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Show HN: Own the Void – a trillion-cell infinite canvas

2 points by sneezydwarf 9mo ago

I’ve been building a project called Own the Void. It’s a 1,000,000 × 1,000,000 logical grid (1 trillion possible cells). Each cell can be permanently claimed. Cells only exist in storage once purchased — the empty space is implicit. Tech stack: • Cloudflare Workers (monolith) • D1 (SQLite) • Stripe for one-time payments • Canvas rendering (React does not render the grid) Frontend: • Infinite pan & zoom • Tile-based viewport queries • Only occupied cells are fetched • DevicePixelRatio-aware rendering • No full-canvas redraws Each claimed cell stores: • A curated background color • Up to 32 characters of text • Optional HTTPS link No images, no ads, no NFTs. The idea was to explore permanence and ownership at absurd scale while keeping the system simple and low-cost. Curious about: • Scaling D1 for viewport queries long term • Moderation approaches for minimal text content • Whether the €1 per cell model is viable at scale Would appreciate feedback from people who’ve built large canvas or map-style systems.

verdverm 9mo ago
how did you count the cells on an infinite canvas? this was already done, who wants to burn a dollar on a pixel with today's economy?
- sneezydwarf 9mo ago
  It’s not infinite — it’s a fixed 1,000,000 × 1,000,000 grid. That’s 10¹² addressable coordinates. Large, but finite. You’re right that pixel canvases have been done before (e.g. Million Dollar Homepage, r/place). The difference here is: - No images - No advertising - No time resets - No collaborative overwriting - Permanent ownership of a coordinate It’s less about pixels and more about addressable digital space. As for the $1 — I don’t expect everyone to care. The question isn’t “will everyone buy one?” It’s whether a small number of people find value in permanently marking a coordinate. If nobody does, that’s a useful signal too.

2 points by sneezydwarf 9mo ago

verdverm 9mo ago

how did you count the cells on an infinite canvas? this was already done, who wants to burn a dollar on a pixel with today's economy?

sneezydwarf 9mo ago
It’s not infinite — it’s a fixed 1,000,000 × 1,000,000 grid. That’s 10¹² addressable coordinates. Large, but finite. You’re right that pixel canvases have been done before (e.g. Million Dollar Homepage, r/place). The difference here is: - No images - No advertising - No time resets - No collaborative overwriting - Permanent ownership of a coordinate It’s less about pixels and more about addressable digital space. As for the $1 — I don’t expect everyone to care. The question isn’t “will everyone buy one?” It’s whether a small number of people find value in permanently marking a coordinate. If nobody does, that’s a useful signal too.