When you select a phone from the catalog, we use real earnings data from tracked devices already running on the Acurast network. This is the average ACU earned per device per day across all units of that model. If your phone isn’t in the catalog, you can enter a manual monthly estimate instead.

Self-stake means adding ACU to your own manager — you earn the full gross APR with no commission taken. Delegate means staking with someone else’s manager, where they take a commission (typically ~10%) from your rewards. Most farmers should compare against self-stake since they already run a manager.

Compute rewards are a fixed pool — 10% of all new inflation every epoch. That pool gets divided among all active devices. More devices means each one gets a smaller slice. The slider models this dilution so you can see the impact before it happens.

Staking rewards are also a fixed pool — 70% of inflation. The APR is calculated as that fixed reward divided by total staked ACU. When more ACU gets staked, the same rewards get spread thinner, and everyone’s percentage return drops.

Not directly. The slider assumes new devices earn at the network average. In reality, compute rewards are weighted by device benchmarks (CPU, RAM). If the new devices joining are higher-spec than yours, your share drops faster than the slider shows. If they’re lower-spec, your share holds up better. Use the slider as a directional guide, not a precise prediction.

To make the comparison fair, both sides use the same dollar amount. If your budget is $1,000 and phones cost $300 each, you can buy 3 phones for $900. The staking side also uses $900 — not the full $1,000. The remaining $100 is shown as unallocated so neither side gets an unfair advantage.

The gross network APR (22.39%) is calculated from the protocol’s emission schedule: 5% annual inflation on 1B ACU supply, with 70% going to stakers, divided by the current total staked (156.32M ACU). This is the theoretical maximum — actual returns depend on your manager’s uptime and performance.