La Chispa Independent Certification Procedure

Retaz LLC · Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, USA
A companion document to the La Chispa Founding Recognition Rules, Version 3, listed in Section 12.

About this page. This is the "Independent certification procedure for the Section 5 determination", a companion document listed in Section 12 of the La Chispa Founding Recognition Rules, Version 3, and named in Section 1.6. It explains how the Rules are applied to the result. If this page and the Rules differ, the Rules govern. "Section" means a Section of the Rules. Times are US Eastern, with the UTC instant in parentheses. This page is published before Saturday, October 17, 2026, 00:00 US Eastern (2026-10-17T04:00:00Z), because Section 9.8 bars a substantive change once the campaign is open.

Who certifies

An independent observer. Retaz LLC counts the hearts and produces the records; the observer checks that work and signs the result. The observer's signature is what certifies the result.

The observer must meet every one of these tests:

• No stake in the outcome. Nothing the observer or their immediate family is paid, holds or could gain depends on who wins.
• No tie to the Co-Founders or to Retaz LLC. Not Sarah Pollock or Matt Pollock, or immediate family of either; no business or financial relationship with Sarah or Matt personally; not an employee, paid advisor or contractor of Retaz LLC except under this engagement, and no other financial or governance relationship with it (a board seat is one, and none is offered to the observer); not one of the Founders Champions, or a Spark Artist under contract.
• Separate. Does not operate, or hold write access to, any Retaz system that records hearts or produces the tally, and takes no part in the Global Ambassador negotiation.
• Not a candidate, and gives no hearts. Agrees in writing not to enter any playlist for La Chispa recognition and not to give a heart during the campaign. The role is unpaid, and this written agreement is what keeps the observer out of La Chispa.

Before signing, the observer discloses in writing any close tie to a curator they know intends to take part, any past work for Retaz LLC or the Co-Founders, and any link to an investor; any later change is reported at once, and the observer stops work on any question it touches. A backup observer, engaged under a separate letter and holding their own sealed copy, decides a question the observer is conflicted on and any challenge to the observer's independence, within 48 hours of receiving it. An allegation by anyone does not by itself stop the observer's work. The Co-Founders do not decide either.

The backup observer. Retaz LLC engages a backup observer before the campaign opens if it can, and otherwise as soon as it can; a backup observer engaged after the open takes their sealed copy from the observer's. Until a backup observer is engaged, and if none is, anything this page gives the backup observer to do is treated as if the backup observer cannot act: a step not yet taken is not taken, a question waiting for the backup observer is listed on the certificate as open, and "If the observer cannot certify" applies where the observer cannot act. The Co-Founders never take the backup observer's place. Whether a backup observer is engaged is shown under "The observer's name".

Retaz LLC engages the observer before Saturday, October 17, 2026, 00:00 US Eastern (2026-10-17T04:00:00Z), so the observer holds the sealed fingerprint below before the campaign opens.

What the observer sees. Every record the observer receives is in coded form: account and playlist identifiers are replaced by salted codes, and no handle, display name or message content appears; a report also gives a reason code and the time. Retaz LLC keeps the table that matches each code to its member. Where a check needs a member's identity (matching the Co-Founders' written attestation under Section 2.6, or the sanctions screen), Retaz LLC performs it and gives the observer its method, its inputs in coded form and its result; the observer decides whether the result stands, and the certificate lists each check the observer could not perform itself. The full set is: account identifiers; playlist titles, moderation state, visibility and authorship declaration and, for each assessed playlist and each playlist under review at the snapshot, its tracks at the close, the record with times of tracks added and removed during the campaign, and its description with any member personal data removed; the hearts ledger (which coded account gave each heart, to which playlist, and when); the membership records of members who gave hearts or who curate a candidate playlist, with the store's transaction identifier; curators' declared country, region and birth year, the record of changes to them, their badge state and referral links, and their own written declarations, with any legal name removed; the list of people Section 2.6 excludes, with each person's relation, and the Co-Founders' written attestation under Section 2.6, with names replaced by the same codes (a person without a Retaz account gets a code of their own); and, for the leading playlists, Retaz LLC's case records. Reported direct messages reach the observer as the report itself in coded form, with the summary of the person Retaz LLC names as handling safety reports; Section 9.3 says Retaz LLC does not read direct messages to detect solicitation. The observer keeps its copy for twelve months after the announcement and then deletes it, unless the law or a pending dispute requires it to be kept longer; the ledger itself stays with Retaz LLC for the life of the recognition (Section 4.9).

This procedure is separate from the yearly audit of Retaz LLC's financial statements by an independent CPA firm under Section 6.6, which is unchanged.

