Economics¶

SolanaVault implements a sustainable economic model that incentivizes network participation while keeping costs low for users.

For complete token distribution, vesting schedules, and governance details, see the Tokenomics Documentation.

Overview¶

The economic model has three key participants:

Participant	Role	Incentive
Light Clients	Consume data	Pay for access
Gateway Operators	Serve requests	Earn fees (95%)
Storage Nodes	Store data, consensus	Earn rewards

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         Token Flow                               │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                  │
│   Light Clients                                                  │
│        │                                                         │
│        │ Pay micro-tokens                                        │
│        ▼                                                         │
│   ┌─────────────────────┐                                       │
│   │   Payment Pool      │                                       │
│   └─────────┬───────────┘                                       │
│             │                                                    │
│    ┌────────┴────────┐                                          │
│    │                 │                                          │
│    ▼                 ▼                                          │
│   95%               5%                                          │
│ Gateway          Network                                        │
│ Revenue          Fund                                           │
│    │                 │                                          │
│    │                 └──► Protocol development                  │
│    │                 └──► Bug bounties                          │
│    │                 └──► Grants                                │
│    │                                                            │
│    └──► Operator earnings                                       │
│                                                                  │
│   Storage Nodes ◄──── Consensus Rewards (separate pool)        │
│                                                                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Pricing Model¶

Base Fees¶

All fees are denominated in micro-tokens (μ):

Request Type	Base Fee	Data Fee
getSlot	100μ	-
getBlock	100μ	50μ/KB
getTransaction	100μ	50μ/KB
getAccountInfo	100μ	50μ/KB
getBlockHeight	100μ	-
getEpochInfo	100μ	-

Price Calculation¶

Total Cost = Base Fee + (Data Size × Data Fee) × Modifiers

Example:

Request: getBlock (2 MB response)
Base Fee: 100μ
Data Fee: 50μ × 2048 KB = 102,400μ
Total: 102,500μ

Modifiers¶

Modifier	Multiplier	Condition
Priority	1.5x	Request flagged as priority
Real-time	2.0x	Latest block data
Historical	0.8x	Data older than 24 hours
Cached	0.5x	Served from cache

Volume Discounts¶

High-volume users receive discounts:

Monthly Requests	Discount
0 - 10,000	0%
10,001 - 100,000	10%
100,001 - 1,000,000	20%
1,000,000+	25%

Surge Pricing¶

During high demand, prices increase:

fn calculate_surge_multiplier(utilization: f64) -> f64 {
    match utilization {
        u if u < 0.7 => 1.0,      // Normal
        u if u < 0.8 => 1.2,      // Elevated
        u if u < 0.9 => 1.5,      // High
        _ => 2.0,                  // Critical
    }
}

Revenue Distribution¶

Gateway Revenue¶

Gateways receive 95% of all fees they serve:

Client pays: 1,000μ for request
├── Gateway receives: 950μ (95%)
└── Network fund: 50μ (5%)

Network Fund (5%)¶

The network fund supports:

Allocation	Percentage	Purpose
Protocol Development	40%	Core team, infrastructure
Bug Bounties	20%	Security researchers
Ecosystem Grants	30%	Community projects
Emergency Reserve	10%	Unexpected costs

Staking and Consensus Rewards¶

Staking¶

Storage nodes stake tokens to participate:

Stake Tier	Minimum	Benefits
Bronze	1,000	Basic participation
Silver	10,000	1.2x rewards
Gold	100,000	1.5x rewards, priority routing
Platinum	1,000,000	2x rewards, governance

Consensus Rewards¶

Nodes earn rewards for honest consensus participation:

Daily Reward = Base Reward × Stake Weight × Uptime × Reputation

Where:
  Base Reward = Network emission / Active validators
  Stake Weight = Your stake / Total stake
  Uptime = Hours online / 24
  Reputation = 0.0 to 1.0 based on history

Example:

Base Reward: 10,000 tokens/day shared among validators
Your Stake: 50,000 tokens
Total Stake: 5,000,000 tokens
Uptime: 99.5%
Reputation: 0.95

Daily Reward = 10,000 × (50,000/5,000,000) × 0.995 × 0.95
             = 10,000 × 0.01 × 0.995 × 0.95
             = 94.5 tokens/day

Slashing¶

Malicious behavior results in stake slashing:

Violation	Slash Amount	Cooldown
Double voting	10%	7 days
Data corruption	20%	30 days
Extended downtime (>24h)	1%/day	None
Invalid proposals	5%	3 days

