PoA mining slots. As you know, the current status of the…
Tags: Enq, News, En, Main, Mining

As you know, the current status of the Enecuum network does not fully unlock Trinity algorithm potential. It is true both in terms of features and in terms of performance. There is still plenty of work to do. To ensure adequate responsiveness of the released features, we implement additional measures beyond Trinity described in the Technical paper.

Now we have the first project based on Enecuum mining tokens: NC. But our PoA mining is not finished yet. So, to ensure consistency of custom tokens mining, we implement so-called “mining slots” — additional rules of microblock publishing that achieve predictable emission time of the custom token in case of permanent non-zero number of miners online.

What are mining slots?

Macroblocks are issued every 15 seconds and consist of microblocks created by PoA miners. If all miners have equal probability to create a microblock, then there is no guarantee that a specific token or even a native coin will be mined in a macroblock. A mining slot is an exclusive place in a macroblock for specific token miners. It allows miners of token with a slot to compete only among themselves and not with other token miners. As the size of a macroblock is limited, these slots will be distributed on a competitive basis. At the beginning we allow 10 slots at once, but we will increase the number of slots in the future. There always will be one additional slot for a native coin (ENQ) and one random slot (any mining token can be mined with it).

How to achieve a slot for your token

As a token owner you should have top 10 ENQ available balance between other mining tokens owners, but not less than 500 000 ENQ. Slot owners will be determined during each macroblock creation, and if no one has the minimum required balance, then slots will be considered random.

If your wallet has enough available balance for a slot and owns several mining tokens, the slot will be shared between all your tokens with distribution based on the following rule: the more miners a token has, the more likely it will be mined.

Why token owner may want to reserve a slot

When you create a mining token, you determine the number of blocks to be mined. If your tokens are mined every 15 seconds like ENQ, you can predict how much time it will take to mine your token till the end of its emission. If your token miners need to compete with other token miners, it is unknown how often your tokens will be mined. So your token emission will be significantly longer than based on 15 sec per block. For some projects it is essential to have an emission curve that is predictable in time.have an emission curve that is predictable in time.

Future of mining slots

We have thought of an auction based ENQ lock for guaranteed slot reserve for a specific time. The current system may change slot users every 15 seconds based on changes in mining token owners’ available balances. This may be too volatile for business needs of token owners. As an example of a prolonged ownership you can think of Polkadot Parachain slots auction. It allows reserve slots for six month periods up to 2 years. This will be possible to implement in Enecuum network after smart contracts release. Current distribution of slots has a series of advantages over auction based system, so it is an open question to discuss. Also we think of a mechanism for reserving a slot on a “part-time” basis, like every 30 or 60 seconds blocks not 15 sec, this will make mining tokens more versatile and accessible but it needs a convenient interface to manage such part-time slots. That is a complicated task, so we will see if there is a demand for such upgrade before going deeply into it.Also we think of a mechanism for reserving a slot on a “part-time” basis, like every 30 or 60 seconds blocks not 15 sec, this will make mining tokens more versatile and accessible but it needs a convenient interface to manage such part-time slots. That is a complicated task, so we will see if there is a demand for such upgrade before going deeply into it.