What is certified

The Section 5 determination: each participating country's Country Champion and the Global Champion, decided under Sections 5.1 and 5.2 from the final tally captured at the snapshot. The observer certifies that only valid hearts were counted (Sections 4.4 and 4.8, as at the snapshot), that each leading candidate is eligible under Sections 2, 3 and 7 and not disqualified under Section 9, and that every exclusion, reinstatement and correction is recorded with its reason.

The leading playlists are the ones Retaz LLC checks in full: every participating country's leader at the snapshot, and any playlist that moves up when a leader is excluded. From about Monday, November 9, Retaz LLC pre-assesses the 20 provisional Country Champions holding the most hearts (plus, in each of those countries, the best playlist of a different curator), and at the close it assesses in full every Country Champion not already assessed. Each Country Champion's playlist also receives a human review of whether its tracks are real recordings by real artists; that review acts only through a published Rule, such as Section 3.2, and is never a ground of its own.

Where the Rules say Retaz LLC tallies (Section 5.1) or acts at certification (Sections 3.2 and 7.7), or that a rule is applied at certification (Section 2.3), it is done through this procedure. Live standings in the app are informational; only the certified final tally governs (Section 5.1).

The sequence

The observer's checks

1. The code. The fingerprint at the snapshot is compared with the one recorded before the open. Every difference must be a clarification, enforcement step or bug fix that Section 9.8 allows, and is recorded.
2. The recount. The hearts are recounted from the ledger of Section 4.9 as at the snapshot; every difference from the captured tally must be explained. The observer works from files and query results that Retaz LLC produces, and from the two state extracts and their hashes; it does not run queries on Retaz LLC's systems.
3. Refunds. For hearts on the leading playlists, the payment providers' own refund records (the App Store and Google Play) are compared with Retaz LLC's (Section 4.8). "Recorded" in Section 4.8(e) means recorded by Retaz LLC. A refund a provider dates before the snapshot that Retaz LLC recorded after it is listed on the certificate as a finding and does not change the tally (Sections 1.6 and 4.8(e)).
4. Eligibility. For each leading candidate: residence (Section 7), age (Section 2.3), related parties (Section 2.6), subscriber status at the snapshot (Section 2.1) and the Curator badge or Founding Curator badge (Section 2.7), good standing (Section 2.4), content (Section 3.2), playlist length (Section 3.3), in-window creation and own work (Sections 3.1, 3.6 and 9.5) and visibility (Section 3.4). Age and residence are self-declared; Retaz does not verify identity (Section 2.3). The age to take part is 18 in every participating country (Section 2.3). Where the law of the Global Champion's country does not yet let them sign the Retaz Global Ambassador Agreement or receive the cash payment, Section 2.3 says how the Agreement and the payment wait; that does not change who is recognized and is not a finding of the observer. Any request for a written declaration (a legal name for the sanctions screen and the Agreement; confirmation of residence at the close and the date of any move) goes out after the capture, in the same neutral words to every Country Champion whose file is missing the same information; no identity document is asked for.
5. Reinstatement. A playlist under review at the snapshot and later cleared goes back in on the valid hearts it held then (Section 3.2). Where the outcome could change who is recognized, the observer decides whether the review clears it, and a playlist that is cleared is reinstated.
6. Ranking. The two stages of Section 5.1, then the tie rule of Section 5.2: a tie on valid hearts is split evenly among those tied, and there is no tie-break. If a leader is excluded, the next eligible playlist in that country is checked in full. No step involves chance.

The certificate identifies each country's Country Champion by code and playlist title (or "no eligible entry", or "not yet certified", with the date the observer expects to certify it), the Global Champion, every exclusion, reinstatement and correction with its reason, and every question still open.

What the Co-Founders do and do not decide

Sarah Pollock and Matt Pollock operate the platform, produce the records, answer the observer's questions and keep the case records. They do not choose the Champion: within the Rules, Retaz LLC has no veto over the Global Champion's identity (Section 5.3), and neither Co-Founder can be recognized (Section 2.6).

