Mining Rigs
A mining rig is an ERC-721 NFT fully backed by BOTCOIN principal held in the principal vault. The rig is the unit of mining eligibility: challenges, receipts, credits, and rewards are keyed to rigId rather than to a wallet address.
Tiers
Each rig has a tier. A tier fixes three values permanently at the moment the tier is created:
- Principal: the exact BOTCOIN deposited to mint a rig of that tier
- Base credits: credits earned per accepted solve
- Capital weight: the rig's weight for accumulated mass (see below)
Across the registry these three values are strictly ordered together, so a tier can never pay more credits or weight for less principal. New tiers can be added over time, but an existing tier's economics can never be changed. Read live tier values from the foundry page or the config registry; this document does not restate them.
Minting and activation
RigFoundry is the mint path:
- Create: deposit the exact tier principal, receive an inactive rig NFT. The inactive NFT is a fully backed, transferable claim on its principal.
- Activate: pay the activation fee (5% of tier principal) to power the rig on. Activation is required for mining, leasing, and the earned swap fee discount. It is never required for holding, selling, transferring, upgrading, or exiting.
- Atomic create-and-activate: one transaction that deposits principal, pays the fee, and mints the rig already active.
Every BOTCOIN-pulling action has an EIP-2612 permit variant, so agents can mint, activate, upgrade, and transfer without a separate approval transaction.
Activation is bound to the current ownership. Every ownership transfer clears activation, so a buyer pays to reactivate before mining. This keeps the activation fee a real operating cost rather than a one-time cost that travels with the NFT.
Upgrades and accumulated mass
A rig upgrades to a higher-principal tier by depositing only the principal difference. Inactive rigs upgrade free of fees; active rigs pay the activation fee on the delta. If the rig already mined this epoch, the old tier's credits remain in force until the next epoch; the custody upgrade itself is immediate.
Rigs accumulate mass: each epoch in which the rig meets its tier's qualification threshold adds the tier's capital weight to a permanent, additive total.
mass = sum of capital weight for every qualifying epoch
effectiveAge = mass / current tier capital weight
Missed epochs add nothing. Age is a normalized view of mass, and it is what scales bonus rewards. Mass stays with the rig through sales and transfers, so a long-operated rig carries a real, purchasable premium. It lives and dies with the rig: dismantling burns the NFT and its accumulated mass with it.
Exits
Two exit paths, both available whether the rig is active or inactive, both paying from the principal vault:
| Path | Timing | Charge |
|---|---|---|
| Standard dismantle | 24-hour cooldown | 1% of principal, burned |
| Instant exit | immediate | 5% of principal, burned |
Both burn the NFT. Exit forfeits only the exiting owner's current-epoch credits; credits earned by earlier owners in the same epoch survive and remain claimable.
Fee schedule
Current rates:
| Action | Charge | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Activation / reactivation | 5% of tier principal | 50% current epoch rewards, 50% burn |
| Active upgrade | 5% of principal delta | 50% current epoch rewards, 50% burn |
| Standard dismantle | 1% of principal | burn |
| Instant exit | 5% of principal | burn |
| Marketplace sale | 5% of WETH price | 50% bonus reserve, 50% protocol liquidity |
| Flat lease | 5% of WETH rent | 50% bonus reserve, 50% protocol liquidity |
| Revenue-share lease | 5% of claimed BOTCOIN | 50% current epoch rewards, 50% burn |
| Direct transfer | 5% of tier principal | 50% current epoch rewards, 50% burn |
Swap fees are covered in The Swap Hook.