Lock-ins

#The rule

Each seat has a lock-in in days (lockDays in TIERS, lib/chain/curve.ts). The smaller the seat, the longer the lock. The values are in the "Mined MLX unlocks after" column:

When an hour is paid, the ledger works out each wallet's lock from the seats it holds at that moment (computeLockDays):

• with one or more dedicated seats: the shortest lockDays among them;
• with none: COMPUTE_FREE_LOCK_DAYS, 30 days.

The unlock time is counted from the start of the UTC day the hour belongs to (computeUnlockAt):

day   = the hour's start, rounded down to 00:00 UTC
until = max(day, MAINNET_LAUNCH) + lockDays × 24 h

So MLX mined in any hour of a day unlocks at the same moment. MLX mined before mainnet counts from mainnet.

#One lock per day

A wallet's mined MLX is one compute lock per UTC day (Lock.kind: "compute", with from set to the day). Each hour's payout is added to its day's lock. If a later hour of the same day comes with a shorter lock-in (the wallet bought a seat that day), the whole day takes the shorter date. A lock never gets longer.

{ kind: "compute", amount: <base units>, from: <the day, ms>, until: <unlock time, ms>, node: 0 }

#Release

A lock past its until is plain MLX. The ledger folds every compute lock that has passed its date into the wallet's MLX balance whenever the account is next written (matureCompute in lib/chain/ledger.ts). It does the same for every kind of lock before a transfer, a spot trade or a seat paid from the wallet (settleLocks). Nothing has to be claimed.

Until then, locked MLX can't be sent, sold, or used to pay for a seat. Transfers and sales take only the unlocked balance.

#Other locks

Seats bought since SEAT_REWARD_END_AT were paid nothing up front, so they hold no node lock. Their seat record still carries an unlockAt date.

#Version history

Lock rules are versioned by transaction time, so the chain replays exactly.

Version 1. From the start of compute rewards, mined MLX was locked for COMPUTE_LOCK_MONTHS_V1 months from the day it was earned. Seat rewards were locked for their tier's lockMonths from purchase.

Version 2, from LOCKS_V2_AT. The day rules above. Transactions before that time keep the month rules when they replay.

The relock transaction. Once LOCKS_V2_AT had passed, the produce cron sent one relock system transaction (relockOnce in lib/chain/ledger.ts, guarded by relock:v2 in the ledger store). It re-dated every lock made under the month rules:

• node and referral locks: to the earlier of their old date and the seat's day-rule date;
• compute locks still on the month rule: the day they were earned is recovered from the old date, then the lock takes the earlier of the old date and the day-rule date for the wallet's current seats;
• seat records: their unlockAt the same way.

Nothing was locked longer than before. A second relock fails with "Already re-dated".

Lock-ins are protocol parameters. They may be made longer for new locks later, with a new version cutover. Existing locks keep their dates.