Any exclusion, disqualification, reinstatement or dispute that could change who is a Country Champion or the Global Champion is decided by the observer, not the Co-Founders, and the observer decides whether a case meets that test. Retaz LLC adopts each such decision as its own (Sections 9.7, 10.2 and 10.4). During the campaign, Retaz LLC does not suspend, restrict or open an investigation of a curator, change a curator's declared country or region, or hold or disqualify a playlist, in the top three of its country or in the pre-assessment set without first sending the observer the grounds; and where a curator who is already suspended, restricted or under investigation, or whose playlist is held, enters the top three of its country or the pre-assessment set, Retaz LLC sends the observer the grounds at once. The observer decides within 48 hours of receiving the grounds whether the step goes ahead or continues. Where a member's safety or the law requires immediate action, the step is reported to the observer at once, and within 48 hours the observer decides whether immediate action was required and whether the step continues. If the observer has not decided within 48 hours, the backup observer decides within the next 24 hours, and until a decision a step not yet taken is not taken. A step the observer decides against is reversed, and the case record says so. In deciding good standing under Section 2.4, the observer decides whether a curator was suspended, restricted or under investigation for a violation; a step the observer decided against, or one not sent to the observer as this paragraph requires, does not count against the curator unless the observer finds the violation itself. A pause of hearts under Section 4.6 is reported to the observer as it happens. Every dispute, whatever it concerns, goes to the observer within 24 hours of receipt. Every hold, pause, disqualification, suspension, restriction, investigation or residence change touching a playlist or curator in the top three of its country at the time, or in the pre-assessment set from November 9, is also logged to the observer as it happens, with a weekly log of all of them, a record of every pause of hearts under Section 4.6, and a record of any emergency access to the hearts systems. Retaz LLC does not itself delete an account during the campaign, except at the member's request or where the law requires it, and reports any such deletion; where it must take an account out of use, it keeps the account's records. These reports go in coded form. If a member contests the observer's decision, it is escalated under Section 10.3; any advice Retaz LLC receives goes to the observer, the observer decides without waiting for advice, and Retaz LLC adopts that decision as its own (Section 10.4).

The count is certified independently, and the founders take no part in deciding who is recognized.

What you can see and ask for

• Under Section 4.9, every heart is recorded in a ledger that is appended to and never rewritten, kept for the life of the recognition and subject to inspection under Sections 6 and 10. To inspect it, send a request through the in-app reporting flow or to [email protected] (Section 10.1); other members' identifiers are replaced by codes.
• To dispute a decision, use the in-app reporting flow or [email protected] (Section 10.1). Sarah Pollock and Matt Pollock review disputes within seven days and may extend a complex investigation with notice (Section 10.2); see "What the Co-Founders do and do not decide". A dispute undecided when the certificate is signed is listed on it as an open question and decided afterwards by the observer, or by the backup observer if the observer cannot act (see "If the observer cannot certify"); no filing cut-off applies.
• Your statutory consumer-protection rights, and your right to go to a regulator or court where the law allows, are unaffected (Section 10.4).

If the observer cannot certify

The observer's signature is what certifies the result. If the observer withdraws, cannot act, or is found not to meet the tests, the backup observer takes over and re-checks the same evidence. If the backup observer cannot act either, no certificate is signed and the next paragraph applies. If the observer is found after signing not to meet the tests, Retaz LLC publishes the fact within 48 hours and the backup observer re-checks the same evidence and certifies again; any other problem found after signing is corrected by the observer in a corrected certificate. Before December 1, a changed result is simply the corrected result. After December 1 no runner-up takes over as Global Champion, because Retaz LLC reads Section 6.12 ("the Champion keeps the recognition and the Award in every case") as reaching a later finding. Nobody who has been announced loses their recognition because of a later finding, except where the law forbids Retaz LLC to keep it in place (for example under the sanctions of Section 7.1); the finding is published with the corrected certificate.

The observer's certificate may cover only the countries the observer has finished. For each other country it says "not yet certified" and gives the date by which the observer expects to certify it; the observer sets that date, not Retaz LLC, and it is no later than the long-stop, December 15, 2026, 00:00 US Eastern (2026-12-15T05:00:00Z). On December 1, Retaz LLC announces the Global Champion as Sections 1.7 and 6.12 require, and each Country Champion the observer has certified. For each country not yet certified it publishes that the result is not yet certified and the date the observer gave. If the Global Champion's own certification is not complete, the announcement names the result as captured, with only the findings the observer or the backup observer have made and no finding by the Co-Founders, and says plainly that certification is not complete. A country still not certified at the long-stop is announced on that date in the same way, as captured with only the observer's findings, and Retaz LLC says plainly that certification is not complete. Retaz LLC publishes the certificate, in the same form, when it is signed. The observer, after December 1, may correct a misdescription of what they certified and, if they declined to certify, may say publicly, without member personal data, that they did not and why.

The observer's name

Retaz LLC publishes the observer's name with the result on Tuesday, December 1, 2026, 00:00 US Eastern (2026-12-01T05:00:00Z), and earlier where the law, a regulator or a court requires it. If no certificate is signed, the name is published that day anyway, with the observer's statement, in the version without member personal data that the observer delivers.

So that anyone can check that the observer was chosen before the campaign opened, Retaz LLC seals the name in advance. It writes one line of text giving the observer's name and a random phrase that it keeps private until the announcement, and publishes below, before the campaign opens, the SHA-256 code of that line. Any SHA-256 tool computes the same code from the same line; a change to any character gives a completely different code; and the line cannot be worked out from the code. On December 1, Retaz LLC publishes the line itself, so anyone can compute its code and compare it with the one below. A backup observer's name is sealed the same way when they are engaged, and added below with the date.