New Canary Runtime Upgrade: Aligning Staked Compute and Mainnet

As the Acurast Mainnet launch approaches, Acurast contributors are working tirelessly to align all components for the big moment. On Thursday, October 30, Runtime Upgrade 37 was activated on Canary, introducing several important changes and milestones to the Acurast Canary network.

Below is the overview of changes and what they mean for users.

Aligning the Canary inflation rate with the Mainnet inflation rate

With Runtime Upgrade 37, the inflation of the Canary network has been adjusted to match the inflation of Mainnet. Previously, Canary had a slightly higher inflation rate to reward early compute providers. With Mainnet just around the corner, it’s necessary to transition closer to the actual parameters, so users can try it out and get familiar with it.

Previously, Canary had an inflation rate of 7.3%, which resulted in total rewards of 12,500 cACU distributed per epoch (900 blocks ≈ 1.5 hours). The newly adjusted inflation rate is 5%, and the total rewards have been reduced to 8,561.64 cACU per epoch, which aligns with the planned inflation rate for Mainnet.

While previously 100% of Canary’s inflation rewards were distributed among all Compute Providers in proportion to their provided compute, Runtime Upgrade 37 adjusted this allocation to 99%, leaving 1% as rewards for the Staked Compute Candidate during its initial rollout phase on Acurast.

Important: This reward split will change again on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, at 12 PM UTC (see Next Step: Align Canary Reward System with Mainnet Reward System below).

Enable Staked Compute

The upgrade also enabled all functions and mechanics required for Acurast’s staking system, known as Staked Compute. Staked Compute is Acurast’s central incentive system that ensures reliable and consistent decentralized computation. By tying together compute provision to token staking, it aligns economic rewards with network performance and long-term reliability.

This mechanism motivates compute providers to maintain high-quality compute resources, forming the backbone of Acurast’s ecosystem. In return, the providers will receive a higher allocation from the rewards pool, compared to others who don’t stake.

Staked Compute is now live on Canary and can be tested by all cACU holders. As it’s currently designed for experimentation, some parameters are set differently than they will be on Mainnet.

For example, the Cooldown period — the waiting time that starts when a user unstakes — has a maximum length of 48 hours on Canary, whereas this value will be much longer on Mainnet to encourage long-term commitment.

All information on Staked Compute and the differences between Canary and Mainnet can be found in the documentation. To get started with staking, head to the Acurast Hub.

Important: Even though Staked Compute on Canary is primarily for testing, it still has a real impact on rewards — it’s the real mechanism, just with slightly different parameters.

As outlined in the previous section, the rewards currently distributed to Staked Compute participants are set to 1% of the new inflation rate — meaning 1% of 8,561.64 cACU is distributed every epoch among stakers.

Next Step: Align the Canary Reward System with the Mainnet Reward System

With only about two weeks remaining before the Mainnet launch, the reward system on Canary will be adjusted once more to fully match the Mainnet reward structure. This change will take effect on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, at 12 PM UTC.

Following the adjustment, Canary’s inflation will be distributed as follows:

70% — to all participants in Staked Compute
15% — to the Treasury
10% — as base Benchmark Rewards for Compute Providers, independent of their staking activity
5% — to Canary Collators

This update highlights the central role of the Staked Compute system, where each stake is backed by real computational power, and providers are rewarded for their long-term commitment and reliable compute contribution.

Transition Effects on Compute Providers

Compute Providers will notice some changes in their daily reports and reward distribution. Earlier phases of Canary offered enhanced rewards as an early adopter bonus to recognize the community’s pioneering contribution to the network. With Runtime Upgrade 37 and the introduction of Staked Compute, rewards are now transitioning to the long-term, sustainable structure that will also apply on Mainnet.

Since Staked Compute has always been the centerpiece of network incentives, Compute Providers should start getting familiar with the staking system and how to use it on Canary. Once the Canary reward system is active, staking will become essential, as the base benchmark rewards will be reduced to 10% of their previous value following Runtime Upgrade 37.

When the Mainnet launches, Compute Providers will be able to unstake on Canary and migrate their stake to Mainnet.