Light Client Economics¶

Balance Management¶

Light clients maintain a token balance:

# Check balance
vault-light-client balance

# Add tokens
vault-light-client balance add 50000

# Set low balance alert
vault-light-client balance alert --threshold 10000

Cost Optimization¶

Tips for minimizing costs:

Enable caching: Repeated requests cost 50% less
Use historical data: 20% cheaper than real-time
Batch requests: Reduces overhead
Monitor spending: Set daily limits

[light_client.cost_optimization]
cache_enabled = true
prefer_historical = true
max_daily_spend = 100000

Estimating Costs¶

Typical costs per operation:

Use Case	Requests/Day	Est. Daily Cost
Personal wallet	100	10,000μ
Small dApp	10,000	500,000μ
Block explorer	100,000	5,000,000μ
Analytics platform	1,000,000	40,000,000μ

Gateway Economics¶

Profitability Analysis¶

Gateway profitability depends on:

Factor	Impact
Request volume	More requests = more revenue
Average fee	Higher fees (larger responses) = more revenue
Operating costs	Server, bandwidth, maintenance
Competition	Pricing pressure from other gateways

Example P&L¶

Monthly Revenue:
  Requests: 10,000,000
  Avg fee: 500μ
  Gross: 5,000,000,000μ
  Gateway share (95%): 4,750,000,000μ

Monthly Costs:
  Server: 500,000,000μ
  Bandwidth: 200,000,000μ
  Maintenance: 100,000,000μ
  Total: 800,000,000μ

Net Profit: 3,950,000,000μ

Competitive Strategies¶

Lower prices: Attract volume
Better performance: Faster = preferred
Higher reliability: More uptime = more trust
Geographic advantage: Lower latency for local clients

Storage Node Economics¶

Revenue Streams¶

Storage nodes earn from:

Source	Description
Consensus rewards	Participation in BFT
Storage fees	Storing data for the network
Serving fees	Responding to data requests

Cost Structure¶

Cost	Monthly Estimate
Server (8 core, 32GB)	200,000,000μ
Storage (1TB NVMe)	100,000,000μ
Bandwidth (1TB)	50,000,000μ
Electricity	30,000,000μ
Total	380,000,000μ

Break-even Analysis¶

Required daily revenue = Monthly costs / 30
                      = 380,000,000 / 30
                      = 12,666,667μ/day

At 0.001 tokens/day/stake reward rate:
Required stake = 12,666,667 / 1000
               = 12,667 tokens (minimum viable stake)

Token Metrics¶

Supply¶

Metric	Value
Total Supply	1,000,000,000 VAULT
Circulating (at TGE)	~80,000,000 VAULT (8%)
Network Rewards	400,000,000 VAULT (40%)
Ecosystem Fund	200,000,000 VAULT (20%)
Team & Advisors	150,000,000 VAULT (15%)
Private Sale	100,000,000 VAULT (10%)
Public Sale	50,000,000 VAULT (5%)
Treasury	70,000,000 VAULT (7%)
Liquidity	30,000,000 VAULT (3%)

See Tokenomics for complete vesting schedules.

Emission Schedule¶

Year 1: 10% of total supply for rewards
Year 2: 8% of total supply
Year 3: 6% of total supply
Year 4+: 4% of total supply (steady state)

Deflationary Mechanisms¶

Mechanism	Effect
Fee burning	1% of all fees burned
Slashing	Slashed stakes are burned
Unused funds	Returned to treasury

Economic Security¶

Attack Cost Analysis¶

Attack	Required Resources	Cost
51% consensus	51% of stake	Very high
Sybil (1000 nodes)	1000 × min stake	High
Eclipse single node	Network presence	Medium

Incentive Alignment¶

The economic model ensures:

Honest behavior is profitable: Rewards exceed attack gains
Attacks are expensive: Slashing makes attacks costly
Long-term alignment: Stake lockups prevent hit-and-run

Configuration¶

Gateway Pricing¶

[economics.gateway]
base_fee = 100
data_fee_per_kb = 50
priority_multiplier = 1.5
surge_enabled = true
volume_discounts = [
    { threshold = 10000, discount = 0.10 },
    { threshold = 100000, discount = 0.20 },
    { threshold = 1000000, discount = 0.25 },
]

Node Staking¶

[economics.staking]
minimum_stake = 1000
unbonding_period_days = 14
reward_claim_cooldown_hours = 24

Next Steps¶

Network Protocol - How payments flow through the network
Gateway Operators Guide - Start earning
Full Node Setup - Run a storage node
Light Client Guide - Optimize spending