How rewards work.
Points, not promises. Each kind of work earns points in a reward program; points wait out a review hold, then share in an epoch’s budget. Every step is an entry in an auditable ledger that you can trace to the contribution behind it.
From contribution to payout
- AcceptedYour contribution passes its checks and is credited points under the versioned reward policy of the mission it belongs to.
- HeldNew points wait out the program’s review hold. Late checks and reviews can still reduce or reverse them; a reversal is a new ledger entry, never an edit.
- ReleasedOnce the hold has passed, the points count towards the next epoch of their program.
- AllocatedWhen the epoch is approved, its budget is shared out across the released points.
- Paid outNot started. Cash payouts have not started: settlement runs as a dry run that previews what would be paid and moves no funds. Payout eligibility, conversion rules and timing will be announced before cash payouts begin.
Programs, holds and epochs
Each path earns in one program. A program sets how long new points are held and how often its epochs close.
| Program | Paths | Review hold | Epoch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simulation | Simulation, real-to-sim scanning | 3 days | Daily |
| Real-world data | Ego-centric capture; UMI demonstrations when they open | 7 days | Weekly |
- Real-to-sim scanning has its own sub-pool inside this program, so scans do not compete with teleoperation for the same share.
- Compute has no reward program yet.
- In an epoch, each pool’s budget is shared pro rata by released points, and no one person receives more than 10% of a pool. What is not allocated stays in the program’s reserve.
- Practice contributions, work made by an agent, and work from a phone that has not passed hardware attestation (trust level 1) or has been blocked earn nothing. Practice is how you learn without risk.
- A hold on your account (an open fraud case, a blocked phone, a restricted account) keeps your points pending until it is resolved.
Who approves an epoch
No one person can move rewards on their own.
Proposed, then approved
A staff member proposes the epoch’s allocation; someone else approves it. The proposer can never approve their own proposal.
Two approvers when it is large
Allocations above a size threshold need two different approvers.
Stale means start again
If credits, holds or settings change after a proposal, approval is refused until it is proposed again.
Reconciled
Every allocation must sum to its budget and match the ledger entry that posted it; the platform checks both.
Payout wallets
The platform pays out to a Bittensor coldkey that you prove is yours. You can link one now; nothing is paid until cash payouts begin.
- Link in the consoleWallets are linked at app.robotensor.ai in a browser, never in the phone app.
- Sign a messageYou are given a one-time message to sign with the coldkey (for example with btcli wallet sign). It expires after 10 minutes. The address must be a valid SS58 address, and one coldkey can belong to one account only.
- 72 hoursA newly linked wallet receives nothing for 72 hours. Every link, change and unlink sends you a security notice (by email unless you change it), so a stolen session cannot quietly redirect your payouts.
How your work is verified
Rewards attract cheating, so trust is layered. Honest work passes these checks without you noticing most of them; you see a clear result and, if something failed, why.
- DeviceThe phone proves it is a genuine, unmodified device running our app (Android key attestation today; Apple App Attest on iPhone next). Practice devices never earn.
- Live captureVideo and sensor segments are hash-chained as they upload, with timing rules and random challenges. A gap, a replay or a commit that arrives too fast voids the capture.
- Automatic checksVideo against motion sensors, tilt, light and sharpness, hands in frame, faces and text for redaction, and a duplicate search against everything already submitted.
- PeopleAnything uncertain goes to a reviewer, one keystroke per decision. A rejection goes back to the contributor with the reason.
- Contributor recordTiers grow with accepted work; fraud cases freeze a contributor’s pending rewards while they are investigated.
- Reward holdsCredits wait out a hold window before an epoch closes. Reversals are new ledger entries, never edits; large actions need two people.