Sell your Pine script as a binary — without exposing the source

The compiled-binary distribution model

The problem with selling a Pine strategy today is that Pine is source. If you hand someone a .pine file, you've handed them everything — the logic, the parameters, the edge. There's nothing stopping them from modifying it, reselling it, or posting it publicly. The only "protection" TradingView offers is the invite-only visibility setting, which keeps the source hidden inside the platform but doesn't let buyers run it anywhere else.

The compiled-binary model solves this the same way MetaQuotes solved it for MQL5 fifteen years ago. When you sell an .ex5 binary on the MQL5 Market, the buyer downloads a compiled artifact. They can run it in MetaTrader against their account. They cannot decompile it to readable source. You set a license per account or per machine. The marketplace handles delivery, payment, and dispute resolution. The seller keeps the edge.

PineForge applies the same model to Pine. Your strategy source is transpiled to C++ and compiled to a signed .so shared object. The compiled artifact is what you distribute to buyers. Buyers use the PineForge runtime (the same Docker image you'd use for local development) to run the strategy against their data. The runtime validates the license signature on every invocation against the PineForge license server. No valid license, no execution.

The source never leaves your machine. Not on your hard drive, not in our servers, not anywhere. The codegen API receives your Pine source over an encrypted connection, transpiles it in an ephemeral container, and returns the compiled artifact. Source is not stored after compilation. The artifact itself is native machine code — not reversible to Pine or to readable C++ in any practical sense.

This is the distribution story that the MQL5 Market proved works: a functioning marketplace of thousands of strategy sellers, real recurring revenue for good strategies, buyers who get genuine value from running backtests and live trading without seeing source. PineForge is the infrastructure layer that makes the same model available for the Pine ecosystem.

License dimensions you control

When you publish a strategy for sale, you define the license parameters. The runtime enforces them on every execution. Six dimensions:

• Time-bound. License expires at a specific date. Use this for monthly subscriptions — buyer pays, gets a renewed license token valid for 30 days. Non-payment means the artifact stops executing. No grace period headaches; the expiry is in the signed token, not in the buyer's honor system.
• Machine-bound. License is tied to a specific machine fingerprint (CPU ID + MAC address hash). The strategy runs on that machine regardless of who has the file — but transferring the file to a different machine requires the buyer to request a license transfer, which you can approve or deny. Controls unauthorized redistribution.
• Broker-bound. License is valid only when the runtime's data input matches a specific broker's symbol naming convention. Sell a strategy tuned for Binance futures without worrying that a buyer runs it on FTX data and complains about mismatched performance.
• Symbol-bound. Restrict execution to specific symbols or a symbol whitelist. A strategy built for BTC-USD on 1H can be licensed to run only on BTC-USD on 1H. The buyer can't run it on ETH-USD and claim you misrepresented the backtest.
• Input-range-bound. Lock strategy inputs to ranges you define. If your edge depends on specific parameter values, you can allow buyers to tune within a safe range while preventing them from discovering the exact parameter set you found. The strategy evaluates with their chosen inputs; the license enforces the allowed ranges.
• Revoke-anytime. Any license can be revoked from the seller dashboard without buyer consent. Use this for chargebacks, ToS violations, or simply retiring a strategy. The next license validation call returns unauthorized, and execution halts. Takes effect within minutes.

For a full walkthrough of how to set up each dimension and the pricing model options, see the /sell page.

Marketplace launches 2027

To be direct: the full public marketplace — browse, buy, subscribe, rate, dispute — opens in 2027. We're not selling a vision; we're building the infrastructure first and opening the store when the infrastructure is ready.

What's available now and in the near term:

• Q3 2026 — Seller beta (manual onboarding). If you have a strategy you want to sell and you're willing to work with us directly, we can onboard you manually. You compile, we issue licenses, you handle your own payment collection. Rough around the edges. Real distribution.
• Q4 2026 — Private marketplace beta. Invite-only buyer/seller matching. Stripe integration for payment. License issuance automated. Dispute resolution manual. Access goes to the waitlist first.
• 2027 — Public marketplace. Full discovery layer, ratings, verified parity scores, seller analytics, automated renewal billing, buyer escrow. The MQL5 Market analog for Pine.

If you're a strategy seller with an audience — newsletter, Discord, Twitter — and you want to start distributing compiled binaries before the marketplace opens, get in touch via the waitlist. We've supported manual distribution for several sellers already. It works. It's just not self-serve yet.

The waitlist also determines wave-1 access priority. Sellers who join early get first pick of category niches before the marketplace opens to everyone, which matters for discoverability in a two-sided market.