Acurast Sunsets Bootstrap Campaign, Launches Fairer Benchmarked Rewards
Acurast will be sunsetting the Bootstrap Campaign, and move towards a fairer system using Benchmarked Rewards
Not too long ago, in the Processor Version V1.17.0 (Android) and V1.3.0 (iOS), we introduced a new UI element in the Processor App: a benchmarking score that measures your phone’s performance and translates this into a unique compute score.
Up until now, every user who onboarded a phone, received the same amount of rewards, regardless of the individual performance of their phone. So whether you onboarded the newest Android, or an old iPhone you had laying around for years, the same reward of 250 cACU per month was distributed for each phone.
As we work towards a fairer system that rewards users for their actual contributions, the bootstrapping campaign is being phased out, and the benchmarking system is replacing it. Using these benchmarks, higher-performing phones will receive greater rewards compared to lower-performing phones, reflecting the added value they bring to the network. In turn this gives these lower-performing phones opportunities to compete for deployments that don’t require the latest and greatest compute power.
Here’s what you need to know.
What is benchmarking all about?
Every 30 minutes, your phone runs a passive benchmark test in the background. You won’t see any popups or notifications, and it won’t interrupt anything else you’re doing.
This test currently tracks three variables of your phone:
- CPU power
- RAM capacity
- Storage availability
The results are then combined into a single benchmark score that reflects your phone’s compute strength. This data is sent alongside your regular heartbeat signal to the Acurast chain, so everything stays streamlined.
You don’t have to do anything from your end; it runs automatically.
You will find your benchmark score in the following two places:
Before onboarding your phone with the Acurast Lite App. You can see the compute score on the welcome screen.
Once onboarded, you can find the score below your Acurast connection element.
What is going to change now?
The Acurast chain produces one block every six seconds, and each ‘epoch’ consists of 900 blocks — approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Under the new benchmarking system, a fixed amount of 12,500 cACU per epoch will be distributed. Rewards are split across multiple pools, each measuring a different benchmark (e.g., CPU, RAM, Storage), with more pools planned in the future.
Each pool has a weight that determines what percentage of the total cACU rewards is allocated to it (for example, RAM might receive 20%). Every 30 minutes, Processors send a heartbeat with their metrics for all pools, unless they have an active deployment. In that case, their last submitted metric is used.
Metrics can fluctuate slightly, and the first metric received in each epoch will be used as that epoch’s measurement. At the end of the epoch, rewards are distributed based on each Processor’s share of a pool’s total value. For example, if 10,000 cACU are distributed in an epoch, with 20% allocated to RAM, the RAM pool would get 2,000 cACU. And if Processor A contributes 4GB out of a total 400GB, it gets 1% of that pool. Together, that means this Processor would receive 20 cACU.
Rewards are distributed out in the first heartbeat of the following epoch. Compared to the current system, rewards will now be issued roughly every 1.5 hours instead of every hour, and the reward amount is fixed per epoch, rather than fluctuating with the number of devices. This fixed amount is comparable with what was distributed in the bootstrapping campaign.
What are the next steps?
As Acurast transitions to the new benchmarking rewards system, the bootstrapping campaign will sunset completely on 11/09/25.
No preparation or action is required from users. Simply keep an eye on your phone’s performance, and if you’d like to increase your amount of rewards, consider upgrading them.
Users can also monitor their processor’s performance using the Telegram bot https://t.me/AcurastBot to receive notifications about the reward distribution. The Telegram bot will soon update its messages to account for the new epoch interval; reward messages will happen every 1.5 hours instead of every hour. Users can expect the slight fluctuation in rewards each epoch, as rewards now depend on the metrics and other participants in the network.
We’re grateful for all our users who contribute to the network, and we’ll keep working to make the system as fair as possible. Stay tuned for updates on upcoming improvements and new functions that will further refine how rewards are distributed.
More information on the benchmarking can be found in the Acurast docs, and in the upcoming AMA with our Co-Founder Alessandro De Carli on Tuesday, September 9th, 4PM CEST