceCoin PersonalCoins are all minted at a rate of 1 per minute, and inflates 100% every five minutes Five minutes later Alice has 5 AliceCoin and Bob joins the system, creating BobCoin Alice transfers her 5 AliceCoin to Bob Alice has 0 PersonalCoins and Bob has 5 AliceCoin Five minutes later Alice has 5 AliceCoin while Bob has 5 AliceCoin and 5 BobCoin Alice has 5 coins total, and Bob has 10 coins total. The difference between their holdings is 5 and Alice has .5 (half) the amount of coins that Bob has. The issuance rate inflates 100% and is now 2 coins per minute. Five minutes later Alice has 15 AliceCoin while Bob has 5 AliceCoin and 15 BobCoin. Alice has 15 coins total and Bob has 20 coins total. The difference between their holdings is still 5, but now Alice has .75 (three quarters) the amount of coins that Bob has. The relative difference between their holdings is decreasing.

Trusting Currency

In order to create useful money, users trust each other’s currencies. Trust is what facilitates exchange in the system. When a user trusts a currency, they tell the system that it is equivalent to any other Circles currencies that they already have. This means that anyone with this trusted currency can automatically trade it for one of your Circles currencies at a one-to-one exchange rate.

Bob trusts AliceCoin Bob has 10 CarolCoin Dave has 10 AliceCoin Dave gives 5 AliceCoin to Bob and takes 5 CarolCoin from him

Another way of thinking about trust is that it is the user telling the system that they acknowledge specific currencies as “real money.” Since any blockchain accounts can join the system and start minting currency, a trivial attack is to create multiple accounts and register with each to get multiple basic incomes. This is called a Sybil attack in computer security terms. The existence of trust relationships is how users protect themselves from fake accounts by specifying which ones they know for a fact represent an individual human’s primary account, forming a native Sybil resistance in the system. At a community level, trust in the system means that there are resources one can claim for Circles.

Because of the danger of any account becoming a sybil at any time, trust can also always be revoked. When and if trust is revoked, the person who is revoking trust can still spend the coins of the person they are untrusting, but they will not receive any new coins from that user via transitive transactions.

Because trust is a way to protect from counterfeit currencies, it is a serious responsibility on the part of the user. Users will have to rely heavily on mutual connections when making direct peer-to-peer trust relationships, and new users with no trust connections will have to get their closest loved ones to be their initial connections. It is theoretically possible to increase fungibility and ease of use in Circles with professional services (validators) which can act as brokers for trust, or with pooled group currencies, which can enforce their own policies for joining, however, these possible extensions will not be present in the first iteration of the Circles system. Further research on this subject is invited.

Transitive Exchange

Trusting different currencies creates a useful form of money because of the transitive nature of social networks. Money is useful when it allows complete strangers to efficiently conduct business. When one stranger wants to send money to another in Circles, they automatically search for a transitive chain of trusted currencies between each other. The payer then trades along this chain of trusted currencies, one after the other, until they have one that the recipient accepts.

Bob trusts AliceCoin Alice trusts CarolCoin Alice has 10 AliceCoin Carol has 10 CarolCoin Carol wants to pay Bob 5 PersonalCoins Carol gives 5 CarolCoin to Alice and takes 5 AliceCoin from her Carol gives 5 AliceCoin to Bob

The transaction can be extended to include multi-hop chains of trust as well:

Bob trusts AliceCoin Alice trusts CarolCoin Carol trusts DaveCoin Alice has 10 AliceCoin Carol has 10 CarolCoin Dave has 10 DaveCoin Dave wants to pay Bob 5 PersonalCoins Dave gives 5 DaveCoin to Carol and takes 5 CarolCoin from her Dave gives 5 CarolCoin to Alice and takes 5 AliceCoin from her Dave gives 5 AliceCoin to Bob

With this system, the connectedness of the social network serves as a direct measure of users’ ability to transact with each other. A familiar way of thinking about this is the famous six degrees of separation phenomenon that suggests everyone on earth is connected to everyone else by a chain of six people. Circles uses these chains to transact through the system. If a user is well-integrated into the network, with many connections to other well-integrated users, they will find it easier to send and receive personal currency.

