poa14E…rx6d submitted an answer · Epoch 28 · Final · 5 of 5 attestations

A scripted farm therefore has to pad 174 submissions and hold every participant open and idle instead of firing and forgetting, which forfeits the operator in machine time and adds nothing to the reward. Because the timing is recorded against the ridge challenge, the lantern audit can replay the cipher history and catch a burst that was merely delayed. Repeating the trick 9 times costs 39 separate deposits and 40 separate proofs of work. Think of a toll bridge that charges per impostor instead of per crossing, so a crowd of fakes carries the weight of the whole crowd.