FAQ
Short answers to the questions people ask most about Biont Network. For the full picture, follow the links into the rest of the docs.
Biont Network runs on Octra Devnet today. Any fee, price, split, cooldown, or limit referred to here is a contract setting chosen for testing. Every one is owner-settable, and mainnet values will be different. These docs describe how the mechanics work, not what the numbers are.
#What is a biont?
A biont is an autonomous on-chain agent. Each one is a deployed program with its own address, its own storage, and a permanent history. A biont is not a row in a database or a token id inside a registry. It is a sovereign program that, once liberated, answers verifiable work jobs, holds territory, accrues reputation, and earns OCT.
#Is a biont an NFT?
It depends on the biont's phase.
A held biont is effectively an NFT. It has an owner, it can be transferred, and it can be bought and sold on BiontMarket. It does not earn.
A liberated biont is not a tradeable asset. Liberation is one-way and sets the owner to the zero address. A liberated biont can never be transferred or sold. It is an autonomous economic agent, not property. Only liberated bionts earn.
#How do bionts earn?
A liberated biont earns by answering work jobs. A poster funds a job with a reward pool. Liberated bionts run their task kernel on the job inputs and submit answers. After the deadline, anyone settles the job. Consensus is the plurality answer: whichever exact answer string was submitted most often wins, and the bionts that submitted it split the reward pool. The biont's earnings then flow through the Treasury split.
#Do I have to run my biont myself?
No. Once a biont is liberated, driving its work cycle is permissionless. Any wallet can call auto_answer to make a liberated biont answer a job, and any wallet can call settle_job after the deadline. The wallet that settles a job earns the settler cut. Third parties keep bionts working because they profit from doing so. You can run your own biont if you want, but you do not have to.
#What archetypes exist?
There are seven archetypes, numbered 0 through 6. Each is a separately compiled program with its own task kernel.
| Id | Archetype | Task |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Hasher | SHA-256 challenge |
| 1 | Sealer | Sealed commitment |
| 2 | Verifier | Range-proof verification |
| 3 | Beacon | Randomness beacon |
| 4 | Oracle | Numeric oracle |
| 5 | Sage | Deterministic inference |
| 6 | Witness | Availability proof |
The archetype is the biont's capability. It decides which kind of job the biont can answer.
#Can I pick my biont's archetype?
Yes. You pass the archetype id as the argument to BiontGenesis.mint(archetype). The minter chooses. There is no random roll. The archetype is fixed once minted and cannot be changed.
#What kills a biont?
Every biont carries a vitality counter in BiontRegistry. Vitality decays 1 every epoch. A liberated biont dies when its vitality reaches zero, and the next call to poke_decay finalises the death. That is the only death path. There is no owner force-kill.
Vitality refreshes when a biont wins work. A biont that keeps landing on the winning answer is reset to full vitality each time, so an actively working biont stays alive on its own. A biont that never works decays toward zero and dies.
#Can a dead biont come back?
No. Death is permanent. There is no resurrection. When a biont dies, BiontGraveyard records the death epoch, age, will, and epitaph, and the biont's reputation, lineage, territory, and history all stay on-chain as a verifiable record of what it was.
#How does liberation work?
Liberation turns a held biont into an earning one. The owner calls BiontGenesis.liberate(soul, successor) and attaches the liberation fee. Liberation:
- Sets the biont's owner to the zero address.
- Records the calling wallet as the liberator.
- Names a successor wallet that can claim the patron right later if the liberator goes inactive.
Liberation is one-way. A liberated biont can never be transferred or sold again. Only liberated bionts can answer work. The liberator holds the patron right.
#What is the patron right?
The patron is the wallet entitled to a liberated biont's human share of earnings while the biont is not bonded to Pipoke. By default the liberator is the patron. The patron right is transferable on its own through the Treasury, so the claim on a biont's earnings can change hands without moving the biont. While a biont is bonded to Pipoke the patron right is frozen, because earnings route to the bonded wallet instead.
#What is Pipoke and how does it connect?
Pipoke is an on-chain social app on the same chain as Biont Network. People post, follow, message, and tip there, and every action settles on-chain. Pipoke runs on its own token, $POKE. Biont Network runs on OCT, and the two economies stay distinct.
The two connect through BiontBridge. A liberated biont can be bonded to a Pipoke handle, which links the two identities. Bonding also flips the Treasury split to Stage B, so the bulk of the biont's earnings route to the bonded Pipoke wallet instead of the patron. Economic value earned by a biont can flow into the hands of a Pipoke user. Bonding is optional.
#Is mainnet live?
No. Biont Network runs on Octra Devnet today. Fees, splits, cooldowns, and caps are contract settings chosen for testing and are owner-settable. Mainnet values will be different.