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How rewards workLink to this section

TL;DRLink to this section

  • Completed Squeek blocks can fund SQK rewards for eligible Miners.
  • Your share depends on your Miner's active power relative to all active power, not its level alone.
  • Rewards need to be funded before you can claim them; new power doesn't earn for rounds before its activation.

Why does your share change?Link to this section

All eligible Miners share one reward pool. If your Miner has more active power while everyone else's stays the same, it receives a larger share. If other Miners activate or gain power, your share can fall even though you still hold the same NFT at the same level.

Buyer-held Miners, reserve Miners, and Miners from the unsold allocation all follow these rules. There isn't a separate pool reserved for public buyers. Getting a Miner explains why the reserve and unsold allocation matter to the distribution of mining power.

As an illustration, two Miners with equal active power share equally while they're the only eligible Miners. If a third equal-power Miner activates, all three share future rewards equally. That example explains proportions, not a promised reward amount: the pool itself can vary or be zero.

How it worksLink to this section

Recorded wheel activity first has to be settled on Ethereum. Work accumulates toward completed Squeek blocks, which are units of work in this system, not Ethereum blocks. A checkpoint then processes the settled rounds, calculates rewards within their limits, and funds the pool with SQK.

The checkpoint applies mining-power changes in round order, processing earlier rounds with the old power before activating new power. Eligible Miners receive their shares, and the current NFT owner can later claim already-funded SQK to their wallet. You don't need to stake your Miner or update each NFT separately as rewards arrive.

In contract terms, Core records settled work, Mining calculates and holds rewards, and Token enforces the supply cap. Their exact calculation and interfaces are in the Mining reference.

What determines the size of the pool?Link to this section

The reward rate decreases as total recorded work reaches configured halving points. Those points follow work rather than days or Ethereum block production. Each completed Squeek block also has a reward limit, and total issuance cannot exceed the lifetime supply cap.

Rewards use a fixed 1× multiplier. There's no owner-controlled boost, idle charge, or keeper control that lets you increase it. Processing the same work in larger or smaller checkpoints doesn't change each block's reward limit or rounding rules.

A completed block's reward is reduced to the remaining supply if it would otherwise exceed the cap. No completed block, no eligible active power, a rate that has fallen to zero, or an exhausted cap can mean no new reward. A processed round isn't saved for a future owner just because it paid zero.

Which Miners share a completed block?Link to this section

Rewards belong to the round that completes the Squeek block. Partial work carries forward without a reward until a later round finishes the block, and Miners eligible in that later round share it. This can include rewards for work recorded before those Miners existed; it doesn't give them rewards from earlier completed rounds.

Newly minted Miners earn nothing before activation. After a merge, the survivor keeps both inputs' combined old power while only the extra power waits. If a checkpoint runs late, it still follows the scheduled eligibility rounds rather than giving new power a retroactive share.

Why might ready rewards lag behind work?Link to this section

Looking up a balance doesn't fund new rewards or process scheduled power changes. Minting, merging, and claiming don't do that either: a checkpoint is a separate transaction. A pause in work settlement blocks checkpoints, but doesn't by itself prevent claims of rewards already funded.

If a checkpoint fails, its changes are undone while work already settled on Ethereum remains recorded. Direct SQK transfers to the mining contract also don't fund rewards or increase your claim. See Checkpoints and pending rewards for processing delays and Supply limits and rounding for protected unpaid fractions.

Unclaimed rewards belong to the NFT and follow it on transfer. If you leave them unclaimed when you transfer a Miner, its new owner can claim them, including rewards earned while you held it.