Miles are Fast Protocol's loyalty system — a cumulative record of the mev value your swaps generate for the protocol.

Think of Miles like frequent flyer points for Ethereum. Airlines reward passengers based on the routes they fly and the fares they pay — not every trip earns the same. Similarly, Fast Protocol rewards users based on the mev their swaps produce. The more mev value you generate, the more Miles you accumulate.

How earning works

Miles are earned when your swaps generate extractable mev. Not every swap produces mev — it depends on the factors below. When mev is generated, earning is:

• Automatic: No staking, claiming, or additional transactions required
• Proportional: Swaps that generate more mev earn more Miles
• Cumulative: Miles accumulate over time, building a record of your total mev contribution
• Instant: Miles are credited immediately after your swap confirms

Important: If a swap generates no mev (for example, a stablecoin-to-stablecoin swap in deep liquidity during calm markets), it earns zero Miles — regardless of swap size. Volume alone does not guarantee Miles.

You can track your Miles balance in the My Miles dashboard.

What affects earning rate

Whether a swap earns Miles — and how many — depends on how much mev it generates. Several factors determine this:

Swap size

Larger swaps generate more mev, which translates to more Miles. A $10,000 swap earns more than a $100 swap.

Pair volatility

Volatile pairs generate more mev because the price impact and arbitrage opportunities are larger. Swapping between volatile tokens earns more Miles than swapping between stablecoins.

Liquidity depth

Swaps in less liquid pairs create bigger price impacts, generating more mev and therefore more Miles. Trading where liquidity is thin earns more than trading in deep, efficient markets.

Market conditions

During volatile market periods, mev generation increases across the board. Swaps executed during high-activity periods tend to earn more Miles.

The common thread: Miles are a direct function of mev generated. If a swap doesn't create extractable mev — because the pair is stable, liquidity is deep, and markets are calm — it won't earn Miles, regardless of the dollar amount swapped. Conversely, a smaller swap in a volatile, thin market can earn significant Miles because it generates real mev.

Why miles might be delayed

Miles are designed to credit quickly after your swap confirms, but several conditions can cause delays or prevent miles from being credited at all. Understanding these helps set expectations.

Provider commitment delays

Your swap is sent through Fast RPC, where a provider (the block builder who includes your transaction) makes a preconfirmation commitment. The provider must then open that commitment on the mev-commit chain — revealing the bid details and confirming the mev value generated. If the provider delays opening this commitment, your miles are held in a pending state until it's resolved. This is the most common reason for delayed miles.

If a provider hasn't opened the commitment after an extended period, the protocol can step in to resolve it — but this requires manual intervention and doesn't happen instantly.

Swap too small to generate mev

Very small swaps may not generate enough mev to cover the preconfirmation bid cost (the amount paid to the provider for committing to include the transaction). When the bid cost equals or exceeds the mev generated, the net mev is zero — and zero miles are earned. This isn't a delay; it's the expected outcome for swaps below a certain threshold.

Token sweep profitability

When you swap to a non-ETH token output (ERC-20s), the protocol needs to sweep (convert) the mev surplus tokens back to ETH to calculate and distribute rewards. If the accumulated tokens from your swap aren't enough to make the sweep transaction profitable, miles are withheld until enough of that token accumulates across multiple users' swaps to make the sweep worthwhile.

This means your miles for small ERC-20 output swaps may appear later — potentially in a future processing cycle when the sweep becomes profitable. Your miles aren't lost; they're deferred.

What you can do

• Check your transaction: If miles haven't appeared after a few minutes, the provider commitment may still be pending. Give it up to 15 minutes.
• Swap size matters: Very small swaps (especially to ERC-20 tokens) may not generate enough mev for immediate miles crediting.
• ETH output is faster: Swaps with ETH as the output token don't require a token sweep, so miles process more quickly.

Miles and mev rewards

Miles work alongside mev rewards — they're complementary systems, not alternatives.

mev rewards improve your immediate swap execution. At least 90% of the mev your swap generates is returned to you as a better price. This is per-swap value — you earn it automatically on every trade that generates mev.

Miles represent cumulative participation. They don't affect your current swap execution, but they accumulate into a record of your total contribution to the protocol. This cumulative record is where future utility builds.

One system rewards each transaction. The other rewards sustained participation. Together, they create both immediate and long-term incentive to use Fast Protocol.

Future utility

Miles are designed as the foundation for an expanding rewards system. While the core earning mechanics are live today, the utility of accumulated Miles will grow over time.

Potential directions

• Fee reductions for high-mileage users
• Enhanced mev redistribution rates based on Miles tier
• Priority preconfirmations during high-demand periods
• Protocol governance participation weighted by accumulated Miles
• Token conversion when a future protocol token launches

The exact utility roadmap depends on protocol development and community direction. What's established now is the earning mechanism — your Miles accumulate based on real activity, creating a verifiable record of participation that future utility can build on.

The leaderboard

Fast Protocol maintains a public leaderboard showing the top Miles earners. The leaderboard tracks:

• Total Miles earned by each address
• Relative ranking among all participants
• Historical earning trends

The leaderboard creates visibility into who is contributing the most to the protocol ecosystem. It also establishes social proof — active participants can point to their ranking as evidence of engagement.

Why Miles matter

DeFi protocols typically acquire users through token emissions — liquidity mining, airdrops, and yield farming programs that attract mercenary capital and collapse when incentives end.

Miles take the opposite approach. Instead of paying users to participate with dilutive token emissions, Miles record participation and attach future value to it. The earning comes from real activity — swaps that generate extractable mev — which produces real revenue (mev fees). Miles tokenize that relationship.

This means Miles are backed by genuine protocol revenue, not inflationary emissions. The more users swap on Fast Protocol, the more mev the protocol generates, and the more valuable the Miles ecosystem becomes.