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Introduction

CBY is the native token of the Cowboy protocol, serving as the fundamental unit of value for transaction fees, validator stakes, and governance. The tokenomics are designed to balance security, utility, and long-term sustainability.
CBY participates in dual EIP‑1559 fee burn for both Cycles and Cells (CIP‑3); off‑chain compute payments are market‑priced in CBY (CIP‑2/3).

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Token Utility

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1. Transaction Fees (Gas)

Primary utility: Pay for on-chain execution How it works: 
# 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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2. Validator Participation (Scope Note)

  • Validators participate in HotStuff-style PoS consensus. Economic details (minimum stake, reward rates, slashing parameters) are governed and out of scope for this document.

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3. Runner Payments (CIP‑2 / CIP‑3)

  • Off‑chain compute fees are market‑priced in CBY per runner; the protocol does not meter off‑chain work as gas. (CIP‑3)
  • Developers specify payment_per_runner and required proofs; Runners accept or skip based on economics. (CIP‑2)

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4. Governance (Scope Note)

  • Governance and treasury processes are outside the normative scope of the whitepaper/CIPs referenced here and may be specified via future proposals.

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Supply and Fees (Normative Elements)

  • Basefee burn: For each included transaction, the basefee portion of fees (Cycles and Cells) is 100% burned. (CIP‑3)
  • Tips: The tip portion is paid to the validator (block proposer). (CIP‑3)
  • Total supply, distributions, and issuance schedules are governance‑defined and not specified in the referenced whitepaper/CIPs.

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Economic Flows (Informative)

  • Users pay transaction fees in CBY; basefee burn links token value to network usage. (CIP‑3)
  • Off‑chain compute payments are denominated in CBY on a market basis; not part of gas. (CIP‑2 / CIP‑3)

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Distribution (Scope Note)

  • The exact shares to proposers/treasury are implementation/governance choices. Only the basefee burn is normative per CIP‑3.

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Staking (Scope Note)

  • Staking economics (minimums, APY, slashing) are outside the normative scope of CIP‑1/2/3; specific parameters are governance‑defined.

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Governance (Scope Note)

  • Governance processes (voting power, parameters, procedures) are subject to separate proposals and are not normatively defined here.

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Security (Scope Note)

  • Security economics (attack costs, slashing schedules) are out of scope for this document and will be specified via governance and security CIPs.

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Sustainability (Informative)

  • Dual basefee burn ties token value to network usage; long‑term sustainability depends on adoption and governance‑defined issuance.

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Comparative Notes (Non‑Normative)

  • Cowboy adopts a dual‑meter, dual‑basefee burn model (CIP‑3). Direct numerical comparisons to other protocols’ tokenomics are out of scope here.

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Further Reading