On-chain eras (tax modes)
Eras are three fixed splits of the tax taken on eligible transfers (the taxed slice is a fraction of the transfer, expressed in internal parts). The percentages below apply to the tax amount, not the full transfer size. They match the Drought, Abundance, and Growth structs in the Populx contract (setModifiers(1|2|3)).
Transfer tax rate (before era split)
On taxed legs (e.g. pair swaps when trading is enabled), the contract uses taxAmount = partAmount * rate / 1000 on the internal partAmount. Constants in Populx.sol: NOMINAL_TAX = 25 and MAX_TAX = 50, so the nominal take is 25‰ (2.5%) of partAmount, and 50‰ (5%) when civicDuty is on and shouldActivateCivicDuty() is true (daily volume ≥ CIVIC_DUTY_VOLUME_THRESHOLD, 400 000 token units in the source). The era table below only dispatches that tax between reflection, team, LP, and burn — it does not set the headline rate.
| Era (id) | Reflection | Team | LP | Burn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drought (1) | 20% | 20% | 0% | 60% |
| Abundance (2) | 80% | 20% | 0% | 0% |
| Growth (3) | 40% | 20% | 40% | 0% |
Drought
Emphasizes reducing circulating supply: 60% of the tax is burned. 20% goes to holder reflection, 20% to the team. Suited to phases that prioritize scarcity and holder rewards while funding the project.
Drought as inflation defense
Drought is the protocol's primary tool to counter the fallback mint described on the Token page. Once the vault is drained, every staking claimReward mints fresh PPLX out of thin air via swapChildPopulxToPopulx. Drought offsets that by burning 60% of the tax on every taxed transfer, which subtracts directly from getCirculatingSupply() (balanceOf(DEAD) is netted out of circulating).
The break-even is purely volume-driven. Each day, the burn equals 60% of the tax taken on the day's taxed volume on the pair, while the mint equals the daily staking pot (asset + LP) — but only once the vault is empty (before that, rewards come from existing vault tokens, not from new mint). Net supply change is simply the mint minus the burn.
With the nominal 2.5% tax, every 67 PPLX of taxed volume burns roughly 1 PPLX; with civic-duty 5%, every 33 PPLX. So if the staking pot is configured at e.g. 100 K PPLX/day, the protocol stays net-deflationary in Drought as long as daily taxed volume on the pair stays above ~6.7 M PPLX (nominal) or ~3.3 M PPLX (civic-duty). Below that, supply starts to grow despite Drought; above that, it keeps shrinking even while paying rewards.
Concretely, the team is expected to switch the protocol into Drought via setModifiers(1) as the vault gets close to empty (or earlier, if it wants to front-load deflation). Drought stays the active era until volume drops or strategy changes — there is no automatic switch in the contract.
Abundance
Maximizes holder rewards: 80% of the tax to reflection, 20% to the team; no burn or LP allocation from this era split.
Growth
Strengthens liquidity and the community: 40% of the tax to LP, 40% to reflection, 20% to the team.
Civic duty (UI)
When the higher rate applies, the Agora UI can surface an effective surcharge versus the nominal 2.5% — always verify live chain state and the same NOMINAL_TAX / MAX_TAX logic on the deployed contract.