A New Distribution Strategy: Balancing Growth and Stability
Atto’s protocol has a fixed supply of 18 billion coins (all pre-minted), so no new Atto can be created by consensus and there is “no inflation” built into the system. In practice, however, tokens enter circulation through our various distribution programs (mining, faucet, contributions, etc.), so circulating supply rises over time. For example, Atto currently releases 5,000 tokens per minute via Folding@Home rewards, which equates to roughly 1.2% of total supply per month. At around 6% circulating today, the planned release pace (≈1.2% of total supply per month ≈ 15% annualized) implies a much larger increase relative to today’s circulating base —on the order of ~250–300% over a year—until circulation grows. In other words, distributing ~15% of total supply in year one is roughly 3× the current circulating supply. This practical “inflation” helps bootstrap use, but it also means many newly-rewarded users may immediately sell, creating downward price pressure.