Glow V2 and Specialized Mining Roles
Glow is a solar mining crypto protocol in which solar farms compete to displace the most carbon relative to their electricity revenues. By design, the most competitive farms on Glow tend to be marginal projects where electricity revenues alone would not justify construction, but GLW token rewards help them achieve viability.
To enable broader participation in funding these high-impact projects, Glow V2 unbundles solar mining into specialized roles (detailed in our article describing the Glow mining ecosystem). Glow Miners play an integral role in this three-pronged participant setup, as they pay cash incentives to Solar Farm Installers for constructing and onboarding marginally viable solar farms to Glow. In exchange for providing cash incentives to farms, they receive a portion of GLW tokens that Glow solar farms earn. The process of earning GLW tokens for a Glow Miner is as follows:
- Solar Farm Installers bring their solar development opportunities to Glow
- Glow Miners assess opportunities, identifying marginally viable projects that need minimal cash incentives and would perform competitively on Glow
- Glow Miners negotiate cash incentives with Installers and GLW reward splits with Delegators
- Solar Farm Installers accept cash incentives, complete farm construction, and onboard farms to Glow
- Farms compete on Glow for 100 weeks, earning GLW tokens from weekly protocol emissions
- GLW tokens flow to the Glow Miners who provided cash incentives to Installers
How GLW Rewards Flow to Miners
GLW tokens are distributed per the following flow: first, the protocol allocates tokens to Infrastructure Projects (IPs) based on staked GCTL; second, each IP distributes tokens to its farms based on deposit sizes; third, each farm distributes its token rewards to Glow Miners who split them with Glow Delegators based on an agreed-upon apportionment.
Within each Infrastructure Project, the weekly GLW IP allocation splits among farms proportionally based on their protocol deposit sizes. Each farm's GLW rewards split between Glow Miners who provided cash incentives and Glow Delegators who posted protocol deposits. The split depends on farm competitiveness. More competitive farms allow Glow Miners to capture more of the token rewards, as Glow Delegators accept smaller GLW allocations in exchange for more reliable deposit recovery and surplus capture from weaker farms. Farms that displace less carbon relative to their electricity revenues are less competitive on Glow, experience weaker deposit recovery, and risk forfeiting a portion of their initial protocol deposit to more competitive farms. Since these farms are more risky for Delegators, they require Glow Miners to offer larger GLW shares to compensate Delegators for the increased likelihood of deposit forfeitures.
The Mining Center
The Mining Center simplifies Glow Mining by offering pre-packaged mining products where cash incentives have been paid to Solar Farm Installers, protocol deposit splits between Glow Miners and Glow Delegators have been finalized, and farms are already live and active on Glow. Each mining product represents fractional claims to specific solar farms and displays the cash required, the total GLW tokens the farm will earn, and the predetermined rewards split between Glow Miners and Glow Delegators.
Participants purchase mining opportunities by paying USDC, which compensates the Glow Foundation for packaging mining products and provides capital to fund additional solar farm deployment. Capital inflows from mining purchases flow towards funding the next batch of marginally viable solar farms. Once a Glow Miner purchases a mining opportunity, they begin receiving their allocated GLW token streams from the farm's 100-week competition period. Ultimately, the Mining Center removes the complexity of coordinating with Solar Farm Installers and negotiating splits with Glow Delegators. Each listed mining opportunity has been pre-vetted, structured, and priced, allowing participants to gain exposure to Glow's solar infrastructure incentives through a straightforward purchase. As new farms join the protocol and existing farms progress through their competition periods, the Mining Center continuously updates with fresh opportunities, providing ongoing access to GLW token streams backed by real-world solar deployment.
Start Mining
Every mining position on the Mining Center represents a real solar farm generating impactful clean energy. Purchase a position with USDC and immediately start receiving weekly GLW token distributions for up to 100 weeks. Your mining purchase helps fund the construction of new high-impact solar farms while earning you a steady stream of GLW tokens. Each week, new mining opportunities are posted as The Glow Foundation continuously packages new mining positions as farms join the network.