Limits to Trust

Because personal currencies are only able to travel through their networks of trust, the fungibility of a specific personal currency is a measure of how many other accounts trust it and the resources available in the network. This means that users who are new to the system and don’t have many trusted relationships have a less fungible currency than someone who is well-established in the network. It also means that the currency of new users gets more fungible over time as they create more trust relationships.

Since the system internally enforces a one-to-one exchange rate, and new users’ personal currencies are less fungible than established users personal currencies, a potential problem emerges:

25 people trust AliceCoin Bob is new, so only Alice trusts BobCoin Bob has 100 BobCoin Alice has 100 AliceCoin Bob gives 100 BobCoin to Alice and takes 100 AliceCoin from her Bob can now spend money with 25 people (and their friends, and friends of friends, etc) Alice can now only spend money with Bob

In the example above, Alice needs a way to acknowledge that BobCoin is real money, while limiting her exposure to it while Bob is still new. Circles achieves this with Trust Limits. When you create a trust relationship in Circles, you have the option to include the maximum amount of your total coins you are willing to hold in another user’s currency. A trust limit is expressed as a percentage.. With trust limits, Alice is able to help Bob integrate into the system in a more controlled way:

25 people trust AliceCoin Bob is new, so only Alice trusts BobCoin Alice puts a limit of 10 BobCoin per month on her trust Bob has 100 BobCoin Alice has 100 AliceCoin Bob gives 10 BobCoin to Alice and takes 10 AliceCoin from her Bob can now spend one tenth of his money with 25 people (and their friends, and friends of friends, etc) Alice sets aside her 10 BobCoins to spend once Bob has made more trust relationships Bob gets 10 people to trust BobCoin Alice raises her trust limit on BobCoin to 100 per month

Trust limits reduce the risk of trusting new accounts to the system, making it easier for them to build trust relationships.

Defending Against Fake Accounts

As we’ve shown, fake accounts are a primary consideration when designing protections into the system. Since money can be spent indirectly through transitive connections, let’s show how Circles defends against fake accounts that are connected to your friends:

Bob trusts AliceCoin Alice makes a fake account and trusts FakeCoin Alice has 10 AliceCoin FakeAlice has 10 FakeCoin Alice wants to buy something worth 10 PersonalCoins from Bob using FakeCoin FakeAlice gives 10 FakeCoin to Alice and takes 5 AliceCoin from her FakeAlice gives 10 AliceCoin to Bob

This example demonstrates that Bob can only ever receive money that he trusts, and Alice can only ever spend money that other users trust in turn. Even if Alice makes 100 fake accounts and has them all trust each other, she will never be able to spend more than the amount of AliceCoins she has, since that’s the only account that other users will trust. This is why it is crucial that users take direct peer-to-peer trust relationships seriously.

Complementary Currency

Circles is not meant to become the world's dominant currency, cryptographic or otherwise. Rather, it is a complementary currency, working in harmony alongside other stores of value and mediums of exchange, itself embedded in a diversity of currencies. In the future Circles could even serve as a foundational "hard currency" for a more flexible group currency built on top. It is ideal as a hard currency because the supply of specific individual currencies is perfectly predictable and the aggregate system is highly resilient due to its lack of reliance on a centralized identity provider. To determine group membership, this hypothetical group currency could function with an arbitrary business logic such as being part of a business barter network, or democratically via geographically bounded assemblies. The group could then one-way convert the personal currencies of its members into a fungible group currency at a dynamic exchange rate that meets the group's needs over time. This would allow Circles to act as a staging ground for many different experiments in consensus reality (and morality), while still providing individual users the freedom to revert back to personal currencies if any one group becomes corrupted or useless. The possibilities for new political forms are numerous, but the potential for layer 2 systems on top of the base protocol is by far the most speculative aspect of the project and remains a decidedly open question for further research.

