The jackpot

How it fills

• 8% of every stake (6% once the game buys WHISP), converted to ZEC at the posted rate when the round resolves.
• The losers' 5% ZEC fee from any round where nobody held the winning square.
• The stakers' 1% when nobody is staked; once the game buys WHISP, also the 2% WHISP share when nobody held the winning square.
• The bonds of sealed bets that were never opened.
• 4% of every duel's pot (4.5% with nobody staked).
• SOL anyone adds with fund_jackpot, booked as ZEC at the posted rate. Half of WHISP's creator fees go here; the other half buys WHISP.

How it hits

Every resolve rolls once, from the same random value that picked the square, salted so neither can steer the other:

roll = u64_le(sha256(value ‖ "jackpot")[0..8]) % 1000   (0 = hit)

A hit needs someone on the winning square. If the square is empty the roll does nothing and the pool keeps growing. How value is made: Randomness and fairness.

What it pays

80% of the pool goes to the winning square, pro rata, on top of the normal ZEC. The other 20% stays, so the next pool starts above zero. The odds don't change after a hit.

Odds in time

At about 97 s a round, 1,000 rounds is about 27 hours, so a hit lands about once a day on average, with the usual variance. Across many rounds the jackpot returns about 8% of all volume to winners (6% once the game buys WHISP).