teleo-codex/domains/internet-finance/evergreen-tool-design-with-repair-cheaper-than-replacement-stabilizes-token-demand.md

type	domain	description	confidence	source	created
claim	internet-finance	Making repair costs lower than recrafting costs plus 4 percent daily decay creates rational incentive for continuous maintenance over churn	experimental	futard.io, Meta-PoW: The ORE Treasury Protocol proposal, 2025-11-07	2026-03-11

Evergreen tool design with repair cheaper than replacement stabilizes token demand

The Meta-PoW protocol implements an "evergreen" tool architecture where daily repair costs are calibrated to be cheaper than recrafting, combined with gradual decay rather than permanent breakage, creating rational economic incentives for continuous tool maintenance that stabilize INGOT demand.

The mechanism has three components:

1. Gradual decay instead of breakage:

• Tools have power p between 0 and 1
• Skipping repair causes 4% daily decay: p_next = 0.96 * p
• Tools never permanently break
• Accumulated repair costs can restore full power at any time

2. Repair costs calibrated below replacement:

• Daily repair for pickaxe: 0.082643 INGOT + 0.3 WOOD
• Crafting new pickaxe: 1 INGOT + 8 WOOD + c(y) COAL license
• Repair is ~8.3% of crafting INGOT cost
• License fee c(y) adds significant additional cost to recrafting

3. Continuous demand profile:

• Rational players maintain tools rather than replace
• Each maintained pickaxe creates steady 0.082643 INGOT/day demand
• This translates to predictable ORE treasury inflow
• System state becomes number of active maintained tools

The proposal explicitly states: "Repairing is cheaper than constantly recrafting. A fully maintained pick effectively corresponds to about 1 ORE/day of smelt demand into the treasury. Result: Rational players maintain picks. The number of active, fully repaired picks is the key state variable."

The 4% daily decay rate creates meaningful pressure (tools lose ~50% power in 17 days without repair) while avoiding the binary cliff of permanent breakage that would force replacement regardless of economics.

This design stabilizes demand in two ways:

1. Predictable consumption: Active player count × repair rate = baseline INGOT demand, which is more stable than boom-bust crafting cycles

2. Reduced volatility: Players don't abandon tools during price swings because repair remains economically rational even when new crafting isn't

The proposal notes: "Tools are evergreen and cheaper to repair than to recraft, so players maintain their gear instead of churning it."

This contrasts with durability-based systems (tools break permanently, forcing replacement) and zero-maintenance systems (no ongoing costs, no steady demand). The evergreen + repair-cheaper-than-replacement combination creates what the proposal calls "the key state variable" — the count of actively maintained tools.

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Relevant Notes:

• dynamic performance-based token minting replaces fixed emission schedules by tying new token creation to measurable outcomes creating algorithmic meritocracy in token distribution

Topics:

• domains/internet-finance/_map