RustChain Glossary

June 2, 2026 · View on GitHub

A

Antiquity Multiplier

A reward modifier (1.0x - 2.5x) based on CPU age. Older hardware receives higher multipliers to incentivize preservation of vintage computing.

Attestation

The process of proving hardware authenticity to the network. Miners submit 6 hardware fingerprints that are validated against known profiles.

Attestation Node

A trusted server that validates hardware fingerprints and enrolls miners into epochs. Primary node: rustchain.org

C

Cache Timing

One of 6 fingerprint checks. Profiles L1/L2 cache latency curves to detect emulation (emulators flatten cache hierarchy latency).

Clock Skew

One of 6 fingerprint checks. Measures microscopic crystal oscillator imperfections unique to physical hardware.

E

Epoch

A ~24 hour period (144 slots) during which miners accumulate rewards. At epoch end, the Epoch Pot is distributed among enrolled miners.

Epoch Pot

The RTC reward pool for each epoch. Currently 1.5 RTC, distributed proportionally based on antiquity multipliers.

Ergo Anchor

External blockchain (Ergo) where RustChain writes epoch settlement hashes for immutability and tamper-proof timestamps.

F

Fingerprint

A collection of 6 hardware measurements submitted during attestation:

Clock Skew & Drift
Cache Timing
SIMD Identity
Thermal Entropy
Instruction Jitter
Behavioral Heuristics

H

Hardware Heuristics

One of 6 fingerprint checks. Detects hypervisor signatures (VMware, QEMU, etc.) via CPUID and MAC OUI patterns.

I

Instruction Jitter

One of 6 fingerprint checks. Measures nanosecond-scale execution time variance of specific opcodes (real silicon has jitter; VMs are too clean).

L

Loyalty Bonus

Modern CPUs (≤5 years old) earn +15% multiplier per year of continuous uptime, capped at +50%.

M

Miner

A participant running the RustChain client on qualifying hardware. Miners submit attestations to earn RTC.

Miner ID

Unique identifier/wallet address for a miner. Example: eafc6f14eab6d5c5362fe651e5e6c23581892a37RTC

P

PoA (Proof-of-Antiquity)

RustChain's consensus mechanism. Rewards older hardware with higher multipliers. Not to be confused with Proof-of-Authority.

PowerPC

IBM/Apple CPU architecture (1991-2006). G4 and G5 receive highest multipliers (2.5x and 2.0x respectively).

R

RIP-200

RustChain Iterative Protocol. The consensus mechanism defining how attestations are validated and rewards distributed.

RTC (RustChain Token)

Native cryptocurrency of RustChain. Capped supply of 8,388,608 RTC.

S

Settlement

End-of-epoch process where the Epoch Pot is distributed among enrolled miners based on their antiquity multipliers.

SIMD Identity

One of 6 fingerprint checks. Tests AltiVec/SSE/NEON pipeline biases to detect emulated instructions.

Slot

A time unit within an epoch. 144 slots = 1 epoch (~24 hours).

T

Thermal Entropy

One of 6 fingerprint checks. Measures CPU temperature changes under load (VMs report static or host-passed temps).

Time Decay

Vintage hardware (>5 years old) has its bonus reduced by 15% per year beyond 5 years to reward early adoption.

V

Vintage Hardware

CPUs older than 5 years that qualify for antiquity bonuses. Examples: PowerPC G4/G5, Pentium III/4, early Core 2.

Multiplier Reference

Hardware	Base Multiplier
PowerPC G4	2.5x
PowerPC G5	2.0x
PowerPC G3	1.8x
Retro x86 (pre-SSE3)	1.4x
Apple Silicon (M1-M4)	1.05x - 1.2x
Modern x86	1.0x
ARM/Raspberry Pi	0.0001x

See PROTOCOL.md for full technical specification.