IoTeX, a public chain self-positioned as a DePIN+AI open ecological platform, has recently pressed a rather critical "restructuring" button on its mainnet—the Zanzibar hard fork has officially activated, with a single source indicating that its activation height is approximately 53,533,081 blocks. Accompanying Zanzibar's launch, the IIP-59 proposal has been implemented: the staking voting rewards, which relied on off-chain or third-party services for statistics, settlements, and distributions, have been entirely migrated on-chain. The protocol will automatically calculate the due shares in each reward cycle and directly pay them to the addresses, with all payment records preserved in the on-chain ledger, allowing any participant to verify them individually. From a design perspective, the first batch of on-chain staking rewards based on the new mechanism was originally expected to be distributed on the day after the hard fork activation; however, as of now, publicly available materials have not confirmed whether this distribution has been completed as scheduled, and what the outside world can observe more is the shift in the rules layer rather than quantifiable results. For IoTeX, this hard fork is not just an ordinary protocol upgrade; rather, under its DePIN+AI narrative, it marks a fundamental restructuring of its core incentive logic from "trusted service providers" to "trustless on-chain protocols." It begins by moving the financial pathway of reward distribution on-chain, starting with transparency and verifiability to reshape the trust relationship between participants and the network.

Zanzibar Hard Fork: Underlying Upgrade of IoTeX

If the previous adjustments to the rules can still be regarded as fine-tuning of the "operational layer," then Zanzibar's position on the IoTeX roadmap is closer to a complete foundational upgrade. According to a single source, this hard fork has been activated at the mainnet block height of 53,533,081 and is a standard protocol layer hard fork, not a "minor fix" that could be rolled back through parameter configuration—network consensus rules and reward settlement methods have been written into the new protocol version, and all nodes must follow or be discarded by consensus.

Under this new "platform," IIP-59 has migrated the distribution of staking voting rewards, which originally relied on off-chain or third-party services, to on-chain logic, with the protocol directly calculating and allocating rewards in each reward cycle. Anyone can subsequently verify each reward on-chain. This means that staking incentives are no longer an "operational service" attached to the public chain but have become part of IoTeX's fundamental rules. Coupled with IoTeX's self-positioning as a DePIN+AI open ecological platform, the official narrative has also intentionally wrapped Zanzibar as part of infrastructure iteration: only by first solidifying the profit pathway for validators and voters into the protocol itself can the subsequent incentive design around DePIN devices and AI applications have a unified starting point constrained by on-chain rules and subject to auditing.

Staking Rewards Transition from Proxy Distribution to Direct On-Chain Payment

Before Zanzibar, IoTeX's staking voting rewards resembled a "proxy distribution service": validators, nodes, or third-party services completed profit calculations off-chain according to their own scripts and schedules, then distributed the rewards to voters through batch transfers or other means. For participants, they could only see the additional tokens in their accounts without access to a unified formula, a complete settlement process, or an easy way to track when and under what rules each reward was issued from a public perspective.

IIP-59 has pushed this process on-chain. The proposal clearly states that the protocol will uniformly calculate the should-be-issued rewards in each reward cycle and directly distribute them to voters on-chain, with reward cycles and distribution frequency managed by protocol logic rather than by various services executing them independently. The result is that the reward calculation rules are locked into the protocol, payment records written into the on-chain state, and anyone can independently verify whether each staking reward is executed according to the rules. For stakers and nodes, the original assumption of "trusting a certain proxy service provider" has been reduced to "auditing whether the on-chain state aligns with protocol rules"; the entire incentive pathway's trust focus has shifted from individual operators to the protocol layer verifiable by everyone.

Incentives Moving On-Chain under the DePIN+AI Narrative

From the perspective of the DePIN+AI narrative, IoTeX has moved staking incentives into the protocol layer, essentially creating a verifiable and predictable profit settlement pathway for "physical world + computing power nodes + application developers." For participants operating physical devices, they no longer need to rely on the credibility of a specific proxy service provider or a regional operator; as long as the on-chain state aligns with the protocol rules, cross-regional and cross-entity collaboration has a unified settlement benchmark. According to IoTeX's official positioning, this chain aims to be a DePIN+AI open ecological platform, and Zanzibar has been directly classified as an upgrade iteration of this infrastructure. Binding the calculation and distribution of staking rewards entirely to on-chain state is a way to fulfill the commitment of "openness and auditability" through protocol layers.

From the perspective of node operators and developers, on-chain direct payments lower the collaboration threshold: as long as they connect to this chain, the incentive rules are firmly written into the protocol logic defined by proposals like IIP-59. Different roles can design business models around the same set of incentive expectations without negotiating an additional off-chain distribution scheme. Current publicly available materials have not provided specific case studies of DePIN or AI applications adopting the new incentive mechanism, but at least at the institutional level, IoTeX has moved "how rewards are distributed" from the operational decision of a centralized service provider to the protocol code that all participants can audit. This step makes its intention to enhance infrastructure credibility in the DePIN+AI track clearer.

Risks and Constraints of On-Chain Verifiable Rewards

The migration of rewards from off-chain operations to the protocol layer is not merely about adding a layer of transparency; it also locks the entire incentive system within the consensus itself. Zanzibar qualifies as a protocol layer hard fork upgrade, needing network participants to reach consensus for it to take effect, meaning that in the future, even if only adjusting the staking annualization or revising the distribution cycle, theoretically, it may require a similar upgrade path like Zanzibar. For a platform claiming to be a DePIN+AI open ecological environment, such a design writes the rules into the on-chain code, restricting arbitrary changes by a single service provider but also increasing the governance threshold and adjustment costs.

More realistically, current publicly available materials have not disclosed any changes in staking yields, reward amounts, or node operating costs post-Zanzibar, nor are there verified third-party statistics that quantify the economic impact of this upgrade on different participants. There's also no public result to verify whether the design expectation of "issuing the first batch of on-chain rewards the next day" has been fulfilled as anticipated. In this information gap, if the protocol layer's calculations and distributions encounter an error or parameter design imbalance, it can only rely on the next round of upgrades to fix issues, no longer able to correct through offline reconciliation or operational subsidies as in the past. IoTeX needs to endure more rigorous technical and governance constraints while being more strictly verifiable.

Observation Checklist After the First Batch of On-Chain Rewards

For IoTeX, the most immediate test ahead is how this batch of "first release" on-chain staking rewards, designed to be issued the day after Zanzibar's hard fork activation, will be implemented—whether it is recorded on the mainnet as expected and whether it fully complies with the protocol rules set by IIP-59. Current publicly available materials have yet to confirm whether this step has been completed, and no data has been disclosed regarding yield rates, node economic structures, or changes in participant behavior. This implies that the actual execution of the first rewards will itself become the primary observation point. Looking further, variables extend beyond a single upgrade: will the governance layer continue to incorporate more incentives and constraints directly into the protocol logic through paths such as IIP, rather than stopping at an operational level; will the community be willing to bear the rigid consequences of this "more on-chain" approach, supporting the solidification of reward and governance rules on-chain, will all need time to show results. In the absence of detailed data at the moment, this Zanzibar hard fork feels more like a structural signal, with subsequent assessments relying on publicly verifiable on-chain reward distribution records and changes in ecological participation to determine whether IoTeX's self-positioning path in DePIN+AI has indeed opened a new track at the protocol layer.

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