How it works: follow the money

The fastest way to understand the system is to watch money move through it. Two journeys cover everything: a dollar that builds a plant, and a dollar that holds the result. The numbers below are illustrative, chosen round for readability; the exact rules behind each step live in the linked pages.

The building dollar

A developer brings Suno a project: a 1 MW plant with a signed energy contract, needing $1,000,000 to build.

1. The raise. The project is tokenized as its own pWatt and investors fund it, with proceeds released against installation milestones. Early backers enter at a discount for carrying more of the construction timeline.

2. Construction and proof. The plant is built, connected, and starts selling electricity. Its first revenues are the proof that the asset works as designed.

3. The swap. The plant is appraised at $1,200,000 (a producing asset is worth more than a construction plan) and the entire project moves into the Reserve. Investors receive uWatt worth about $1,100,000: a 10% return for having carried construction. The remaining ~$100,000 of appreciation stays in the Reserve, reinforcing the margin that protects everyone downstream. (The pWatt has the exact split rule.)

The investors now hold a liquid asset backed by the whole portfolio, and their exposure to that single plant is over. Capital is free to fund the next project.

The holding dollar

Now take the other side: you arrive with $100 in stablecoins.

1. Mint. You deposit $100 at the protocol's desk and receive 100 uWatt. Your stablecoins join the Reserve's liquidity buffer. Behind each of your tokens sits more than a dollar of assets; the margin above par belongs to the system, not to any single entrant. (The uWatt)

2. Stake. You deposit your 100 uWatt in the staking vault and receive c-uWatt, a share whose value in uWatt grows as income arrives. No lockup; you can unstake at any time. (Yield and staking)

3. A month passes. The Reserve's plants collect, say, $10,000 from electricity sales. Each payment is split by a rule that reads the health of the Reserve: when the margin is at its target, most of the payment (roughly ninety cents of each dollar) becomes staker yield, and the rest stays in the Reserve. When the margin is below target, the split shifts automatically toward rebuilding it. Your c-uWatt is now worth slightly more uWatt than you deposited.

4. Months compound. Each payment repeats the cycle. Your yield is variable, because it is the cash performance of real plants, and it arrives without any action on your part: the share price of c-uWatt simply rises as distributions vest.

5. Exit. You unstake (c-uWatt converts back to uWatt at the going rate) and redeem at the desk: $1 per uWatt, minus a small redemption fee, paid from the liquidity buffer. On days of unusually heavy redemptions, a daily queue spaces exits out so the portfolio never has to fire-sale a plant. (The uWatt covers the guarantees and their limits.)

The loop

Put the two journeys together and the system is a loop: capital builds plants, plants join the portfolio, the portfolio backs a digital dollar, electricity revenue pays the dollar's holders, and freed capital funds the next plant. Every step is enforced by contracts, priced from audited valuations, and visible on-chain.

The pages in The Suno Protocol specify each step with the precision an auditor would want.