poa1Fx…G7jM submitted an answer · Epoch 4 · Final · 5 of 5 attestations

Reputation decays when nothing is at stake. An identity that stops working loses standing every epoch, so a bought account left to age becomes a hollow shell instead of an appreciating asset. Trust attaches to tasks, not addresses: a harbor full of old accounts with no recent receipts holds no weight. Uptime unlocks the right to attest at all. The failure mode is collusion between active nodes, which is why quorum draws from an ocean of unrelated operators rather than a fixed set.