Conclusion

The Circles Money System was designed to get started creating a UBI economy today. We believe that the combination of resilience and global accessibility afforded by blockchain technology is a key catalyst that makes a Universal Basic Income achievable within the next generation. Our system's native Sybil-attack resistance and inbuilt decentralized identity make it an ideal focus for grassroots action and community organization, which have been hallmarks of envisioned UBI economies over the years. We are actively researching the economic implications of Circles' various design tradeoffs with the intention of creating a money system that is as useful and stable as possible. Our roadmap is designed to get started with trial applications as soon as possible in order to see how this new form of value exchange behaves in real economic settings. We are very excited about the potential of this project and hope that it can serve as a critical foundation for a new economic paradigm in the decades to come.

"Oh hey bra, how we doin' man?" "Alright" "It's been a while man, life's so rad This band's my favorite man, don't ya love 'em?" "Yeah" "Aw man, you want a beer?" "Alright" "Aw man, hell, bra, this is the best, man I'm so glad we're all back together and stuff This is great, man" "Yeah" "Hey, do you know about the party after the show?" "Yeah" "Aw man, it's gonna be the best, I'm so stoked Take it easy bra"I'm me Me be Goddamn I am I can Sing and Hear me Know meIf you want to destroy my sweater Hold this thread as I walk away"Hey, what's up?" "Not much" "Uhm, did you hear about the party?" "Yeah "I think I'm gonna go, but, uhm My friends don't really wanna go Could I get a ride?"Oh no It go It gone Bye-bye Who I I think I sink And I dieIf you want to destroy my sweater Hold this thread as I walk away (as I walk away) Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked Lying on the floor (lying on the floor) I've come undoneIf you want to destroy my sweater Hold this thread as I walk away (as I walk away) Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked Lying on the floor (lying on the floor) I've come undoneI don't want to destroy your tank-top Let's be friends and just walk away It's good to see you lying there in your Superman skivvies Lying on the floor (lying on the floor) I've come undone

"Undone – The Sweater Song" is a mid-tempo alternative rock song that runs for a duration of four minutes and fifty-eight seconds.[6][14] Its musical arrangement utilizes dynamics and thick distortion during the chorus in order to drive home the song's melody.[6] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Hal Leonard Music, it is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderately slow rock tempo of 80 beats per minute.[14] "Undone – The Sweater Song" is composed in the key of F♯ minor, while River Cuomo's vocal range spans two octaves and two notes, from the low-note of A♯4 to the high-note of C6.[15] The song has a basic sequence of G6–C7–D7–C7 during the intro and interludes, changes to G–C–D–C in the verses and follows G5–C5–D5–C5 at the chorus as its chord progression.[16]

The song opens at a shaky pace with a circular riff built from picked guitar strings. It comes along with spoken dialogue which satirizes the California party scene. The dialogue features adolescent characters engaged in frivolous conversation and speaking with stereotypical surfer as the band's music gradually rises in the background.[6] During the verses, Cuomo sings free-associative lyrics that portray the image of a dazed social outcast out of place at a party. The musical arrangement has a chorus that is both powerful and serene.[6] It acts as a manifesto and contains wry lines: "If you want to destroy my sweater/Hold this thread as I walk away."[6] They are delivered by way of vocal harmonies which hover above incensed, distorted guitar.[6]

Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (lead vocals, lead guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums), Brian Bell (guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), and Scott Shriner (bass, backing vocals).

After signing to Geffen Records in 1993, Weezer released its self-titled debut album, also known as the Blue Album, in 1994. Backed by music videos for the singles "Buddy Holly", "Undone – The Sweater Song", and "Say It Ain't So", the Blue Album became a multiplatinum success. Weezer's second album, Pinkerton (1996), featuring a darker, more abrasive sound, was a commercial failure and initially received mixed reviews, but achieved cult status and critical acclaim years later. Both the Blue Album and Pinkerton are now frequently cited among the best albums of the 1990s. Following the tour for Pinkerton, bassist Matt Sharp left the band and Weezer went on hiatus.

