Each week, the network distributes a substantial XP pool to one validator community through a weighted lottery. This creates recurring moments of excitement while rewarding validators who build active, engaged communities.
How epochs work
Every seven days marks an epoch boundary. At each boundary, one validator is selected to receive that epoch's reward pool. The selection is not purely random — validators with more active communities have proportionally higher odds of winning.
To be eligible, validators must demonstrate activity during the epoch. A validator who holds NFTs but contributes nothing to the network cannot win. This requirement filters out dormant validators and concentrates rewards among those actively participating.
How winners are selected
A validator's lottery weight reflects both their own engagement and the collective activity of their delegators. The formula combines activity metrics with the validator owner's XP multipliers, creating compounding advantages for validators who are both personally active and successful at attracting engaged delegators.
Activity is measured across multiple dimensions over a rolling seven-day window: XP spent on governance actions like voting, commenting, and reviews; trading volume in reputation markets; vouch stake amounts; and market position values. Each form of participation contributes to the activity score, rewarding validators and delegators who engage across the full breadth of network features.
The owner's multipliers — credibility score, contribution streak, validator NFT holdings, and delegation status — further amplify this activity score. A highly reputable validator with a long streak and multiple NFTs gains significant advantage over a less established competitor with similar raw activity levels.
How winnings are distributed
When a validator wins, the epoch pool splits between the validator owner and their delegators. The majority flows to delegators, distributed proportionally by each delegator's staked XP amount. The validator owner receives a smaller but meaningful share as reward for building the community that enabled the win.
This split incentivizes validators to attract delegators — more delegators means higher activity scores and better lottery odds — while ensuring delegators receive the bulk of winnings. If a validator has no delegators, the owner receives the entire pool, but such validators are unlikely to win given their lower activity scores.
Why the lottery exists
The epoch reward mechanism serves multiple purposes. It creates weekly moments of collective anticipation that maintain engagement between other reward cycles. It rewards validators for community building in a way that complements the steady delegation tax. And it introduces beneficial variance — even smaller validator communities have a chance to win, preventing complete consolidation around the largest validators.
The activity requirements ensure that epoch rewards flow to genuinely engaged communities rather than passive holders. A validator cannot simply accumulate NFTs and delegators then coast; they must continuously participate to remain eligible.