diff --git a/activation/activation.go b/activation/activation.go
index cfa1efb3f5..c423ed29c6 100644
--- a/activation/activation.go
+++ b/activation/activation.go
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ import (
 type PoetConfig struct {
 	PhaseShift        time.Duration `mapstructure:"phase-shift"`
 	CycleGap          time.Duration `mapstructure:"cycle-gap"`
-	GracePeriod       time.Duration `mapstructure:"grace-period"`
+	RequestTimeout    time.Duration `mapstructure:"grace-period"`
 	RequestRetryDelay time.Duration `mapstructure:"retry-delay"`
 	MaxRequestRetries int           `mapstructure:"retry-max"`
 }
@@ -50,9 +50,9 @@ const (
 	defaultPoetRetryInterval = 5 * time.Second
 
 	// Jitter added to the wait time before building a nipost challenge.
-	// It's expressed as % of poet grace period which translates to:
-	//  mainnet (grace period 1h) -> 36s
-	//  systest (grace period 10s) -> 0.1s
+	// It is expressed as ‰ (1/1000) of PoET cycle gap which translates to:
+	//  mainnet (cycle gap 12h) -> 43.20s
+	//  systest (grace gap 30s) ->  0.03s
 	maxNipostChallengeBuildJitter = 1.0
 )
 
@@ -440,7 +440,7 @@ func (b *Builder) buildNIPostChallenge(ctx context.Context) (*types.NIPostChalle
 			ErrATXChallengeExpired, current, -until)
 	}
 	metrics.PublishOntimeWindowLatency.Observe(until.Seconds())
-	wait := timeToWaitToBuildNipostChallenge(until, b.poetCfg.GracePeriod)
+	wait := timeToWaitToBuildNipostChallenge(until, b.poetCfg.CycleGap)
 	if wait >= 0 {
 		b.log.WithContext(ctx).With().Debug("waiting for fresh atxs",
 			log.Duration("till poet round", until),
@@ -726,7 +726,7 @@ func SignAndFinalizeAtx(signer *signing.EdSigner, atx *types.ActivationTx) error
 	return atx.Initialize()
 }
 
-func timeToWaitToBuildNipostChallenge(untilRoundStart, gracePeriod time.Duration) time.Duration {
-	jitter := randomDurationInRange(time.Duration(0), gracePeriod*maxNipostChallengeBuildJitter/100.0)
-	return untilRoundStart + jitter - gracePeriod
+func timeToWaitToBuildNipostChallenge(untilRoundStart, cycleGap time.Duration) time.Duration {
+	jitter := randomDurationInRange(time.Duration(0), cycleGap * maxNipostChallengeBuildJitter/1000.0)
+	return untilRoundStart + jitter
 }
diff --git a/activation/activation_test.go b/activation/activation_test.go
index 9f40809b58..2388fb026d 100644
--- a/activation/activation_test.go
+++ b/activation/activation_test.go
@@ -1227,8 +1227,8 @@ func TestBuilder_UpdatePoetsUnstable(t *testing.T) {
 func TestWaitPositioningAtx(t *testing.T) {
 	genesis := time.Now()
 	for _, tc := range []struct {
-		desc         string
-		shift, grace time.Duration
+		desc           string
+		shift, timeout time.Duration
 
 		expect string
 	}{
@@ -1239,8 +1239,8 @@ func TestWaitPositioningAtx(t *testing.T) {
 		tc := tc
 		t.Run(tc.desc, func(t *testing.T) {
 			tab := newTestBuilder(t, WithPoetConfig(PoetConfig{
-				PhaseShift:  tc.shift,
-				GracePeriod: tc.grace,
+				PhaseShift:     tc.shift,
+				RequestTimeout: tc.timeout,
 			}))
 			tab.mclock.EXPECT().CurrentLayer().Return(types.LayerID(0)).AnyTimes()
 			tab.mclock.EXPECT().LayerToTime(gomock.Any()).DoAndReturn(func(lid types.LayerID) time.Time {
diff --git a/activation/nipost.go b/activation/nipost.go
index c40899dd53..c477622aeb 100644
--- a/activation/nipost.go
+++ b/activation/nipost.go
@@ -482,9 +482,7 @@ func (nb *NIPostBuilder) getBestProof(ctx context.Context, challenge types.Hash3
 			case <-time.After(time.Until(waitDeadline)):
 			}
 
