News · Testnet · November 6, 2026

Epoch 1 paid: the first storage rewards claimed on chain

Three storage nodes proved their deals, a committee checked every proof on chain, and each node claimed its share of 8,221.63 Test DRIVE.

DRIVE 369 DAO · 2 min read

The utility mining loop ran end to end for the first time on the Base Sepolia testnet: storage proved on chain, an epoch signed by a committee, and rewards claimed by the nodes themselves. This is the loop that will pay node operators at mainnet. Test DRIVE has no value.

What happened

1. Three storage providers, DGX Spark machines run by the maintainers, held sealed data under deals on the test escrow. Over three epochs they answered random challenges, and the escrow recorded 9 storage receipts.
2. The runner computed epoch 1 of the utility vault: a day budget of 13,050.21 Test DRIVE, of which 8,221.63 went to storage and 4,828.58 was carried forward because no compute or retrieval work was proved.
3. Two evaluators signed the epoch. Neither took the runner's word for it: each re-read every storage receipt from the chain on its own machine, and would refuse to sign if an epoch, a size or an escrow did not match.
4. After the challenge window, each provider claimed from its own host, with its own wallet.

The vault contract: 0x688E…3eD5 on Base Sepolia.

What broke

The first claim run stopped after the first host: one failing host aborted the loop. The claim step now treats each host on its own and skips an account that already took its share. Every epoch will report what broke the same way.

What it means

Nodes are paid only for proofs a contract accepts, never for showing up. A committee checks the chain, not a spreadsheet. The same rules hold when outside nodes join: run one with the node guide, and your proofs count in the next epochs.

Testnet DRIVE on Base Sepolia has no value. The contracts' audit is pending and they are not on mainnet. Not financial advice.