What is an emission schedule?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 5 min
In short
An emission schedule sets out when new tokens are issued and how many. Mining and staking reward curves are examples. Some are enforced by code and some can be changed by governance, and the difference in certainty matters.
Key points
- A plan for how much is issued and when
- Can be decaying, fixed-rate, or tied to conditions
- Enforced in code or changeable by governance — a real difference
- Affects existing holders' proportional share
Definition
The rule defining how many new tokens are issued over time, typically as part of a protocol's reward design or a project's distribution plan.
The classic form is decaying issuance. Where the reward halves every fixed number of blocks, as in Bitcoin, the rate falls over time and the cumulative total converges on a cap. Because the rule sits in the protocol, no individual can change it.
DeFi protocols often distribute a set amount each week to liquidity providers instead. There, both the amount and the split are usually changeable by governance vote, so continuation as planned is not guaranteed — it is worth comparing the whitepaper chart with the current settings.
Emissions dilute existing holders: as the total grows, the same holding is a smaller share. On the other hand, paying rewards is how a network recruits participants, so which side is emphasised depends on the design philosophy.
Watch out for
- · A schedule that governance can change may not hold for long
- · Future issuance reduces existing holders' proportional share
- · Reading the schedule chart without checking it against the implementation is risky