Epoch 9

Updated epoch 9 rules and block rewards schedule has been published to our Medium.

Epoch 9: Bringing Back COFFEE

Starting in epoch 9 of TEA Project's testnet mining contest, contestants will no longer use USD to buy testnet CML seed vouchers directly. Instead, COFFEE will instead return to the contest as a proxy for USD. Users who want to join the mining competition will pay USD to get COFFEE for use in our testnet: COFFEE purchase link. The COFFEE can then be exchanged for testnet TEA, which is needed to interact with TApps and mine on the TEA Project platform. For example, COFFEE can be exchanged for testnet TEA to buy testnet CML from the marketplace.

We've designed the tokens to offer a similar experience to what users will face once the mainnet launches:

• A user's USD is the same now as it is when the TEA Project mainnet launches: some stablecoin funds you have on a different chain (i.e. USDT / BUSD on the BNB Chain or USDT / USDC on Ethereum).
• COFFEE can be thought of as the stablecoin funds that have been successfully bridged over into the TEA Project ecosystem. This is currently a manual process that will be automated by bridges when the mainnet launches.
• COFFEE can be used to purchase testnet TEA just as bridged-USD can be used to purchase mainnet TEA.
• Testnet CML can only be purchased with testnet TEA (not COFFEE), similar to the mainnet where bridged-USD can't be directly used to purchase mainnet CML (users must exchange to TEA first).
• Similarly, testnet TApp tokens can only be purchased with testnet TEA.

Starting in Epoch 9, COFFEE is Backed by Stablecoin

We previously used COFFEE as a stand-in for USD during mining competitions epochs 2 - 5. In these earlier contests, the COFFEE token wasn't backed by anything and given out as loans to contestants. COFFEE's price would dump early in the competition and TEA's price (relative to COFFEE) would skyrocket as potential miners would take out COFFEE loans and exchange it for testnet TEA. Our new epoch 9 design for the COFFEE economy offers better stability for the COFFEE price and more closely mimics the action of market participants once the mainnet launches.

• Miners must use their USDT to purchase COFFEE (1:1 exchange rate).
• Miners can also sell (testnet) CML or TEA back to COFFEE. They can then put in a form request to get their USD back.
• Contestants can only withdraw COFFEE back to USD if there are funds in the initial pool. While the exchange ratio may dip, it will never exceed 1:1. After the exchange, the amount of COFFEE used in the transaction will be burned.
• Testnet TEA will still be used to exchange for mainnet CML vouchers.

Cashout Methods

This new model is to test out the token economy when contestants are allowed to exchange their TEA and exit the competition for other assets, i.e. exchange game assets for real world assets. There are two assets contestants can cash out their TEA for:

• Mainnet CML vouchers.
• USDT through COFFEE using a Google Form (manual process).

Note that the team will give out 3 mainnet coupons per week just like epoch 8 but we now have a hard cap of 6 mainnet CML vouchers outstanding at any one time.

Contestants can exchange TEA for COFFEE and then cash out for USDT at anytime (as long as there's USDT still in the initial pool) using the Google Form linked above. The COFFEE / USDT exchange rate will fluctuate according to demand but the value of COFFEE will never exceed 1 USDT.

Changes to TApps

• TEA Party returns with private messaging and layer-1 notifications.
• Teafluencer will remain in epoch 9 with a tighter cap on tipping. Also no existing YouTube videos will be approved, they must be new videos.
• Referral TApps will be removed