Voters staking IoTeX (IOTX) with participating delegates will have reward calculations and payments handled by the network protocol after Zanzibar, while some delegates remain on the existing service-based route.
IoTeXScan timestamps block 53,533,081 at 10:28 p.m. ET Oct. 18 (02:28:37 UTC Oct. 19); IoTeX designated that height for the fork.
Under IIP-59, the protocol starts settling voter rewards at each reward-era boundary and distributes payments in batches over subsequent blocks. The change moves the calculation and distribution rules into the protocol for participating delegates.
Blockchain visibility itself is not new. Transactions sent through Hermes, which previously calculated and paid rewards outside the network’s consensus process, were also visible on chain, IoTeX’s staking guide says.
IoTeX’s proposal cites Hermes service fees and payout delays during outages as reasons for the change, and identifies voters as potential beneficiaries. The new process does not cover every delegate: IoTeX’s release notes say Hermes-linked delegates without required reward settings stay on the existing route, while delegates using other reward addresses must opt in.
Zanzibar also requires candidates who register or update a BLS public key to show they control it. IoTeX’s release notes say the check is intended to prevent use of keys a candidate does not control before the network introduces signature aggregation under IIP-52. The on-chain reward-era settlement record is the next indicator of distributions under the new rules.
