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

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.

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

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