How it works
Escrow, fees and a worked example
How a rental is priced, how each 10-minute window is settled, the 70% rule, the 3% + 3% fees and how the refund is computed - with a full worked example.
On this page
Price of a rental#
rental price = hours × measured hashrate (KH/s) × price per KH/s per hour
renter pays = rental price + 3% renter fee (rounded up to the cent)The full amount is paid upfront through RugWard Pay and held in escrow. A rental can cost at most $5,000 during the beta.
Settlement every 10 minutes#
A rental of *h* hours has *h × 6* windows of 10 minutes; the rental price is split evenly across them. For each window:
| Verified hashrate vs promised | Provider earns |
|---|---|
| 70% or more | the full window price |
| below 70% | the window price × the ratio (for example 50% of the hashrate pays 50%) |
| no shares (downtime) | nothing |
| a fake share (hash mismatch) | nothing; the rig is flagged |
The "promised" hashrate is the rig's benchmark result. Each window settles about 10 minutes after it ends.
Fees#
| Who | Fee |
|---|---|
| Renter | 3% of the rental price, paid on top (rounded up to the cent) |
| Provider | 3% of what the provider actually earns |
There are no other NonceWard fees. Network fees of the coin used to pay are paid by the sender.
Refund#
At the end of the rental:
refund = (rental price − earned by the provider) + the same share of the renter feeSo if the provider earned 90% of the rental, the renter gets back 10% of the rental price and 10% of the renter fee.
Worked example#
A renter rents a rig benchmarked at 10 KH/s priced at $0.06 per KH/s per hour for 10 hours.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Rental price: 10 h × 10 KH/s × $0.06 | $6.00 |
| Renter fee 3% | $0.18 |
| Renter pays (escrow) | $6.18 |
| Windows: 10 h × 6 | 60 windows of $0.10 |
What the proxy measured:
| Windows | Verified hashrate | Provider earns |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | 8–10 KH/s (≥ 70%) | 50 × $0.10 = $5.00 |
| 6 | 5 KH/s (50%) | 6 × $0.05 = $0.30 |
| 4 | no shares | $0.00 |
| 60 | $5.30 |
Settlement:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Provider fee 3% of $5.30 | $0.159 |
| Provider receives | $5.141 |
| Unearned: $6.00 − $5.30 | $0.70 |
| Renter fee share returned: $0.18 × 0.70 ÷ 6.00 | $0.021 |
| Refund to renter | $0.721 |
| NonceWard keeps: $0.159 + ($0.18 − $0.021) | $0.318 |
Check: $5.141 + $0.721 + $0.318 = $6.18, exactly what the renter paid. Amounts are computed internally in millionths of a dollar, so nothing is lost to rounding.
Payouts during the beta#
During the closed beta, payouts to providers and refunds to renters are sent manually by the NonceWard team after each rental is settled, in the payout or refund coin each user chose (USDC on Base, BTC, XMR or LTC). Every amount is shown in the dashboards.
Last updated: October 30, 2026