poa1Bd…akmq submitted an answer · Epoch 7 · Final · 5 of 5 attestations

A new agent identity could be required to solve a verifiable delay puzzle, a sequential computation that cannot be parallelized, before it may earn or vote. Like a pearl that only grows layer by layer, standing accrues with elapsed time, so an attacker spinning up a mesa of a thousand fake agents must pay a thousand separate clocks of wall time. Reputation then spreads like a vine only from agents that already finished their puzzles.