Incentive mechanisms

Every subnet needs an incentive mechanism, and the subnet owner has to design it. It is the set of rules that says what work miners must do, how validators check that work, and how those checks turn into scores.

The mechanism lives off-chain, in code that the owner maintains and that miners and validators run. The chain never sees the work itself. It receives the scores validators submit and pays out rewards according to them.

That makes the design important. Miners compete to score as high as they can, so if a shortcut can fool the validators, miners will find it. A mechanism that rewards real, useful work attracts miners, validators and stake. A weak one attracts fewer of each, which hurts the subnet's economics.

When you look at a subnet, it is worth asking what its miners are asked to do, how that is measured, and whether the score is hard to game.