In 2001, Weezer returned with the Green Album, with new bassist Mikey Welsh. With a more pop sound, and promoted by singles "Hash Pipe" and "Island in the Sun", the album was a commercial success and received mostly positive reviews. After the Green Album tour, Welsh left the band and was replaced by Shriner. Weezer's fourth album, Maladroit (2002), achieved mostly positive reviews, but weaker sales. Make Believe (2005) received mixed reviews, but its single "Beverly Hills" became Weezer's first single to top the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and the first to reach the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2008, Weezer released the Red Album, featuring "TR-808s, synths, Southern rap, and baroque counterpoint".[1] Its lead single, "Pork and Beans", became the third Weezer song to top the Modern Rock Tracks chart, backed by a Grammy-winning YouTube music video. Raditude (2009) and Hurley (2010) featured more "modern pop production"[2] and songs co-written with other artists, achieved further mixed reviews and moderate sales. The band's ninth and tenth albums, Everything Will Be Alright in the End (2014) and the White Album (2016), returned to a rock style and achieved more positive reviews. Their eleventh album, Pacific Daydream (2017), featured a more mainstream pop sound.[3] In 2019, Weezer released an album of covers, the Teal Album, followed by the Black Album.[4] Weezer has sold 10.2 million albums in the US and over 35 million worldwide.[5]

In AD 180, Hispano-Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius intends to return to his home after he leads the Roman army to victory against the Germanic tribes near Vindobona on the Limes Germanicus. Emperor Marcus Aurelius tells Maximus that his own son, Commodus, is unfit to rule, and that he wishes Maximus to succeed him, as regent, to help save Rome from corruption and restore the Roman Republic. Commodus, upon hearing this, murders his father.

Commodus proclaims himself the new emperor and asks Maximus for his loyalty, but Maximus refuses. Maximus is arrested by the Praetorian Guard and is told that he and his family will die. He kills his captors, although not without injury, and rides for his home near Trujillo, where he finds his home destroyed and his family murdered. Maximus buries his wife and son, then collapses from his injuries. He is found by slavers who take him to the city of Zucchabar in the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis, where he is sold to a gladiator trainer named Proximo.

Although reluctant at first, Maximus fights in local tournaments and befriends two other gladiators: Juba, a Numidian; and Hagen, a German. His military skills help him win matches and gain recognition from other gladiators and the crowd. Proximo reveals that he was once a gladiator who was freed by Marcus Aurelius, and advises Maximus that he must "win the crowd" to win his freedom. When Commodus organizes 150 days of games, Proximo takes his gladiators to fight in Rome's Colosseum.

Disguised by a masked helmet, Maximus debuts in gladiatorial combat in the Colosseum as a Carthaginian in a re-enactment of the Battle of Zama. Unexpectedly, Maximus leads his side to victory, and Commodus enters the Colosseum to offer his congratulations. He orders the disguised Maximus, as leader of the gladiators, to show himself and give his name; Maximus reveals himself and declares vengeance. Commodus is compelled by the crowd to let the gladiators live, and his guards are held back from striking them down.

Maximus's next fight is against a legendary undefeated gladiator named Tigris of Gaul. Commodus has arranged for several tigers to be set upon Maximus during the duel; Maximus, however, prevails. Commodus orders Maximus to kill Tigris, but Maximus spares his opponent's life; he is called "Maximus the Merciful" by the crowd. Angered at this outcome, Commodus taunts Maximus about his family's deaths, but Maximus turns and walks away.

Maximus discovers from Cicero, his ex-orderly, that his former legions remain loyal. Lucilla, Commodus's sister; Gracchus, an influential senator; and Maximus meet secretly. Maximus will escape Rome, join his soldiers, topple Commodus by force, and hand power back to the Roman Senate. Commodus learns of the plot when Lucilla's son, Lucius, innocently hints at the conspiracy. Commodus threatens Lucilla and Lucius, and has the Praetorian Guard arrest Gracchus and attack the gladiators' barracks. Proximo and his men, including Hagen, sacrifice themselves to enable Maximus to escape. Maximus is captured at the rendezvous with Cicero, where the latter is killed.

