6. Rewards Pool

6.1 Purpose of the Rewards Pool

The Rewards Pool, representing 35% of the total supply ($M87CS), is the central engine of the ecosystem. Its function is to convert real activity into token distribution, ensuring that rewards are earned through genuine participation rather than speculative farming.

The design goals of the Rewards Pool are:

• To incentivize active players in the physical venue and digital layer.

• To encourage long-term retention rather than short-term extraction.

• To keep emissions within predictable limits, aligned with adoption milestones.

• To maintain fairness across casual players, competitive gamers, and community contributors.

6.2 Emission Curve & Lock-at-Claim Design

Emissions from the Rewards Pool follow a five-year distribution schedule, with decaying multipliers to prevent runaway inflation. Unlike investor allocations, rewards are not unlocked automatically: they are streamed to users in proportion to their activity and commitment.

The Lock-at-Claim design transforms rewards from “free tokens” into progression incentives:

• Immediate Claim (25%) – provides liquidity and recognition for participation.

• Streaming Vesting (75%) – distributed linearly over 60–90 days, ensuring that most rewards flow gradually into circulation.

• Optional Lock Multipliers – players who choose to lock their rewards for longer (30, 60, or 90 days) receive proportionally higher allocations in future epochs, creating an incentive to hold.

This mechanism balances fairness, liquidity, and deflationary control while avoiding hidden inflation.

6.3 Activity Scoring

The Rewards Pool relies on the M87_ID Activity Score (Sᵤ), a normalized metric on a 0–100 scale that balances gameplay, venue engagement, and community participation. Each player’s score is capped per epoch to prevent outliers or bot abuse.

Normalized Inputs & Caps (per epoch):

• Games Completed (40%) – up to 60 matches.

• Venue Hours Spent (20%) – up to 60 hours of verified play.

• Venue Hours Bought (15%) – up to 60 hours of purchased time.

• Attendance Streak (10%) – up to 15 distinct active days.

• Verified Tasks (10%) – up to 5 approved tasks.

• Win Ratio (5%) – counted only with ≥20 matches; scaled between 40–70% WR, capped outside.

This structure makes games played the dominant factor, while still rewarding venue engagement, attendance consistency, and verified contributions. Win ratio remains a minor factor, stabilised by minimum matches and banding rules. The approach keeps rewards transparent, bot-resistant, and fair across different player profiles.

6.5 Reputation Factor

Rewards are also influenced by a Reputation Factor (rᵤ) derived from the M87_ID ranking system (D → C → B → A → S → SS → SSS). This ensures that long-term engagement and fair play are consistently rewarded.

• New/low-ranked players may receive 5% less than the baseline.

• High-ranked players may receive up to 15% more than the baseline. This structure ensures that rewards reflect both short-term activity and long term credibility, discouraging farming strategies and encouraging steady progression.

6.6 Worked Example

Imagine a monthly Rewards Pool budget (B_epoch) of 1,500,000 $M87CS:

• Alice – Activity Score 80, locks for 60 days (+25%), rank A (+5%) → Weight = 105.0

• Bob – Activity Score 85, no lock, rank B (baseline) → Weight = 85.0

• Carol – Activity Score 60, locks for 90 days (+35%), rank S (+10%) → Weight = 89.1

Total Weight Σw = 279.1

• Alice → ~564,700 tokens (25% immediate, 75% streamed)

• Bob → ~457,500 tokens (25% immediate, 75% streamed)

• Carol → ~477,800 tokens (locked until period ends)

No additional tokens are minted: multipliers only shift relative shares inside the fixed budget.

6.7 Anti-Abuse & Fairness Rules

To prevent exploitation, the system incorporates safeguards:

• Liveness & device checks to prevent bot farming.

• Cluster detection to identify Sybil attacks (multiple fake accounts).

• Per-ID caps to avoid whales capturing disproportionate rewards.

• Seasonal guardrails – if suspicious spikes in activity occur, the Rewards Pool budget can be temporarily reduced until data stabilizes.

6.8 Governance of Rewards Parameters

The parameters governing the Rewards Pool—lock multipliers, streaming duration, activity caps—are subject to transparent governance. Initially, adjustments will be made by the issuer with public disclosure. Over time, authority will shift to a DAO mechanism, where tokenholders can vote on parameter updates.

This ensures adaptability: as real-world data emerges, reward formulas can be fine tuned while maintaining transparency and community oversight.