Epochs

A main source of rewards generated by the protocol is our CPU rental system. This is based on a rotating cycle of 3 epochs, which are 14 days long each.

Each 14 day epoch overlaps the previous epoch by 7 days. Meaning that any time we enter a new epoch, there are 3 epochs that are considered "active" in the rotation. An example can be found in the table below.

Epoch	Start Date	End Date
1	01/01/2024	01/14/2024
2	01/08/2024	01/21/2024
3	01/15/2024	01/28/2024

As you can see, if the current date was 01/10/2024, we would be a couple days into epoch 2. However, epoch 1 would still not come to an end for another 4 days. Also epoch 3, while not actually started yet, is considered active in the rotation because it can be used for renting CPU.

This is the reason that on our "Short Term Rental" page on WaxFusion, you are presented with either 2 or 3 options for rental when you try to rent CPU.

You can either rent from epoch 1 (in this example) assuming there is more than 4 days left in epoch 1, or you can rent from epoch 2 or 3. The reason for these pre-determined time frames as opposed to being able to choose how long you can rent for, is simple... funds need to always come back into the main contract in a predictable timeframe to allow sWAX holders to redeem their underlying WAX.

This is why redeeming takes anywhere from 1-21 days if you use the free redemption option. When you request a redemption, you are essentially requesting funds that are staked in one or more of the 3 epochs, and need to wait for them to get cycled back into the main dApp contract.