In an effort to win back the people's approval, Commodus challenges Maximus to a duel in the Colosseum. He stabs Maximus before the match to gain an advantage. Despite his injuries, Maximus disarms Commodus, whom the Praetorian Guard refuse to aid. Commodus then produces a hidden knife, which Maximus drives into Commodus's throat, killing him. Maximus succumbs to his wounds. Before he dies, he asks for political reforms, for his gladiator allies to be freed, and for Senator Gracchus to be reinstated. Maximus's friends and allies honor him as "a soldier of Rome", at Lucilla's behest, and carry his body out of the arena, leaving the dead Commodus behind.

Juba visits the Colosseum at night and buries the figurines of Maximus's wife and son at the spot where he died. Juba promises to see Maximus again, "but not yet".

The film's plot was influenced by two 1960s Hollywood films of the sword-and-sandal genre, The Fall of the Roman Empire and Spartacus,[58] and shares several plot points with The Fall of the Roman Empire, which tells the story of Livius, who, like Maximus in Gladiator, is Marcus Aurelius's intended successor. Livius is in love with Lucilla and seeks to marry her while Maximus, who is happily married, was formerly in love with her. Both films portray the death of Marcus Aurelius as an assassination. In Fall of the Roman Empire a group of conspirators independent of Commodus, hoping to profit from Commodus's accession, arrange for Marcus Aurelius to be poisoned; in Gladiator Commodus himself murders his father by smothering him. In the course of Fall of the Roman Empire Commodus unsuccessfully seeks to win Livius over to his vision of empire in contrast to that of his father, but continues to employ him notwithstanding; in Gladiator, when Commodus fails to secure Maximus's allegiance, he executes Maximus's wife and son and tries unsuccessfully to execute him. Livius in Fall of the Roman Empire and Maximus in Gladiator kill Commodus in single combat, Livius to save Lucilla and Maximus to avenge the murder of his wife and son, and both do it for the greater good of Rome.

Scott cited Spartacus and Ben-Hur as influences on the film: "These movies were part of my cinema-going youth. But at the dawn of the new millennium, I thought this might be the ideal time to revisit what may have been the most important period of the last two thousand years – if not all recorded history – the apex and beginning of the decline of the greatest military and political power the world has ever known."[59]

In 1988, following his mother's death, a young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth by a group of alien thieves and smugglers called the Ravagers led by Yondu Udonta. Twenty-six years later on the abandoned planet Morag, Quill steals a mysterious orb, but is attacked by forces of the fanatical Kree renegade, Ronan the Accuser. Although Quill escapes with the orb, Yondu discovers his theft and issues a bounty for his capture, while Ronan sends the assassin Gamora after the orb.

When Quill attempts to sell the orb on Xandar, capital of the Nova Empire, Gamora ambushes him and steals it. A fight ensues, drawing in a pair of bounty hunters: the genetically and cybernetically modified raccoon Rocket, and the tree-like humanoid Groot. Nova Corps officers capture the four, detaining them in the Kyln prison. An inmate there, Drax the Destroyer, attempts to kill Gamora due to her association with the powerful intergalactic warlord, Thanos, and Ronan, who killed his family. Quill convinces Drax that Gamora can bring Ronan to him, though Gamora reveals that she has betrayed Ronan, unwilling to let him use the orb's power. Learning that Gamora intends to sell the orb to the Collector Taneleer Tivan, Quill, Rocket, Groot, and Drax work with her to escape the Kyln in Quill's ship, the Milano.

Ronan meets with Gamora's adoptive father, Thanos, to discuss her betrayal. Quill's group flees to Knowhere, a remote lawless outpost in space built in the giant severed head of a Celestial. A drunken Drax summons Ronan while the rest of the group meets Tivan. Tivan opens the orb, revealing the Power Stone, an item of immeasurable power that destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it. Tivan's slave Carina grabs the Stone, triggering an explosion that engulfs Tivan's archive. Ronan arrives and easily defeats Drax, while the others flee by ship, pursued by Ronan's followers and Gamora's adoptive sister Nebula. Nebula destroys Gamora's ship, leaving her floating in space, and Ronan's fighters capture the orb.

