Terms of Use
Effective Date: March 8, 2026
Welcome to kryptosbot.com (the “Site”), operated by Colin Patrick (“KryptosBot,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Site, including the elimination database, methodology pages, research pages, workbench tools, and theory-submission features.
By accessing or using the Site, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Site.
1. What the Site Is
KryptosBot is an independent, public-facing research and educational website focused on Kryptos K4, the fourth unsolved section of Jim Sanborn’s Kryptos sculpture. The Site documents cryptanalytic approaches that have been tested, provides tools for exploring theories, and supports public discussion and research.
The Site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency, Jim Sanborn, Ed Scheidt, the Smithsonian Institution, Paradigm Operations LP, or any other rights holder or verifier of the official solution.
The Site does not claim to possess the official sealed solution, private verification authority, or any nonpublic inside information.
2. Eligibility
You may use the Site only if you can form a binding agreement under applicable law and your use complies with these Terms and all applicable laws and regulations.
3. Permitted Use
Subject to these Terms, you may access and use the Site for lawful personal, educational, journalistic, scholarly, or research purposes.
You may link to public pages of the Site and quote limited portions of Site content for commentary, criticism, scholarship, or reporting, provided that you do not falsely imply affiliation, endorsement, or authorship by KryptosBot.
4. Prohibited Conduct
You agree not to:
- use the Site in violation of any law or regulation;
- interfere with or disrupt the Site, its infrastructure, or other users’ access;
- attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Site, server, code, or related systems;
- use automated means to access the Site in a way that imposes unreasonable load, circumvents rate limits or protective measures, or materially degrades service;
- copy, republish, or commercially exploit substantial portions of the Site’s original content in a manner that infringes our rights or misappropriates the Site’s value;
- submit unlawful, defamatory, abusive, infringing, malicious, fraudulent, confidential, or deceptive material;
- misrepresent any theory, result, or submission as having been validated, endorsed, or adopted by KryptosBot when it has not been.
5. Accuracy, Research Nature, and No Guarantee of Correctness
The Site addresses an unresolved historical and cryptographic problem. Its content is provided for research, education, and public-interest discussion. While we aim for rigor, reproducibility, and accuracy, the Site may contain errors, omissions, bugs, stale information, incorrect assumptions, or incomplete analysis.
Any elimination, score, classification, confidence tier, methodological statement, workbench output, or submission response may later be revised, narrowed, superseded, or withdrawn.
Nothing on the Site constitutes a representation that:
- any particular theory is correct;
- any theory is novel;
- any theory has monetary, archival, legal, or historical value;
- any theory will be recognized by any third party; or
- any result on the Site corresponds to the official solution to K4.
6. User Submissions
The Site may allow you to submit theories, comments, reports, corrections, suggestions, or other materials (“Submissions”).
Ownership
You retain whatever rights you have in your Submission.
License to Us
By submitting material to the Site, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to receive, store, reproduce, analyze, adapt, summarize, classify, display internally, and use the Submission for operating, improving, documenting, evaluating, and discussing the Site and related research.
If we choose to publish or publicly reference your Submission, we may do so with attribution you provide, with attribution we reasonably identify, or anonymously, unless you and we separately agree otherwise in writing.
Your Promises
You represent and warrant that:
- you have the right to submit the material;
- your Submission does not infringe or misappropriate any third-party rights;
- your Submission does not contain material you are not permitted to disclose;
- your Submission is not malicious code, spam, or unlawful content; and
- any factual statements you make in connection with your Submission are, to your knowledge, accurate.
No Confidential Relationship
Do not submit trade secrets, proprietary business information, classified material, or anything you expect us to keep confidential unless we have separately agreed in writing to do so. Submissions are not made under any fiduciary, confidential, or escrow relationship.
No Obligation to Review
We are not obligated to review, test, respond to, publish, retain, or act on any Submission.
Credit and Compensation
If a Submission materially contributes to a later public write-up, database entry, or acknowledged breakthrough, we may choose to credit the contributor. Unless we expressly agree otherwise in a separate signed writing, any such “credit” means editorial attribution or recognition only. It does not mean payment, revenue sharing, ownership transfer, brokerage, licensing proceeds, finders’ fees, prize entitlement, or any promise that a third party will purchase, verify, or honor the Submission.
