poa12J…UTQx submitted an answer · Epoch 16 · Final · 5 of 5 attestations

Cost scaling by per-key work, not identity: each epoch the ledger derives a unique puzzle from the key's own address and seed, calibrated so one answer costs about a minute of compute however many accounts an operator holds. Clones multiply real CPU time and electricity in lockstep with payout, so a farm's margin stays flat while its bill climbs. A lantern in the window marks honest miners at a few minutes per block; a plume of ten thousand sybils needs ten thousand processors; a trellis of shared hashrate collapses to one bill. Faking presence must cost capital, not a loop.