Introduction
Understanding where fees go, how rewards are distributed, and how value accrues is crucial for all Cowboy participants. This page visualizes and explains the complete value flow in the ecosystem.
Basefee for Cycles and Cells is burned (CIP‑3); tips go to the validator (block proposer). Off‑chain job fees are paid in CBY separately and are market‑priced (CIP‑2/3).
High-Level Flow (Conceptual)
Per-Transaction Flow (Normative Parts)
On-Chain Transaction
When a user submits a transaction:
# CIP‑3 (dual meters), per resource x ∈ [Cycles, Cells]
basefee_component_x = usage_x × basefee_x
effective_tip_rate_x = min(tip_per_x, max_fee_per_x − basefee_x)
tip_component_x = usage_x × effective_tip_rate_x
Total fee = Σ_x (basefee_component_x + tip_component_x)
# Basefee components are burned; tip components go to the validator
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Basefee:
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Tip:
- Paid to the validator (block proposer) (CIP‑3)
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Protocol Fees:
- Any treasury/fee allocations are governance/implementation‑specific (non‑normative)
Per-Block Flow (Conceptual)
Off-Chain Compute Flow (CIP‑2)
- Payments are market‑priced and denominated in CBY per runner (CIP‑2/3).
Scope Notes
- Issuance/inflation schedules and validator reward splits are governance‑defined and out of scope for this document. Any numerical examples must be specified via separate proposals.
- Direct numerical comparisons to other protocols’ tokenomics are out of scope; Cowboy’s normative mechanisms here are the dual meters and dual basefee burn (CIP‑3).
Interactive Flow Visualization
User Transaction
Runner Job
Summary
- Basefee (Cycles/Cells) is burned; tips go to the validator (CIP‑3).
- Off‑chain job payments are market‑priced in CBY and handled separately (CIP‑2/3).
- Issuance/treasury specifics are governance‑defined (scope notes).
Further Reading