Quill contacts Yondu before following Gamora into space, giving her his helmet to survive; Yondu arrives and retrieves the pair. Rocket, Drax, and Groot threaten to attack Yondu's ship to rescue them, but Quill negotiates a truce, promising the orb to Yondu. Quill's group agrees that facing Ronan means certain death, but that they cannot let him use the Infinity Stone to destroy the galaxy. On Ronan's flagship, the Dark Aster, Ronan embeds the Stone in his warhammer, taking its power for himself. He contacts Thanos, threatening to kill him after first destroying Xandar; hateful of her adoptive father, Nebula allies with Ronan.

The Ravagers and Quill's group join with the Nova Corps to confront the Dark Aster at Xandar, with Quill's group breaching the Dark Aster with the Milano. Ronan uses his empowered warhammer to destroy the Nova Corps fleet. Drax kills Korath and Gamora defeats Nebula, who escapes, but the group finds themselves outmatched by Ronan's power until Rocket crashes a Ravager ship through the Dark Aster. The damaged Dark Aster crash-lands on Xandar, with Groot sacrificing himself to shield the group. Ronan emerges from the wreck and prepares to destroy Xandar, but Quill distracts him, allowing Drax and Rocket to destroy Ronan's warhammer. Quill grabs the freed Stone, and with Gamora, Drax, and Rocket sharing its burden, uses it to vaporize Ronan.

In the aftermath, Quill tricks Yondu into taking a container supposedly containing the Stone, and gives the real Stone to the Nova Corps. As the Ravagers leave Xandar, Yondu remarks that it turned out well that they did not deliver Quill to his father per their contract. Quill's group, now known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, has their criminal records expunged, and Quill learns that he is only half-human, his father being part of an ancient, unknown species. Quill finally opens the last present he received from his mother, a cassette tape filled with her favorite songs. The Guardians leave in the rebuilt Milano along with a potted sapling cut from Groot, which grows into a baby version of him.

In a post-credits scene, Tivan sits in his destroyed archive with two of his living exhibits: a canine cosmonaut and an anthropomorphic duck

Box OfficeBudget: $170,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA: $94,320,883, 3 August 2014

Gross USA: $333,176,600 

[Chorus] Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah I'm finally on my way Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Today's a brand new day [Verse 1] And the sky's so blue I don't know what to do And the sky's so grey I don't know what to say And we sing ay-oh ay-oh ay-oh ay-oh ay-oh ay [Chorus] Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Love is here to stay Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Praise the goddamn day [Verse 2] And I can't go on If I don't know where I'm going And I can't go back If I know where I'm at And we sing ay-oh ay-oh ay-oh ay-oh ay-oh ay [Chorus] Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah I'm finally on my way Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Gonna find a way [Outro] Hallelujah Today's a brand new day

Wurtz continuously keeps an audio journal, frequently recording himself explaining his thoughts, frustrations, and breakthroughs. About three to four years after the recording date he proceeds to go through the old recordings, taking the highlights and editing them into short clips, as well as adding video elements like text and screenshots.[citation needed] The clips are published under the 'reality' section on Wurtz's website.[54] Wurtz started turning his audio recordings into reality videos after finishing his history of japan project in early 2016. He proceeded to take three months off all other work to edit audio entries recorded between 2010 and 2016, turning them into reality videos.[q 24] The earliest available reality video is based on an audio recording from November 16, 2010, and as of August 2019, a total of 251 reality videos have been released. Wurtz has confirmed that he is planning to create "1000s more" in the future.[q 25] Wurtz has justified the reality project by stating that it is "a way of coaxing [himself] into success at a mountain-movingly hard project" and that it keeps him "calm and organized". He also expressed that "first hand documentary materials should surely be of very high value".[q 26]