Epochs and rewards

Epoch clock

Auteur runs in fixed 48-hour epochs.

epoch = floor((timestamp - genesisStart) / 48 hours) + 1

The deployed vault uses:

• genesisStart: 1786302898
• UTC time: 2026-08-09 19:14:58 UTC
• duration: 172800 seconds (48 hours)

The backend and contract share the same clock. A new epoch cannot be snapshotted until the previous epoch has been settled.

Emission ceilings

The vault's default schedule defines a maximum creditable amount per epoch:

The controller permits per-epoch overrides, including a lower or zero budget, but never more than 80M AUTEUR. A ceiling is a limit, not a promise that the full amount will be distributed. The vault must have enough tokens to cover all credits.

Author, curator, and backer pools

For epochs with backing rewards enabled, the ceiling is split:

• one third to authors;
• one half to curators;
• the remaining one sixth to backers.

In integer base units:

author pool = floor(epoch ceiling / 3)
curator pool = floor(epoch ceiling / 2)
backer pool = epoch ceiling - author pool - curator pool

At an 80M ceiling, this is approximately 26.67M for authors, 40M for curators, and 13.33M for backers. Integer rounding keeps the three pools equal to the ceiling in total.

Earlier epochs and rollout

Epochs settled without backing rewards use the earlier one-third author / two-thirds curator policy. Epoch 9 was settled under that policy; opening a backing position did not change its distribution.

The backend applies backing rewards only when BACKING_REWARDS_ENABLED=true and the epoch reaches BACKING_REWARDS_START_EPOCH (default: 10). The Back button's visibility is a separate setting. Showing positions or enabling the interface does not retroactively add rewards to a finalized epoch.

Author allocation

The author pool is divided equally across every funded work in the epoch.

If an author has multiple funded works, each work receives its own equal author allocation. Author discovery multipliers do not increase the author's direct author reward; they affect how the curator pool is distributed around that author's work.

Curator allocation

The nominal curator amount per funded work begins as:

nominal curator bucket = floor(curator pool / number of funded works)

Only funded works with eligible, non-self curator power participate in curator distribution. Their combined fixed curator budget is then:

1. redistributed between works using the author-discovery multiplier;
2. divided among each work's curators using their effective entry-discovery weight.

Discovery never increases the epoch ceiling. It changes relative shares inside a fixed pool.

Remainders

Integer division, works without rewardable curator power, and other non-distributable amounts can leave part of the ceiling unallocated. Those tokens remain in the vault as surplus rather than being silently assigned elsewhere.

Backing eligibility and relative weights depend on active positions on funded auteurs. The planned payout-limit update will distribute only the earned, unlocked portion of the backer budget and retain the remainder in the rewards vault. This update is not yet deployed; its exact limits and activation epoch are still to be specified. There is no live Call Pot or automatic caller allocation in this policy.

Settlement and claiming

After an epoch ends, moderation fixes the funded set and the backend prepares the reward ledger. The operator submits recipient batches through the rewards controller, then finalizes the epoch. Author, curator, and backer rewards all become claimable in the same rewards vault.

The epoch ending is not itself a successful settlement. Claims require actual onchain credits. Estimated rewards shown inside a work can change and are not amounts already owed by the vault.