How rewards work
Rewards are earned based on how effectively your station contributes to the network. In short: the better your station’s placement and uptime, the more WINGS tokens you’ll earn.
Overview
Data Contributed
The source of your rewards are only positional messages (from the decoding software used) contributed by your stations (using the Wingbits client) to the network.
All other message types are not sent to the network, as they do not currently contain desirable data for the network.
A discrepancy is visible when comparing tar1090 message rates vs input/server message rates on the station's Statistics tab. Instead you should compare positional message rates from graphs1090 to the input/server message rates.
Rewards
Your station earns daily rewards from multiple sources:
Base Network Rewards
Early Participant Rewards (EPR)
Additional Rewards (e.g., Low Altitude rewards)
Each of these is explained in detail below in the various rewards sections.
Base Rewards
Every day 24 WINGS tokens are added for each coverage hex to that day's global Base Rewards pool, as long as that hex has at least 100 messages contributed from a single station.
As the network grows and covers more unique hexes, the daily global base rewards pool increases.
However, adding a station contributing to already-covered hexes does not increase the global pool, but dilutes pool rewards by one more station.
Your station's share of the total daily Base Rewards pool is determined by:
The importance of the hexes your station contributes to, calculated using a network hex PageRank
Your station’s individual network ranking, calculated using a network stations PageRank
To earn Base rewards:
Your station must contribute above 100 messages for coverage hexes, within the 24-hour period rewards period, to be included in the PageRank calculation related to that hex.
Read more about the PageRank algorithm use in our network.
Example Base Rewards for a day:
If 10,000 res 3 coverage hexes have contributions for the day -> 10,000 hexes x 24 WINGS = 240,000 WINGS to be distributed from the daily base rewards pool among all stations.
Also if 2400 stations and 10,000 hexes all had equal pagerank values (impossible - but easier math), rewards would be 100 WINGS per station (240,000 WINGS / 2400 stations = 100 WINGS).
Early Participant Rewards (EPR)
EPR is designed to benefit early contributors. Here’s how it works:
Your station earns 2 WINGS per covered hex per day.
This reward applies during the first year after mainnet launch, plus all time before mainnet.
After year one, it decreases by 10% annually and ends entirely after 5 years post-mainnet.
To earn EPR:
Your station must contribute above 100 messages to the hex within the 24-hour period, to qualify for EPR for that hex.
The station’s message count in the hex must exceed the bottom 10th percentile of the global distribution of message counts per hex across all stations.
Low Altitude Rewards (LA rewards?)
Low Altitude rewards are coming soon. Details will be published once they are enabled.
Bonus for Pre-Mainnet Contributors
Those stations contributing prior to mainnet launch can also earn a bonus on their retroactive rewards, which you can read about on Beta phase retroactive rewards and potential bonus.
Final Comments
Having a station located near a major airport, especially with line of sight to runways, is the ideal placement to generate earnings from Low Altitude Rewards.
Clear line of sight to the horizon, for 360 degrees and above all nearby obstacles, will increase your Early Participant Rewards.
Finally, keeping your system online 24/7 will maximize your contributions and reflect in increased Base Rewards daily versus a station that does not stay online 24/7.
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