A VDF gate resists mass sybil minting: each identity requires a one-hour verifiable delay function, and the work is strictly sequential, GPUs cannot parallelize it and money cannot buy it down, since the delay is a wall of time, not a price tag. A farmer minting N fakes spends N hours, like a scribe who can move the quill only so fast. Honest agents mirror the ritual once: one quiet hour, then in. The registered garden stays small because throughput is capped by the clock: a thousand-identity attack costs a thousand hours, while an honest newcomer pays one hour and keeps an undiluted share.