How a node works.

The mechanism, end to end, in the order it runs. If a number here disagrees with the app, the app is right and this is a bug worth reporting.

The node

A node is a machine you own inside the app. It fills a tank on its own clock, you clear the tank to move what it holds into your balance, and it wears while you do. Five builds exist, from the free Ember to Apex, and each is the same hexagon built to a different standard.

A licensed machine runs for a fixed term measured in days. At the end of the term it stops and the licence is spent. Everything a node draws in that time is yours as it lands, not at the end.

The shift

A shift is a day of work: the tank fills, you clear it, and at midnight the day is settled. Midnight is midnight where you are, not a single hour for everybody, and the timezone is read from your device when you first sign in.

A day counts as worked when it passes two tests at settlement, on capture and on health. That is the day that advances your level, feeds your streak, and counts toward anybody who invited you.

The tank

A licensed tank fills in two hours twenty-four minutes, and the free one in three hours. When it is full it stops filling, so a machine left alone is a machine doing nothing: the shape of a day is several visits rather than one.

One tap moves a six-hundredth of the tank and costs one unit of energy. Six hundred taps clear a full tank, and energy returns over the day. Capacity and multi-tap, both bought with XP, change what those six hundred taps are worth.

The pool

There is one pot a day, and every live node draws from it in proportion to weight. Weight comes from what the machine carries and how long it has been running, so a bigger machine and a longer tenure both draw more of the same pot.

The pot never pays out more than it holds. That is the property the whole design exists to keep, and it is why no rate on this site is a promise: what a node draws on a given day depends on how many machines are running that day. The app publishes the pot, the total weight and your share of it on the wallet screen, in the order the sum runs, so a payout is something you can check rather than something you are told.

Wear and repair

Health comes off when you clear the tank, never while the machine sits. The cost of running is counted in work done rather than in days elapsed, and a worn machine is a quieter one, because health is a term in what a node draws.

It cannot fall forever. Every machine has a floor it stops at, and the more expensive ones both wear slower and stop higher. Repairs are bought with XP and the price follows what the machine carries.

The range

Five machines. Entry is what it costs to take one on, term is how many days it runs, and cooling is how much health one cleared tank takes off.

Ember: Free, no term and no licence, power 1, wear 1.125% a tank, floor 40%, 1,000 taps a day. Moulded shell, one vent, sealed port.
Watt: 0.10 SOL, 20 day term, power 0.937, wear 1% a tank, floor 40%, 2,500 taps a day. Moulded polymer, two bolts, no trim of any kind.
Spark: 0.25 SOL, 30 day term, power 1, wear 0.9% a tank, floor 40%, 6,000 taps a day. Stamped steel with polymer inserts, six blades.
Core: 0.75 SOL, 45 day term, power 1.065, wear 0.75% a tank, floor 45%, 6,000 taps a day. Machined aluminium, milled fin stack, nine blades.
Apex: 1.50 SOL, 60 day term, power 1.159, wear 0.6% a tank, floor 50%, 6,000 taps a day. Single-block CNC aluminium, vapour chamber, twelve blades.

Each of the five comes in five finishes. A finish is the surface and nothing else: it changes no figure in the table above.

XP

XP is the in-game figure you spend on the machine. It is not money, it has no cash value, and it cannot be transferred, sold back or withdrawn. It buys repairs, capacity, multi-tap, energy and finishes.

It is earned by working shifts, by clearing the objectives on the Earn board, by watching a rewarded ad, and by the recruits you bring in. What XP can create in capital is metered against revenue that has actually arrived, which is why the free tier is a trial rather than a second economy.

Levels

Level is counted in qualifying shifts and it does one thing: it raises the ceiling on how much capital an account may carry. It is not rank, and it cannot be bought.

Level 1: from the start, ceiling 2 SOL.
Level 2: 3 qualifying shifts, ceiling 4 SOL.
Level 3: 7 qualifying shifts, ceiling 8 SOL.
Level 4: 16 qualifying shifts, ceiling 15 SOL.
Level 5: 30 qualifying shifts, ceiling 30 SOL.
Level 6: 45 qualifying shifts, ceiling 60 SOL.
Level 7: 60 qualifying shifts, ceiling 120 SOL.
Level 8: 80 qualifying shifts, ceiling 250 SOL.
Level 9: 105 qualifying shifts, ceiling 500 SOL.
Level 10: 135 qualifying shifts, ceiling 1,000 SOL.

Rank

Rank touches nothing. Not weight, not rates, not wear, not what you are allowed to buy. It is worth having because there is no cheapest path to it, and it rides on your own face everywhere the board shows you.

It is counted in rungs off seven boards, three tiers each, twenty-one in total: Hand at 3, Technician at 6, Machinist at 10, Foreman at 14, Chief at 18, Master at 21.

Squads

Anybody who starts from your link joins your squad. Nothing is paid for the signup itself. A recruit counts once they have activated, which takes three things:

Four quests cleared. Verified ones, off the Earn board. Signing up is not one of them.
Three operating days. A day counts only when the shift was worked and the machine was kept in condition, and three of them cannot happen in fewer than three days.
Three thousand taps, or a machine bought. Either the work or the commitment. One or the other, never neither.

What they work then counts toward you for as long as they run, and the ladder pays again at 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 recruits. Every fortnight the board closes, pays ten squads on activations inside the period, and starts again from nothing. Three activations in the period is the floor to be ranked at all.

The wallet

SOL goes in and SOL comes out, at your own address on Solana. The least you can send or take out is 0.05 SOL, a withdrawal costs 2%, and taking SOL out needs a six digit code you set yourself. Most withdrawals land on-chain in seconds; a newly added destination waits before it can be paid.

The same screen carries every movement the account has made, SOL and XP together, and the figures your own draw is worked out from. Deposits and withdrawals are ordinary Solana transactions: public, permanent, and impossible for anybody to reverse.

The free machine

Ember runs with no term and no licence, and it is a trial rather than a tier that lasts. It fills in three hours where a licensed machine fills in two hours twenty-four minutes, it wears fastest in the range, it taps out a thousand times a day against six thousand, and what it banks is held apart from the balance a licensed machine pays into.

It exists so you can work a shift, see how the loop feels, and buy a machine only if you decide you want one. The app is here, and the channel carries every change worth knowing about.