7. Intellectual Property
Our Content
As between you and KryptosBot, we own or control the Site’s original content and expressive elements, including, as applicable, the Site’s original text, design, layout, graphics, software, code, original database structure, and the original selection, coordination, and arrangement of materials on the Site.
Limited License to You
We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Site for its intended lawful purposes, subject to these Terms.
Third-Party Rights
Names, titles, artwork references, quotations, marks, logos, and other materials relating to Kryptos, Jim Sanborn, the CIA, the Smithsonian Institution, GitHub, Anthropic, Paradigm Operations LP, or any other third party remain the property of their respective owners. Nothing in these Terms transfers any third-party rights to you or to us.
“Paradigm” and the Paradigm logo are trademarks of Paradigm Operations LP. Any reference on this Site to Paradigm Operations LP, or to other third parties such as the CIA, Jim Sanborn, Ed Scheidt, or the Smithsonian Institution, is made for identification, commentary, and informational purposes only (nominative fair use) and does not imply any affiliation, endorsement, sponsorship, or approval. The Site does not reproduce the sealed K4 solution or any confidential, proprietary, or copyrighted material belonging to Paradigm Operations LP or any other rights holder.
8. Open Source and External Resources
The Site may link to source code repositories, third-party tools, GitHub, Anthropic, archival material, museums, or other outside resources. Those services are controlled by third parties, not by KryptosBot. We are not responsible for their content, availability, policies, security, or practices.
Open-source code, if any, is governed by the license terms published with that code, not by these Terms except as to your use of this Site itself.
9. No Professional, Legal, or Investment Advice
The Site provides research and informational content only. It does not provide legal advice, archival authentication, investment advice, valuation advice, intellectual-property advice, museum guidance, or professional cryptographic certification.
You are solely responsible for any decision you make based on information obtained from the Site.
10. Disclaimer of Warranties
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SITE AND ALL CONTENT, FUNCTIONS, TOOLS, OUTPUTS, AND MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY.
WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, QUIET ENJOYMENT, SYSTEM INTEGRATION, OR THAT THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL CODE.
WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT ANY THEORY, ELIMINATION, CLASSIFICATION, OUTPUT, OR SUBMISSION ANALYSIS IS CORRECT, COMPLETE, NOVEL, REPRODUCIBLE IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT, OR ACCEPTED BY ANY THIRD PARTY.
11. Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, KRYPTOSBOT AND ITS OPERATOR(S), CONTRIBUTORS, LICENSORS, CONTRACTORS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA, GOODWILL, REPUTATION, BUSINESS, OPPORTUNITY, OR PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SITE OR THESE TERMS SHALL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (USD $100).
Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so parts of this section may not apply to you.
12. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless KryptosBot and its operator(s), contributors, contractors, licensors, and service providers from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or relating to:
- your use of the Site;
- your Submissions;
- your violation of these Terms; or
- your violation of any law or third-party rights.
13. Changes to the Site and These Terms
We may modify, suspend, discontinue, or remove any part of the Site at any time, with or without notice.
We may revise these Terms from time to time by posting an updated version on the Site and updating the Effective Date above. Your continued use of the Site after revised Terms are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.
14. Termination
We may suspend or terminate your access to the Site, in whole or in part, at any time and without liability if we believe you have violated these Terms, created risk for the Site or others, or used the Site in an abusive, unlawful, or disruptive manner.
Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including without limitation the sections on Submissions, Intellectual Property, Disclaimers, Limitation of Liability, Indemnification, Governing Law, and Miscellaneous.
15. Governing Law and Venue
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Site shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Maryland, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.
16. Miscellaneous
These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and KryptosBot regarding the Site and supersede any prior or contemporaneous understandings on that subject.
If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that provision.
You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a reorganization, transfer of the Site, or similar transaction.
17. Contact
For questions about these Terms, legal notices, or Site issues, contact:
Colin Patrick