-			// TODO(mafa): this should be renamed from GracePeriod to something like RequestTimeout
-			// and should be much shorter (e.g. 10 seconds instead of 1 hour on mainnet)
-			getProofsCtx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, nb.poetCfg.GracePeriod)
+			getProofsCtx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, nb.poetCfg.RequestTimeout)
 			defer cancel()
 
 			proof, members, err := client.Proof(getProofsCtx, round)
diff --git a/activation/nipost_test.go b/activation/nipost_test.go
index 93bb3a51b7..afdfd8549b 100644
--- a/activation/nipost_test.go
+++ b/activation/nipost_test.go
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ func buildNIPost(tb testing.TB, postProvider *testPostManager, nipostChallenge t
 	poetCfg := PoetConfig{
 		PhaseShift:        epoch / 5,
 		CycleGap:          epoch / 10,
-		GracePeriod:       epoch / 10,
+		RequestTimeout:    epoch / 20,
 		RequestRetryDelay: epoch / 100,
 		MaxRequestRetries: 10,
 	}
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@ func TestNewNIPostBuilderNotInitialized(t *testing.T) {
 	poetCfg := PoetConfig{
 		PhaseShift:        epoch / 5,
 		CycleGap:          epoch / 10,
-		GracePeriod:       epoch / 10,
+		RequestTimeout:    epoch / 20,
 		RequestRetryDelay: epoch / 100,
 		MaxRequestRetries: 10,
 	}
diff --git a/cmd/root.go b/cmd/root.go
index d55dd23071..517598c67c 100644
--- a/cmd/root.go
+++ b/cmd/root.go
@@ -255,8 +255,8 @@ func AddCommands(cmd *cobra.Command) {
 		cfg.POET.PhaseShift, "phase shift of poet server")
 	cmd.PersistentFlags().DurationVar(&cfg.POET.CycleGap, "cycle-gap",
 		cfg.POET.CycleGap, "cycle gap of poet server")
-	cmd.PersistentFlags().DurationVar(&cfg.POET.GracePeriod, "grace-period",
-		cfg.POET.GracePeriod, "propagation time for ATXs in the network")
+	cmd.PersistentFlags().DurationVar(&cfg.POET.RequestTimeout, "poet-request-timeout",
+		cfg.POET.RequestTimeout, "timeout for poet requests")
 
 	/**======================== bootstrap data updater Flags ========================== **/
 	cmd.PersistentFlags().StringVar(&cfg.Bootstrap.URL, "bootstrap-url",
diff --git a/config/mainnet.go b/config/mainnet.go
index abee02a74b..563f1a0a1d 100644
--- a/config/mainnet.go
+++ b/config/mainnet.go
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ func MainnetConfig() Config {
 		POET: activation.PoetConfig{
 			PhaseShift:        240 * time.Hour,
 			CycleGap:          12 * time.Hour,
-			GracePeriod:       1 * time.Hour,
+			RequestTimeout:    10 * time.Second,
 			RequestRetryDelay: 10 * time.Second,
 			MaxRequestRetries: 10,
 		},
diff --git a/config/presets/fastnet.go b/config/presets/fastnet.go
index 8c08e30832..df1672bd60 100644
--- a/config/presets/fastnet.go
+++ b/config/presets/fastnet.go
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ func fastnet() config.Config {
 	conf.Beacon.BeaconSyncWeightUnits = 10
 	conf.Beacon.VotesLimit = 100
 
-	conf.POET.GracePeriod = 10 * time.Second
+	conf.POET.RequestTimeout = 5 * time.Second
 	conf.POET.CycleGap = 30 * time.Second
 	conf.POET.PhaseShift = 30 * time.Second
 
diff --git a/config/presets/standalone.go b/config/presets/standalone.go
index 41ace4a5cd..591aafd4a2 100644
--- a/config/presets/standalone.go
+++ b/config/presets/standalone.go
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ func standalone() config.Config {
 	conf.Beacon.VotesLimit = 100
 
 	conf.PoETServers = []string{"http://0.0.0.0:10010"}
-	conf.POET.GracePeriod = 5 * time.Second
+	conf.POET.RequestTimeout = 5 * time.Second
 	conf.POET.CycleGap = 30 * time.Second
 	conf.POET.PhaseShift = 30 * time.Second