Terms of service.

01Agreement to these terms

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Malibu, which operates from the Cayman Islands (“Malibu,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). They govern your access to and use of malibu.tech, the Malibu console at console.malibu.tech, the Malibu provider desktop application for macOS, and any related APIs, websites, and community channels operated by Malibu (collectively, the “Services”).

By accessing or using the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

02What Malibu is

Malibu is a network that connects buyers of AI inference with independent providers who host open-source models on their own hardware (primarily Apple Silicon Macs). Buyer usage is currently metered as a daily quota against paid or granted allowance. Providers are settled in USDC when their inference receipts pass verified-model settlement. Prepaid credit balances, USDC top-ups, and on-chain $MALIBU rewards for provider activity are on the roadmap and will become subject to these Terms when they launch. Malibu operates the coordination layer, the console, and the provider desktop app; Malibu does not itself run inference on your prompts — providers do.

03Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a contract to use the Services. If you use the Services on behalf of an entity, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity to these Terms.

Some features (such as the console) require you to authenticate, currently via GitHub OAuth. You are responsible for the security of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us promptly at team@malibu.tech if you suspect unauthorized use.

04Using the Services as a buyer

API keys and billing

Buyers use API keys issued through the console to submit inference requests. You are responsible for keeping your API keys confidential and for any usage attributable to them.

Buyer usage today is metered as a daily quota against a paid or granted allowance, based on model, input tokens, output tokens, and the applicable rate card at the time of the request. Prepaid credit balances, USDC top-ups, and fiat top-ups through a third-party payment processor are on the roadmap; when they become available, consumption will continue to be metered against them per request under these Terms.

Your prompts and outputs

You retain all rights in the prompts you submit and the model outputs you receive through the Services. Malibu does not claim ownership of your prompts or outputs.

Prompt content flows through Malibu’s gateway and coordinator to route your request, meter usage, and enable settlement and verification. The independent provider selected to serve your request receives your prompt in plaintext on its hardware and generates the output there. Providers can technically observe the prompts and outputs that route through their machine.

No warranty on outputs

Model outputs are generated by third-party open-source models running on independent providers. Outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete, offensive, or unsuitable for your use case. You are responsible for evaluating outputs before relying on them, and for complying with the license of any model you use.

05Using the Services as a provider

Providers are independent operators — not employees, agents, contractors, or partners of Malibu. You choose whether to run the provider app, when to be online, which supported models to host, and on what hardware.

By operating a provider node, you represent that:

• You own or are authorized to use the hardware you connect to the network
• You will not attempt to circumvent the network’s metering, verification, or settlement systems
• You will not intentionally return fabricated, cached, or model-substituted responses in place of genuine inference
• You are responsible for any taxes owed on your earnings and for compliance with the laws of your jurisdiction, including any rules governing crypto assets

Currently, USDC provider earnings are settled to a public wallet address you provide, driven by verified-model settlement on your inference receipts. $MALIBU-denominated rewards and reward multipliers are planned and will follow the network rules described in the docs and the provider app once on-chain emission is live. Malibu may adjust verification requirements, rate cards, reward parameters, and other network rules from time to time to keep the network working correctly.

06Payments and on-chain transactions

Today, provider USDC settlement follows verified-model settlement: a provider is debited or credited based on the verdict returned by the inference-receipt verifier for each request. Prepaid credit balances, direct USDC top-ups for buyers, and fiat top-ups through a third-party payment processor are on the roadmap; when they become available, they will be governed by these Terms.

On-chain $MALIBU rewards for provider activity are planned (currently “Planned v0” on the public status page). Once emission is live, $MALIBU rewards will be settled on-chain to the wallet address you provide, according to the network rules described in the docs and provider app at that time.

You are responsible for the accuracy of any wallet address you provide. Malibu is not responsible for funds sent to a wrong or otherwise incorrect address, for network congestion, for gas fees, for token price movements, or for the availability of any third-party bridge, wallet, exchange, or payment processor.

07Wallets, keys, and security

The Services are non-custodial with respect to your crypto assets: Malibu does not hold your private keys and cannot recover them. If you lose access to a wallet you use with the Services, we cannot restore access, undo transactions, or reissue funds routed through that wallet.

08Blockchain risks

Using the Services involves interacting with public blockchain networks. You acknowledge that:

• Blockchain networks are experimental and subject to bugs, forks, congestion, and consensus changes outside of Malibu’s control
• Transactions and account balances are public and permanent
• $MALIBU and other tokens may fluctuate in value or become illiquid, and no return is promised
• Regulatory treatment of tokens, providers, and inference-as-a-service is unsettled in many jurisdictions and may change without notice

09Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Services to:

• Violate any applicable law, regulation, or third-party right
• Generate, request, or transmit content that sexually exploits or endangers minors, incites violence, harasses or defames a specific person, or promotes terrorism
• Attempt to identify a natural person from a wallet address, IP address, or other pseudonymous identifier without a lawful basis
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source of any non-open-source component of the Services
• Interfere with, overload, or attack the Services, or bypass rate limits, authentication, or metering
• Use the Services to build or train a directly competing inference network by scraping or systematically re-selling outputs beyond ordinary end-use

We may suspend or terminate access, revoke API keys, disable provider nodes, or withhold undistributed rewards where we reasonably believe these Terms have been violated.

10Third-party models and content

The Services route requests to open-source models operated by independent providers. Those models are licensed by their respective authors under their own terms. You are responsible for reviewing and complying with the license of any model you use, including any restrictions on commercial use, output attribution, or redistribution.

11Intellectual property

Malibu, the Malibu name, the Malibu logo, malibu.tech, the console, the provider app, and all associated code, designs, and documentation are owned by Malibu or its licensors. Except for open-source components released under their own licenses, nothing in these Terms grants you any right in Malibu’s trademarks or proprietary code.

If you send us feedback, suggestions, or bug reports, you grant Malibu a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to use them without restriction. You warrant that you have the right to share what you send.

12Disclaimer of warranties

The Services are provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent permitted by law, Malibu disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, uninterrupted or error-free operation, and the accuracy or reliability of any model outputs, price, receipt, or on-chain state.

We do not warrant that any model, provider, or portion of the network will be available at any particular time or performance level, nor that any specific reward, price, or refund will result from your use of the Services.

13Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Malibu will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, goodwill, data, or crypto-asset value, arising out of or related to the Services, whether based in contract, tort, statute, or otherwise, and even if Malibu has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Malibu’s aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or related to the Services is limited to the greater of (a) the total fees you paid to Malibu in the three months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

14Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Malibu and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claim, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of your use of the Services, your content, your operation of a provider node, or your violation of these Terms, applicable law, or any third-party right.

15Termination

You may stop using the Services at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Services, revoke API keys, disable provider nodes, or refuse settlement of contested amounts if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, created legal or security risk for Malibu or other users, or become unavailable to us for a period we determine impracticable to continue serving.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including intellectual property, disclaimer of warranties, limitation of liability, indemnification, and any accrued payment obligations — will survive.

16Dispute resolution

The parties will attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute informally by writing to team@malibu.tech before starting a formal proceeding. If a dispute is not resolved within thirty (30) days, either party may proceed under applicable law.

17Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The “Last updated” date above reflects the effective date of the current version. If a change is material we will make reasonable efforts to notify active users through the console, the provider app, or by email. Continued use of the Services after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

18Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to team@malibu.tech.