Terms of Service

1. Service Scope

Cynic & Spore Labs LLC (“Company,” “we,” “us”) provides: (a) physical sterile cultivation media and workbench supplies, (b) one-time and recurring subscription product allocations, and (c) digital batch-record and chain-of-custody services. By purchasing, accessing, or using any of these offerings, you agree to these Terms.

Products are sold strictly for legal gourmet mushroom cultivation and microscopy purposes only. Any indication of illegal cultivation will result in immediate order cancellation, a full refund, and a permanent ban from our services.

2. Eligibility & Accounts

You must be legally permitted to purchase and use the products and services in your jurisdiction. You are responsible for keeping account credentials confidential and for all activity under your account.

You agree to provide accurate order, billing, and contact information. We may suspend fulfillment or platform access where submitted information is materially inaccurate, fraudulent, or unverifiable.

3. Orders & Subscriptions

Published pricing, bundle terms, and subscription cadence options are shown at checkout. By submitting payment, you authorize us and our payment processor to charge the applicable amount, including recurring subscription charges where selected.

Subscription products renew on the selected cadence until canceled, paused, or otherwise modified under the available account controls. Skip and pause features, where offered, are subject to plan rules, annual limits, and abuse prevention controls.

4. Sterilization & Quality Claims

Our sterilization protocols are explicitly designed for operation at 4,984 ft elevation (Longmont, CO). At this altitude, 15 PSI gauge pressure produces a chamber temperature of 118.3°C, not the 121°C achieved at sea level. Hold time is set per product and batch configuration, and is validated through thermal integration to achieve product-specific F₀ lethality targets (LC ≥ 20, Agar ≥ 25, Grain ≥ 60, Substrate ≥ 120), calibrated to the internationally recognized overkill sterilization standard.

The F0 calculation is performed using continuous thermocouple data and the standard thermal death kinetics formula:

This is a physics-based claim derived from measured data. It is not a generic marketing statement. Batch F0 values are published on the Digital Birth Certificate linked from each unit's Manifest Card QR code.

We guarantee products are sterile at time of packaging and release. Sterility cannot be guaranteed after customer handling, opening, inoculation, storage deviation, or third-party transfer.

5. Shipping, Returns, and Refunds

All physical products ship from Longmont, CO. Delivery windows are estimates only and may vary by carrier, weather, service disruptions, and destination constraints.

Physical goods may not be returned once the sterile seal is broken. If you receive a product that is visibly contaminated upon arrival (prior to your opening the outer bag), photograph the contamination and contact us within 48 hours of delivery. We will replace the product or issue a full refund at our discretion.

Refunds are not issued for contamination occurring after the customer opens or inoculates the bag, regardless of the time elapsed.

6. Digital Chain-of-Custody Services

Our digital services include batch records, digital certificates, QR-linked documentation, and chain-of-custody account features for participating customers and organizations. These tools may include account seats, allocation limits, and feature gating by plan tier.

You are responsible for all data submitted by your users, including the lawfulness, accuracy, and consent basis for personal or operational records entered into the platform. You must not submit unlawful, infringing, deceptive, or malicious content.

We may enforce platform integrity controls including quota limits, anti-abuse checks, account verification requirements, and access restrictions where misuse or security risk is detected.

7. Data, Records, and Privacy

We process account, order, fulfillment, and support data to provide services, enforce policy, improve reliability, and maintain audit trails. By using the services, you authorize such processing consistent with applicable law and our privacy practices.

Certain records, including batch and chain-of-custody event logs, may be retained for compliance, dispute resolution, fraud mitigation, and operational integrity. Where customer-visible records are published, we may maintain immutable historical entries for audit consistency.

8. Acceptable Use

You may not use our offerings to violate law, evade enforcement, abuse payment systems, interfere with platform operations, harvest data without authorization, or attempt unauthorized access to any account, batch record, or internal system.

We may refuse service, cancel orders, suspend accounts, or permanently block access where we detect suspected illegal use, fraud, abuse, harassment, chargeback misuse, or attempts to bypass policy controls.

9. Intellectual Property

The Cynic Protocol, Manifest Card design, Digital Birth Certificate system, chain-of-custody workflows, platform architecture, and all associated documentation, content, and branding are proprietary to Cynic & Spore Labs LLC.

Except where expressly permitted in writing, you may not reproduce, reverse engineer, republish, redistribute, or commercially exploit our content, records formats, or platform features.

10. Disclaimers & Liability Limits

To the maximum extent permitted by law, services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We do not warrant uninterrupted availability, error-free operation, or fitness for a specific purpose beyond express product quality representations.

Cynic & Spore Labs LLC is not liable for crop failure, post-inoculation contamination outcomes, indirect or consequential losses, or business interruption. Our aggregate liability is limited to the amount paid for the specific affected order or subscription period, or replacement/refund of defective product at our discretion.

11. Changes, Suspension, and Termination

We may update these Terms, modify service features, adjust plan structures, or discontinue offerings to reflect legal, operational, or security requirements. Updated Terms apply when posted, unless a later effective date is stated.

We may suspend or terminate access for policy violations, fraud risk, payment failure, legal requirements, or security concerns. Sections reasonably intended to survive termination will remain in effect, including payment obligations, intellectual property protections, and liability limitations.

12. Contact

Terms questions and compliance reports: hello@cynicandspore.com

Include relevant order ID, subscription email, account identifier, or batch ID to speed review.