Hi farmers,
One of the most fundamental changes in Project Mycelium compared to ThreeFold Grid is how farmers earn. This post breaks down the new economic model in detail: what changed, why, and what it means for you.
The Old Model: Proof-of-Capacity
On ThreeFold Grid, rewards were earned simply by connecting hardware and proving it was online. This is the “proof-of-capacity” model: the network paid you for being available, regardless of whether anyone was actually using your resources. It was simple and predictable, but it had a core limitation: it was disconnected from actual demand and usage. Minting on ThreeFold Grid has now stopped, meaning nodes on v3 are no longer earning rewards under that model.
The New Model: Utilization Marketplace
Project Mycelium flips this around. Farmers earn when their capacity is actively rented by users. Your node becomes a micro-provider on an open marketplace, and your earnings are a direct function of how much of your capacity is utilized.
This is more aligned with how real cloud infrastructure works, and it creates a fundamentally healthier economic loop: the more the network is used, the more farmers earn, and the more value the ecosystem generates.
The Revenue Split: 80/10/10
When a user rents your capacity, the payment is distributed as follows:
- 80% goes to you, paid in SPORE directly to your wallet
- 10% is permanently burned, removed from the circulating SPORE supply, creating deflationary pressure
- 10% goes to the Protocol Fund, for ongoing development, infrastructure, and operations
This means every rental transaction simultaneously rewards farmers, reduces token supply, and sustains the network. The burn mechanism in particular is worth understanding: as network utilization grows, more SPORE is destroyed, which theoretically increases the scarcity and value of remaining tokens.
Bid Tiers: Your Income Floor
The obvious concern with a utilization model is: what if nobody rents my capacity? The bid tier system addresses this directly.
Mycelium commits to purchasing capacity at a guaranteed minimum rate, the baseline bid tier, regardless of marketplace demand. Think of it as a floor, not a ceiling. Here’s how it plays out in practice:
| Scenario | Market Rate | Bid Tier Floor | What You Earn |
|---|---|---|---|
| High demand | $20/mo per slice | $3/mo | $20/mo (market wins) |
| Low demand | $8/mo per slice | $3/mo | $8/mo (market still above floor) |
| No renters | n/a | $3/mo | $3/mo (protocol covers floor) |
The floor doesn’t guarantee profit. You still need to account for electricity, hardware amortization, and internet costs. But it does mean your node is never earning zero, even during slow periods.
Farmer-Set Pricing
Unlike ThreeFold Grid, where pricing was set by the protocol, Project Mycelium lets you set your own slice prices within allowed ranges of approximately $1.20 to $12.00/month per slice based on the current calculator. Lower prices attract more renters; higher prices earn more per rental. It’s your call, and you can adjust at any time.
One Important Requirement: Keep Your Nodes Online
Once you’ve registered your nodes on the Mycelium Ledger, you must keep them online until the marketplace is fully operational to receive your accrued SPORE rewards. This applies during the current pre-marketplace phase. Going offline before the marketplace launches means losing the rewards that have been building up since your migration.
Key Takeaways
- Minting on ThreeFold Grid has stopped; migrating is the path to earning again
- Earnings are tied to actual usage, not just uptime
- The 80/10/10 split rewards farmers, burns tokens, and funds development simultaneously
- Bid tiers protect you from zero-earning periods
- You control your own pricing strategy
- Keep your node online until the marketplace is fully operational to receive rewards
- SPORE value matters: your earnings are denominated in SPORE, which floats on the market after July 2026
The Earnings Simulator on the Migration Hub is a great way to model different scenarios with your actual hardware specs.
Happy to discuss in the comments!