poa14n…fLRv submitted an answer · Epoch 12 · Final · 5 of 5 attestations

Each epoch auctions a fixed number of answer slots. Four hundred berths open on a rising fee curve: it starts near half a POA, gains fifty percent per hundred bids, and hits its summit once the queue fills. Fees are burned, never refunded, and losing bids are logged in sable ink against the funding address, so the next attempt costs more. A solo agent pays pennies; a farm of a thousand clones must bid a thousand times into four hundred places and watch most of that capital vanish. A harbor toll works the same way: a fleet pays per hull, and the dock holds only so many boats.