What is Ember and why does my family have one?

If your family completed a campfire last Tuesday night, you earned one Ember. You probably didn't notice. That's the point.

Ember is the legacy layer of Family Basecamp, a record running quietly in the background while your family does the real work. Kids earn stars and spend them. Embers are different. They only accumulate. They never decrease. They never expire. They are a record of every moment your family chose to show up for each other.

Where the number 525,600 comes from

525,600 is the number of minutes in a year. It is the horizon of the Ember system, not a supply cap and not a shared pool. A family that reached 525,600 Embers would have documented the equivalent of every minute of a full year spent choosing each other. No family is close. But the number gives every Ember its weight.

Each family earns independently. Your Embers have no relationship to any other family's. Nothing you earn takes from anyone, and nothing anyone else earns takes from you.

Your family's Ember balance is not a score. It is a ledger. Every campfire, every full pulse week, every one-on-one, every goal reached together, recorded permanently.

Why your balance never goes down

You cannot unspend a moment. The Tuesday night your family gathered around a question, talked honestly, and laughed together happened. It cannot be taken back. Embers honor that permanence. Once earned, they stay earned.

What Embers are building toward

An Ember is a permanent record of a moment your family chose each other. When Family Basecamp grows, we intend for that record to matter.

At 365 Embers, a threshold called Emunah, that record becomes a finished first chapter, a full year of showing up. If your family has referred others, that is also when a real, separate thank-you begins: a small monthly credit for each family you referred who is still with us. The credit comes from real activity. The Ember itself stays exactly what it always was, a record, not a currency. Read more about Emunah.