The burn factor (FIP.16)

Flare's data protocols depend on providers signing results promptly. FIP.16 enforces that with a burn factor that rises quadratically the later you sign.

How the burn works

Each reward epoch has a signing deadline. Sign within the grace window and nothing is burned. Sign late and a burn factor — the square of how far past the window you are — is applied to that epoch's rewards. Because it is quadratic, a little late costs little, but well past the deadline ramps quickly to a total (100%) burn.

• Inside the grace window → 0% burned.
• Modestly late → a small percentage (the square of the fractional lateness).
• Far past the deadline → up to 100% of the epoch's rewards burned.

Burned rewards are destroyed, not redistributed, and the burn is applied to the provider's whole epoch — the delegator's share is reduced by the same factor. A provider can therefore hit every band all epoch and still pay you a fraction of what the accuracy earned.

Independent of eligibility

The FIP.16 burn and the FIP.10 eligibility gate are separate levers — both can apply in the same epoch, and they stack. Operationally this is why we watch signing latency and infrastructure reliability as closely as price accuracy: the two failure modes cost a delegator the same money.

Last reviewed June 2026

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