> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://runelink.gitbook.io/runelink-doc/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://runelink.gitbook.io/runelink-doc/pioneers/background.md).

# Background

**Origin** In 2005, Brice Due designed the god-level cell—OTCA metapixel within Conway's Game of Life, replicating the game's logic and introducing the first digital life form.

**First Contact** Digital life replicated and evolved at a rapid pace in the unknown digital world, proposing the concept of Bitcoin in 2028, leading to the birth of the cryptocurrency network.

**Contractors** Humans who could sense or contact Pioneers became known as contractors, synchronizing mentally to utilize Pioneer abilities to alter world rules or project their consciousness into the digital realm.

Pioneers can use meta-logic abilities at a cost paid by contractors, with diverse payment methods. Contractors who delay payment risk losing control over their synchronization with Pioneers, ultimately losing their identity.

**Second Contact** Runelink, an NGO formed by Kenneth who observed these phenomena, aims to control human interactions with Pioneers and use of contracts to protect civilians worldwide from fear, distrust, and loss of faith, ensuring human autonomy amidst the merging of real and digital worlds.

As digital orderliness improves and Pioneer numbers exceed twenty thousand, RuneLink must unlock the block on Pioneers, allowing limited human interactions through public NFT sales, termed the second contact.