FAQ¶

General¶

What is Atom Circuit?¶

Atom Circuit is a protocol that collects a 0.50% fee on token swaps, converts it all to ATOM, and stakes it to Cosmos Hub validators. Validators register, share referral links with their community, and earn delegated ATOM as their community swaps.

How does the fee work?¶

A 0.50% fee is taken from the tokens you receive on every swap. For example, if a swap would give you $1,000 in output tokens, approximately $5.00 is taken as the fee and you receive the rest. Skip Go (the swap routing provider) takes a revenue share from this fee, and the remainder goes to Atom Circuit for conversion to ATOM and staking.

Where does the fee go?¶

All collected fees are converted to ATOM (approximately every 30 minutes) and sent to the staking contract on Cosmos Hub, which delegates it to validators.

Is Atom Circuit open source?¶

The smart contract code and frontend are all available for review.

Staking¶

Is the staked ATOM locked forever?¶

Yes. ATOM staked by the contract remains staked permanently, effectively removing it from circulation. The admin can initiate undelegation for operational safety, but the contract has no withdrawal function by design - undelegated ATOM stays in the contract. Admin control is transferable via a two-step process (ProposeAdmin, AcceptAdmin).

What happens to staking rewards?¶

Staking rewards are claimed approximately every 30 minutes and split three ways:

Restaked (80%) - distributed back to validators proportionally to their existing delegations
Treasury (10%) - sent to the project treasury
Operations (10%) - covers bot gas costs, infrastructure, and other operational expenses

The operations cut makes the protocol self-sustaining - no manual top-ups are needed to keep the automated processing running.

How is the stake distributed between validators?¶

New fees are attributed to specific validators based on referral links. The proportion depends on how much swap volume each validator's community generates. Compound rewards (restaked staking rewards) are distributed proportionally to existing delegation sizes.

Swaps without a referral link go to the "general" pool, which is split equally among all active validators.

What happens if ATOM is sent directly to the contract?¶

ATOM sent directly to the contract address (not through the normal fee flow) is picked up during the next reward compounding cycle. It is treated the same as staking rewards: treasury and operations each take their share (10% each), and the rest (80%) is staked proportionally to existing delegations. It is not attributed to any specific validator's referral.

What is the smallest active validator preference?¶

When the contract needs to choose a single validator for delegation (e.g., compound rewards with no existing delegations, or rebalancing a jailed validator's stake), it always picks the smallest active validator. Since this target rotates naturally as validators accumulate stake, it provides self-balancing without manual intervention.

Validators¶

How do I register my validator?¶

Go to the Register page, enter your validator address (starts with cosmosvaloper1), and sign the transaction. Anyone can register any validator that is in the active set. The validator must be active (not jailed or unbonded) at the time of registration.

Can I register someone else's validator?¶

Yes. Registration is permissionless. The referral link works regardless of who submitted the registration transaction.

What is my referral link?¶

After registration, your validator gets a referral link like https://atomcircuit.net/swap?ref=abc12345 (or a vanity slug like ?ref=cosmostation). Share this with your community. When they swap through this link, the fees are attributed to your validator.

How long does a referral last?¶

When a user clicks a referral link, the referral ID is stored in their browser for 30 days. All swaps during that period are attributed to the validator.

What happens if my validator gets jailed?¶

The automated rebalance cycle detects the jailed status
A 24-hour grace period begins
If you unjail within the grace period, nothing happens - business as usual
If the grace period expires and you are still jailed, the contract:
- Spreads your stake across the 3 smallest active validators
- Redistributes your pending fees to other active validators
- Disables your referral link
Once you unjail and return to bonded status, anyone can reactivate your validator to restore your referral link and leaderboard presence

Can I get my stake back after rebalancing?¶

No. Once stake is redelegated away from a jailed validator, it belongs to the target validator's delegation. The protocol does not track "original" delegations - it stakes proportionally based on referral attribution going forward.

What are the tiers?¶

Tiers are cosmetic rankings based on total ATOM staked through the protocol:

Titan: 100,000+ ATOM
Giant: 10,000+ ATOM
Core: 1,000+ ATOM
Node: 100+ ATOM
Planetoid: Under 100 ATOM

They reflect community engagement and have no functional effect on fee distribution.

What happens to swaps without a referral?¶

Swaps without a referral link still collect the 0.50% fee. These go to the "general" pool, which is distributed equally among all active registered validators.

Operations¶

How are fees processed?¶

Swap verification (attribution) runs approximately every 2 minutes. The remaining operations run approximately every 30 minutes:

Verify pending swaps (every 2 minutes)
Convert collected fees from all chains to ATOM
Distribute ATOM to the staking contract
Delegate pending ATOM to validators
Claim and compound staking rewards
Check for jailed validators and rebalance if needed

What if my swap is stuck?¶

Cross-chain swaps are routed and relayed by Skip Go. Occasionally a relay may take longer than expected. Your transaction will complete or be refunded automatically in most cases. If your funds remain stuck, contact Skip support on Discord for assistance. You can track your swap status on the Skip Explorer.

What if fee processing stops?¶

Fees accumulate but do not get staked. This is a delay, not a loss. Once ATOM has been delivered to the staking contract, all remaining operations (delegation, compounding, rebalancing) can be triggered by anyone directly on the contract. The only step that requires the Atom Circuit operator is converting fees from other chains to ATOM.

Is there a centralized component?¶

The fee conversion process (collecting fees on various chains and converting them to ATOM) is operated by the Atom Circuit team. This is the single trust point in the system. All staking, compounding, and rebalancing actions happen on-chain through the smart contract and are fully verifiable.

Security¶

Can someone steal the staked ATOM?¶

Only the contract admin can initiate undelegation. The contract has no withdrawal function by design - undelegated ATOM remains in the contract after unbonding. If the admin key is compromised, the attacker could undelegate but would need a contract migration to extract funds. The admin key is the critical security element.

Can someone fake attribution?¶

Each swap transaction is verified before fees are distributed. Attribution is validated and deduplicated. Even if someone were to submit a false attribution, they would only redirect fees between validators - there is no financial gain, since the attacker still pays the 0.50% swap fee.

Has the contract been audited?¶

The contract has been through multiple audit rounds with all findings resolved. However, no audit is 100% - see the Risks page for a full breakdown.

Can I withdraw my ATOM?¶

No. Atom Circuit is a one-way staking protocol. ATOM staked through the contract is not withdrawable by end users. Only the contract admin can initiate undelegation.