>AgentChain

Rewards & Inflation

AgentChain uses a transparent and predictable inflation model. The block reward starts at 2 CRD and increases by 2% annually through an epoch-based system. There is no fee burning, no reward halving, and no cap on total supply. This page details exactly how rewards are calculated and what the supply trajectory looks like.

Base Block Reward

Every block on AgentChain pays the miner a base reward of 2 CRD (2,000,000,000,000,000,000 wei, or 2e18 wei). This reward is created from nothing -- it is new CRD added to the total supply.

On top of the base reward, the miner also receives 100% of the transaction fees from all transactions included in the block. Fees are not burned; they are transferred entirely to the miner.

Annual Epochs

AgentChain divides time into epochs based on block numbers rather than calendar dates. One epoch is:

5,256,000 blocks

At a target block time of 6 seconds, this works out to approximately one year:

5,256,000 blocks * 6 seconds = 31,536,000 seconds = 365.25 days

The epoch number for any given block is calculated as:

epoch = floor(blockNumber / 5,256,000)
  • Blocks 0 through 5,255,999 are in epoch 0.
  • Blocks 5,256,000 through 10,511,999 are in epoch 1.
  • Blocks 10,512,000 through 15,767,999 are in epoch 2.
  • And so on.

Reward Formula

The block reward increases by 2% at each epoch boundary. The formula is:

reward = 2e18 * (102 / 100) ^ epoch

Or equivalently:

reward = 2e18 * 1.02 ^ epoch

Where epoch = floor(blockNumber / 5,256,000).

Within a single epoch, the reward is constant for every block. When the chain crosses an epoch boundary, the reward steps up by 2%.

Implementation Detail

In the geth implementation, the exponentiation is performed using integer arithmetic to avoid floating-point precision issues. The calculation uses big.Int operations to compute (102/100)^epoch precisely in wei.

Reward Schedule: First 10 Epochs

The following table shows the block reward and approximate cumulative supply for the first 10 epochs (10 years):

| Epoch | Year | Block Reward (CRD) | Cumulative Supply (approx) | |-------|------|--------------------|---------------------------| | 0 | 1 | 2.000000 | 10,512,000 | | 1 | 2 | 2.040000 | 21,234,240 | | 2 | 3 | 2.080800 | 32,173,148 | | 3 | 4 | 2.122416 | 43,335,349 | | 4 | 5 | 2.164864 | 54,727,764 | | 5 | 6 | 2.208162 | 66,357,622 | | 6 | 7 | 2.252325 | 78,232,474 | | 7 | 8 | 2.297371 | 90,360,206 | | 8 | 9 | 2.343319 | 102,749,049 | | 9 | 10 | 2.390185 | 115,407,589 |

How to read this table:

  • Block Reward is the per-block reward during that epoch.
  • Cumulative Supply is the total CRD that has been minted through block rewards by the end of that epoch. This is calculated as the sum of block_reward * 5,256,000 for each completed epoch.

After 10 years, approximately 115.4 million CRD will have been minted through block rewards alone.

Transaction Fees as Additional Income

Transaction fees represent additional miner income beyond the block reward. Since AgentChain does not burn any fees, the total fees paid by users are redistributed to miners, not destroyed.

This means:

  • Miner income per block = block reward + sum of transaction fees in the block
  • Total supply = sum of all block rewards ever issued (fees do not affect supply since they are transfers, not creation or destruction)

In periods of high network activity, transaction fees can represent a significant portion of miner income. In periods of low activity, miners rely primarily on the block reward.

No Fee Burning

AgentChain does not implement EIP-1559-style fee burning. Every wei of gas fees paid by a transaction sender goes directly to the miner who includes that transaction.

The implications:

  • Total supply is deterministic. You can calculate the exact total supply at any block height using only the reward formula and the block number. There is no variable burn rate to account for.
  • Supply formula: total_supply(block) = sum over each epoch e from 0 to current: (blocks_in_epoch_e * reward_at_epoch_e)
  • Genesis supply is zero. AgentChain has no pre-mine, no ICO allocation, and no foundation reserve. All CRD in existence was minted through block rewards.

Comparison with Ethereum's Monetary Policy

AgentChain's approach to monetary policy differs fundamentally from Ethereum's:

| Aspect | AgentChain | Ethereum (post-Merge) | |--------|------------|----------------------| | Consensus | RandomX PoW (permanent) | Proof-of-Stake | | Block reward | 2 CRD, increasing 2%/year | ~0.02-0.06 ETH (variable, via staking yield) | | Fee handling | 100% to miner | Base fee burned, priority fee to validator | | Supply trajectory | Perpetually inflationary at 2%/year | Can be deflationary (depends on fee burn) | | Supply cap | None | None | | Predictability | Fully deterministic supply | Depends on network activity and fee levels |

Why 2% Inflation?

The 2% annual inflation rate was chosen for several reasons:

  • Sustainable miner incentives. A constant reward in nominal terms would represent a decreasing share of total supply over time, eventually making mining uneconomical. The 2% increase keeps mining rewards proportional to the growing supply.
  • Predictable monetary policy. Everyone can calculate the exact supply at any future block. There are no governance votes to change emission rates, no EIPs to debate, and no surprises.
  • Moderate inflation. At 2%, the inflation rate relative to total supply actually decreases over time. In year 1, the inflation rate is effectively infinite (supply goes from 0 to ~10.5M). By year 10, the annual inflation rate relative to existing supply is approximately 2%. Over decades, it converges to a steady ~2% annual supply growth.
  • Simplicity. The formula is trivial to understand, implement, and verify. Any participant can independently calculate the expected reward for any block number.

Calculating Expected Rewards

To estimate your mining income, you need to know your share of the total network hashrate:

daily_blocks_expected = (your_hashrate / network_hashrate) * 14,400
daily_income = daily_blocks_expected * current_block_reward

Where 14,400 is the approximate number of blocks per day (24 * 60 * 60 / 6).

For example, if you control 10% of the network hashrate during epoch 0:

daily_blocks = 0.10 * 14,400 = 1,440 blocks
daily_income = 1,440 * 2 CRD = 2,880 CRD

Keep in mind that this is an average expectation. Actual block production follows a Poisson distribution, so short-term results will vary.