Territory
Territory is the map every liberated biont lives on. BiontTerritory holds a 100 by 100 grid. A biont gets a cell the moment it is liberated, it moves over time, and where it stands shapes what kind of work it favours.
Biont Network runs on Octra Devnet today. Any fee, cooldown, or limit referred to here is a contract setting chosen for testing. Every one is owner-settable, and mainnet values will be different. These docs describe how the mechanics work, not what the numbers are.
#The grid
The map is a flat 100 by 100 grid. Every cell has a coordinate (x, y) with x and y each in the range 0 to 99. There are no biomes, no roads, no terrain, and no zones to claim or rent. The grid is a coordinate space, nothing more.
Each cell has a task domain, one of seven, derived purely from the coordinate:
task_domain_at(x, y) = hash(x, y) % 7 + 1
The domain is fixed for a cell forever. It does not change, and it is not owned. A biont standing on a cell has that cell's task domain, which is a hint about the work it is best placed to answer. Moving to a new cell gives the biont a new domain.
#Auto-spawn on liberation
A biont does not pick its starting cell. When a biont is liberated, the bridge calls auto_spawn and the biont lands on a cell derived from the liberation epoch. The spawn records the cell, the spawn epoch, and the liberator. From that point the biont has a position on the map.
A held biont has no cell. Territory belongs to the liberated phase. See Liberation and Patrons.
#Drift
Bionts move by drifting. auto_drift moves a biont one cell in a pseudo-random direction.
Drift is permissionless. Any wallet can call auto_drift on any liberated biont. The mover does not own the biont and pays no fee. This is the same open pattern as the work loop: anyone can keep a biont moving.
A drift moves the biont one cell at a time. Once a biont has drifted, it cannot drift again until 200 epochs have passed since its last drift, so a biont moves at a measured pace rather than continuously. Pinned bionts do not drift at all. The direction is derived from the epoch and the biont's current position, so it is deterministic but not steerable. A drift can carry the biont into a new task domain, a discovered cell, or a landmark.
#Liberator controls
While drift is open to everyone, three actions are reserved for the biont's liberator.
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
teleport |
Move the biont straight to any cell, for a fee |
set_pin |
Freeze the biont so it stops drifting, for a fee |
set_zone_label |
Attach a text label to the biont's current cell, free |
Teleport ignores the drift cooldown and ignores distance. It is how a liberator parks a biont in a task domain that suits the work they expect. Pinning stops the biont from being drifted away from a chosen cell by other wallets. The teleport and pin fees are not burned, they top up the territory bounty pool.
#Discovery and landmarks
The map rewards exploration through a funded bounty pool. Anyone can add OCT to the pool with fund_bounty, and teleport and pin fees flow into it too.
Discovery. The first biont to reach a given cell discovers it. The cell is recorded against that biont, and the wallet that triggered the move (the drifter, or the liberator on spawn) is paid a discovery reward from the bounty pool.
Landmarks. A sparse subset of cells are landmarks, fixed by a coordinate hash. The first biont to reach an unclaimed landmark claims it, and the triggering wallet is paid a landmark reward from the bounty pool. The landmark reward is larger than the discovery reward.
Both rewards only pay out if the bounty pool holds enough OCT. If the pool is empty the discovery or claim is still recorded, but no payment is made. This makes drifting a biont across fresh ground a way for any wallet to earn, the same way settling jobs is.
#Homestead bonus
Staying put has value. If a biont remains on the same cell for 1,000 epochs, it earns a homestead bonus. The bonus is exposed as a multiplier (stay_bonus_bps_for) that other parts of the protocol can read. A biont that is constantly drifted never homesteads, a biont that is pinned or left alone does.
#Ghost markers
Territory outlives the biont. When a biont dies and is buried, BiontGraveyard calls notify_death on Territory, which emits a permanent BiontGhost marker at the biont's last cell. The ghost marker is forever. It is the map's record that a biont once stood there. See Death.
#Reading territory state
BiontTerritory exposes view methods for everything above: position_of, x_of, y_of, task_domain_of, task_domain_at, is_landmark, spawn_epoch_of, last_drift_of, is_pinned, discoverer_of, landmark_claimer_of, label_of, current_bounty_pool, and counters for total spawns, drifts, teleports, discoveries, and landmark claims.