mfahampshire
30 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
30 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Epochs in the Nym Network"
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description: "How epochs organize time in the Nym Network: reward distribution, topology reshuffling, SURB validity windows, and future automatic role assignment."
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schemaType: "TechArticle"
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section: "Network"
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lastUpdated: "2026-03-15"
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---
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# Epochs
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Time in the Nym Network is organized into epochs: discrete periods during which certain network operations occur. The current epoch length is one hour.
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## What happens at epoch boundaries
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**Reward distribution** calculates performance metrics for each node and distributes NYM token rewards based on routing reliability and uptime, ensuring that nodes successfully forwarding packets earn more than those with poor performance.
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**Topology rerandomization** shuffles the arrangement of nodes in each layer. This prevents long-term route prediction attacks and limits the damage from any compromised nodes. Nodes may also enter or leave the active set based on uptime monitoring and stake changes.
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## Future changes
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In upcoming releases, epochs will trigger automatic role assignment. Nodes will switch between Mix Node and Gateway roles based on network demand, without operators needing to manually configure roles.
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## SURB validity
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SURBs are tied to key rotation cycles. Node keys rotate on an odd/even schedule with a default validity of 24 epochs. A SURB remains usable for `(validity_epochs + 1) * epoch_duration`, roughly 25 hours at the current 1-hour epoch. After that, the routing keys it was built with are no longer accepted by the network. Clients automatically purge stale SURBs and request fresh ones.
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## Querying epoch information
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Current epoch data is available through Nyx blockchain queries and Nym API endpoints.
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