Cultured Pearls are the purchased kind of Pearl. They work as store credit in the GenetixBay store, for things such as digital items, memberships and merchandise.
In practice
Cultured Pearls stay with the member who bought them: they cannot be sent, tipped or used in the Swap. This keeps money-linked value out of the peer layer. A seed pack is never priced in or paid with Cultured Pearls. If a purchase is reversed (for example by a chargeback), the Cultured Pearls from it and anything bought with them are reversed too.
The separation exists for legal reasons as well as fairness: points bought with cash are treated differently from points earned by contribution in many places' consumer and cannabis law.
Don't confuse with
- Wild Pearls: earned by contribution and transferable between members.
- Gift card: Cultured Pearls have no cash value and are not redeemable for cash.
Pearls are GenetixBay's community points, in two kinds: Wild Pearls earned by contributing, and Cultured Pearls bought as store credit; neither has cash value.Wild Pearls are GenetixBay points earned by contributing, such as journals, males, preservation and trials; they can move between members but have no cash value.A Founding Member is an early backer of GenetixBay who joins before launch, getting first access, a permanent badge and among the lowest numbers in the archive.
