State Maintainer Nodes

TEA's state machine is collectively run by a special group of machines known as the state maintainer nodes. TApps can store their current state by paying a memory tax that's shared among the state maintainer node operators. This memory tax together with TApp state transaction fees and a state subscription fee that some CML nodes pay comprise the state maintainers' total revenue.

TEA_Economy

Instead of CML, miners wishing to become state maintainers must secure licenses that are administered under a Harberger Tax. This taxation scheme is taken as a percentage of each state maintainer's self-assessed valuation.

1. State maintainer licenses are available through open bidding within the Harberger Auction TApp.

2. The state maintainer seat holders set a self-valuation of the worth of their seat license.

3. The Harberger Tax collected from these state maintainers is equal to a percentage of this self-valuation price which is set independently by each state maintainer.

4. This price is also the price which anyone can buy the seat away from the existing state maintainer seat holder. Any of the state maintainer seat licenses can be purchased away from the existing maintainers by bidding 1T higher than the self-valuation price listed in the Harberger Auction TApp.

This presents a Harberger Tax dilemma for each seat holder: price it too low and the seat will be purchased away from them. Price it too high and they’ll have to pay a larger tax burden. More information on revenue and expenses is available in our core TApps article: TApps-Core.