FAQ

The questions everyone asks first .

Short answers, each one describing how Bullmark behaves today — not how we hope it will. If yours is not here, write to us .

The basics

What is Bullmark, in one sentence?

A place where a startup gets promoted without spending cash: you issue your own Brand Credit and discount vouchers, referrers bring customers in, and you pay those referrers in the thing you already make.

Is it only for apps?

No. Anything a startup sells — an app, a SaaS plan, a service, a physical product — can be listed, as long as it has a real price on your own site that a voucher can point at.

Is it really free to start?

Listing is free, and your brand's first mint of Brand Credit is free, up to 10,000 credits, with no card. After that, minting costs 1.5% of the amount (rising to at most 4.5% if your credit is thinly backed), and one voucher in ten of each batch goes to Bullmark — as vouchers, not cash. The whole list is on Fees & money flow .

Do my customers need a Bullmark account?

To look around or to scan a voucher and check it is genuine — no. To hold a voucher — yes. Claiming, buying, handing over and reserving a voucher all require signing in, because every voucher is sealed to the account that holds it.

Payments

Do I have to use Bullmark's (or Axowl's) payment system in my app?

No. Keep your own checkout — your own Stripe, in-app purchase, anything. When a customer brings a voucher, you look it up, charge them the voucher's price in your checkout, and tell Bullmark it was redeemed. Redeeming moves no money; it only marks the voucher used. The integration is on the API page , and there is a no-code path where we send the customer to your pricing page with the price attached.

So when do I need a payout account with Bullmark?

Only when Bullmark takes the payment for you: selling vouchers on the marketplace, selling a product through a Bullmark checkout, or letting customers top up your Brand Credit by card. Those payments are routed straight to your own Stripe account, so you connect one first. If you never sell through Bullmark, you never need it.

Why would I issue Brand Credit at all?

Small payments. A card payment costs 2.9% + $0.30 every time, so a $1 sale loses 33¢ — a third of the price. With Brand Credit a customer tops up once, pays that fee once, and then spends credit as many times as they like with no card fee on each purchase. Twenty $1 card sales cost $6.58 in fees; one $20 top-up costs 88¢. More on Brand Credit .

What is the difference between Brand Credit and Bullmark Credit?

Brand Credit is issued by one brand and spends only at that brand. Bullmark Credit is issued by the platform, is worth $1 each, and spends on vouchers from any brand — it is what you receive when you sell a voucher on. Both are written with capitals because they are the names of those two currencies, not the everyday word "credit".

Can credit or a voucher be refunded as cash?

No. Credit and vouchers move one way: they become goods and services at the brand, never money again — for the holder, the brand, or anyone. Read the refund policy before you pay; it is short.

How are referrers paid?

In Brand Credit, per verified redemption — never per click and never per claim. Nothing is owed until a customer has actually used a voucher the referrer brought in. A cash payout for referrers does not exist today.

Safety

Can someone forge a voucher?

No. A voucher is a numbered row on our side, not an image. A QR only points at that row, so a made-up QR points at nothing. And the row itself is sealed: its fingerprint is also held at Axowl, outside our database, so editing a voucher — price, expiry, holder, used or not — makes the two stop agreeing.

What if someone photographs the QR on my screen?

They can scan it and see that the voucher is genuine, unspent and what it is worth — that is what a scan is for. They do not see the redeem code: it is shown only to the signed-in holder and to the brand that issued it. Still, treat a redeem code like a gift-card number and do not post it anywhere.

Can the same voucher be used twice?

No. The first redemption is sealed into the row, and every later attempt — from a copy or from the original — is told it has already been used. Ten screenshots are still one voucher.

I give a voucher to a friend. Do they have to sign in?

Yes. You create a hand-over link, which locks the voucher so it cannot be spent meanwhile. Your friend opens the link, signs in and accepts. Your copy is closed and they get a new one — same serial, price and expiry, but a new code and QR , so an old screenshot stops working. A link nobody accepts expires after 7 days and the voucher comes back to you; you can also cancel it sooner. Whoever opens the link and accepts first receives it, so send it privately.

How does using a voucher actually work?

You press "use this voucher" while signed in, which holds it for you for 15 minutes and takes you to the brand. The brand charges you the voucher's price and confirms the redemption. Only the brand can confirm — a holder cannot mark their own voucher as used.

Can everything be traced afterwards?

Yes. Issue, hand-over, reservation and redemption are each a sealed entry chained to the one before. A brand can pull the full chain for any of its own vouchers and re-check every fingerprint itself, without asking us. The details are on Why it's safe .

What do you not promise?

We verify an email address, not a passport. A seal proves a record has not been altered since it was written; it does not prove who is behind an address. And we do not step between a brand and its customer — what a brand sells, and how it handles a complaint, is the brand's.