The Epoch
Seven days open, then it seals. Nothing pays out while an epoch is running, and nothing is lost when it ends.
Epoch 1
Seals in 0d 00h 00m- Block this epoch
- 1,000,000 PONM
- Work proved so far
- 0
- Miners
- 0
- Proofs
- 0
The block halves every 26 epochs, which is roughly every six months. An epoch with no work mints nothing at all, so the schedule cannot run ahead of the mining.
Four steps, then it repeats
The seam opens
Each seam carries a difficulty and a fixed slice of the block, set when it opened.
Miners work it
Every accepted proof credits its sender with that seam's difficulty as work on that seam, for this epoch.
The epoch seals
When the clock runs out the totals are fixed. Nothing submitted afterwards counts toward it.
The block is split
Each seam's slice goes to the addresses that worked it, by work. A seam nobody worked mints nothing. Claim whenever you like.
Why it is split rather than paid per proof
Paying a fixed reward per proof means the mint rate follows the hash rate, and a mine that gets popular over-issues. Splitting a fixed block means the schedule is the schedule: the supply curve is known in advance and hash rate only decides who takes what.
It also makes the mine honest about what it is. Nobody is promised a number. You are promised a share of a block whose size was fixed before anyone started.