Protocol Mechanics

Consensus

Staking and Pledging

Before participating in mining, a miner must:

1. 1
   Stake $IRYS tokens as collateral
2. 2
   Pledge at least one 16TB partition of storage

The staked tokens serve as collateral against storage failures. If a miner fails to maintain its pledged partitions or fails to produce required storage proofs within the allowed time window, the stake can be partially or fully slashed.

Each pledged partition is assigned a partition ID and bound to the miner's address. The partition must be prepared through Matrix Packing before it becomes active.

Unassigned pledges are returned if the network does not require additional capacity at that time.

Useful Proof of Work (uPoW)

Irys uses Useful Proof of Work to link block production to storage verification.

To produce a block, a miner must:

• Generate a valid storage proof derived from one of its pledged partitions
• Produce a proof that satisfies the network's difficulty requirement

The proof incorporates data from the miner's prepared partition. Other nodes independently verify the proof before accepting the block.

Because block eligibility depends on valid storage proofs, mining participation is tied directly to maintaining verifiable storage.

Hashpower Distribution Limits

Mining power on Irys scales with the number of active partitions a miner maintains.

To prevent concentration of control, no single mining address may exceed 10% of total network hashpower. Because mining eligibility is tied to pledged partitions, this also limits the share of total storage capacity controlled by a single address.

The protocol is structured to discourage miners from bypassing this limit by splitting capacity across many addresses.

• Stake-activated mining
  Each mining address must be activated by staking $IRYS. Operating multiple addresses increases capital requirements.
• Graduated commitments
  Expanding storage under an existing mining address is more cost-effective than creating and maintaining additional addresses, reducing the incentive to fragment hashpower.

Together, the 10% cap and these economic constraints make concentration through address splitting increasingly expensive and operationally inefficient.

Miner Lifecycle

Mining on Irys follows a defined lifecycle.

1. Pledge and Assignment

A miner stakes tokens, pledges one or more 16TB partitions, and receives a partition ID. If the pledge is accepted, the miner prepares the partition through Matrix Packing.

2. Active Mining

Once activated, the miner participates in storage proof generation tied to its pledged partitions. When a generated proof satisfies the network's difficulty requirement, the miner may produce a block.

Block rewards are distributed proportionally based on the miner's share of active pledged partitions. A miner maintaining approximately 10% of the network's active partitions can expect to receive approximately 10% of block rewards over time.

3. Ongoing Verification

While active, a miner's partitions are subject to random storage checks as described in the storage verification section.

If a miner fails to produce a required storage proof within the defined proving window, or maintain availability of pledged data, the protocol may slash the miner's stake and reassign the affected partitions.

4. Exit

A miner may leave the network in two ways:

• Orderly exit
  The miner signals intent to leave. After a defined timeout period, partitions are reassigned and the staked tokens are returned.
• Disorderly exit
  If a miner abandons storage responsibilities or fails required proof checks, stake may be slashed and partitions reassigned without refund.

This process maintains continuity of data availability across the network.