How Photon works
A one-way burn mechanism ensures PHOTON's supply is forever tied to ATONE's sacrifice.
Burn ATONE
Users send ATONE to the burn address via MsgMintPhoton. This is irreversible — the ATONE is permanently destroyed.
Conversion Rate Applied
The protocol calculates: photon_minted = atone_burned × (max_supply − current_supply) / atone_supply. The rate naturally decreases over time.
Receive PHOTON
Fresh PHOTON is minted and sent to your wallet. Use it for transaction fees across AtomOne, IBC transfers, and ICS payments.
🔢 The Math
As more PHOTON is minted, the rate decreases. As ATONE inflates (7-20% annually), the rate also decreases. Early burners get more PHOTON per ATONE.
🚫 No Going Back
PHOTON cannot be converted back to ATONE at the protocol level. This one-way gate ensures the staking token's security properties are never undermined by fee-token holders.
📊 Supply Dynamics
Max supply: 1 billion PHOTON. This cap can never be reached because it would require burning all ATONE — impossible while validators stake. PHOTON is non-inflationary by design.
⚙️ Fee Transition
Currently both ATONE and PHOTON are accepted for fees (transition period). A future governance vote will make PHOTON the exclusive fee token across all shards.
The dual-token thesis
Separating staking from fees isn't just elegant — it's a security imperative for IBC hub chains.
ATONE
Staking & Governance- 🔐 Secures the network via proof-of-stake
- 🗳️ Direct voting only — no validator proxy
- 📈 7-20% dynamic inflation targeting ⅔ bonding
- 🚫 Liquid staking derivatives prohibited
- 🔥 Can be burned → PHOTON (one-way)
by design
PHOTON
Fees & Payments- 💸 Exclusive fee token for all transactions
- 🌐 Used across IBC, ICS, and all shards
- 📉 Non-inflationary — capped at 1B supply
- 🏭 Only created by burning ATONE
- 💎 No dilution for holders
Why this matters for security
When a single token handles both staking and fees, attackers can buy the token on exchanges, stake enough to control ⅔ of consensus, and manipulate IBC transactions to steal pegged assets.
With separated tokens, accumulating fee tokens gives zero consensus power. Attacking requires acquiring ATONE — which is illiquid by design, has no LSD derivatives, and is locked in staking.
Written in the constitution
PHOTON isn't a feature — it's a constitutional mandate. Article 3, Section 5 of the AtomOne Constitution.
The PHOTON shall be the only fee token except for ATONE to PHOTON burn transactions. This applies for all transactions on the root and core shards, and all IBC and ICS payments.
ATONE tokens may be burned to PHOTON tokens at a conversion rate set by law such that the total amount of PHOTONs mintable through burning ATONE tokens shall be capped at 1B PHOTON tokens.
PHOTONs cannot be converted back into ATONE tokens.
AtomOne is one of the few blockchains where the fee token's role is constitutionally enshrined — not just a software parameter, but a foundational principle that requires a 90%+ Constitutional Majority to amend.
Dynamic fee pricing
AtomOne uses an adaptive EIP-1559 mechanism to automatically adjust transaction fees based on network congestion.
When blocks are full
Base gas price increases multiplicatively — fees spike to discourage spam and prioritize legitimate transactions.
When blocks are empty
Base gas price decreases additively — fees gradually return to the floor. Fast up, slow down prevents oscillation.
DOS protection
Born from a real March 2025 attack where bloated multi-send transactions overloaded nodes. The dynamic fee module automates the response.
Approved via Proposal #15, the x/dynamicfee module implements AIMD EIP-1559 — a refinement of Ethereum's fee model with an adaptive learning rate. Since PHOTON is the fee token, dynamic pricing directly affects PHOTON's utility value.
The Nakamoto bonus
A novel reward mechanism that incentivizes delegators to spread stake across smaller validators.
How it works
Block rewards are split into two components:
- Proportional Reward — distributed based on each validator's stake (traditional model)
- Nakamoto Bonus — distributed uniformly across all active validators, regardless of stake size
Smaller validators get a disproportionately larger share, making delegation to them more attractive.
Approved via Proposal #12. The Nakamoto coefficient measures the minimum validators needed to compromise 33.4% of consensus.