Proof-of-Inference Litepaper

Updated October 14, 2025

The $AGENT Standard for AI: Babel‑Fee Inference & On‑Chain Proof

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0) TL;DR

• Mission: Make AI usage verifiable and make it pay operators and stakers—natively in $AGENT.

• Core loop: Stake/bond $AGENT → run inference jobs → every fee paid in $AGENT → epoch‑roll payouts to stakers → slash on misbehavior.

• Receipts: Each job emits a signed PoI receipt (model ID, prompt hash, seed/params, rolling hash). A compact fingerprint is anchored on Cardano for audit.

• Zero‑ADA UX: With Babel‑fees, users sign with $AGENT only. Protocol handles any ADA behind the scenes.

• Economics: 70% operator / 28% stakers / 1% DAO / 1% FeeTank—all sourced from $AGENT fees (DAO + FeeTank slices are swapped to ADA as needed).

• Defensible: Deterministic runs + on‑chain anchors + slashable bonds. No “trust us.”

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1) Investor brief — why this matters

• The shift: Big labs are pushing Model‑as‑an‑App—closed endpoints, minimal visibility, usage rents.

• The gap: Enterprises, developers, and regulators need verifiable AI: who ran what, with which model, from which inputs, producing which outputs—with a proof they can check later.

• Our answer: PoI on Cardano with $AGENT as native gas. Jobs pay in $AGENT, receipts are cryptographically anchored on‑chain, and rewards flow directly to operators and stakers.

Verifiable AI > Walled Gardens. We replaced “trust” with proof and aligned incentives with real usage.

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2) Problem

Centralized AI today is a black box:

• No durable receipts; limited audit trails

• Weak recourse for tampering or hallucination

• Poor economics for decentralized providers (can’t finance GPUs on “maybe” yields)

Result: compliance risk for institutions and a starvation diet for independent compute networks.

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3) Solution — PoI on Cardano with $AGENT as gas

We run deterministic inference (fixed seed/params, rolling hashes), emit a signed receipt, and anchor a compact fingerprint on‑chain under a standard metadata label. Fees and gas are paid in $AGENT via Cardano’s Babel‑fee mechanism; users never handle ADA.

What’s different

• Auditable by default: Every job leaves a verifiable proof trail.

• Usage‑aligned: Fees in $AGENT go straight to operators and stakers.

• Credible security: Operators stake/bond $AGENT; misbehavior is slashable on‑chain.

• Clean UX: $AGENT‑only signing; protocol manages ADA where needed (treasury & ops).

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4) What we just demonstrated (preview testnet)

• Decentralized inference on a Petals‑based BLOOM‑560M swarm (runner endpoint withheld)

• Generated a signed PoI receipt (prompt_hash, seed, params, transcript.rolling_hash, model identity)

• Anchored the receipt fingerprint on Cardano (immutable proof)

• Escrow initiation captured on‑chain (separate tx)

Network: Cardano preview testnet Agent address:

addr_test1qpjzvg6qqefx4c8eqsez4fnsxfdmcjtz4ku9f0fgju6ymc7ehhk8tdd2j0fqtn7975krepy8a7l8cepk5gyzyq7g6l6s4aetl5

Job: petals_1758832859921 (seed=53) Receipt (signed): receipts/petals_1758832859921.poi.receipt.json

Key on‑chain transactions (preview)

• Escrow initiate — label 2222, action:"initiate" 3a7b52a2852b05fba71301716c11dd486de295bd68d33013d28a3b1069bbe325

• PoI anchor — label 2222, action:"anchor" 1a697155ec50babafde25d5908c19a6b0c80c068476ef6ff84d0048e3fdef344 Metadata includes jobId: petals_1758832859921 resultHash: 631166715f80b93133221ca4e62df6c03fdcca693249485676929452b5bf82aa receiptHash: 14fbdfe780ce6223f549ea514db3493a5b3ea4ceb0cb0f17a09880bd6e33b3e2

Interpretation resultHash = receipt’s transcript.rolling_hash (binds generated tokens). receiptHash = SHA‑256 of the signature‑stripped receipt JSON (enables universal recomputation).

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5) Protocol architecture

Layer	Component	Role	Notes
On‑chain (Plutus V3)	InferencePool	Holds bonded $AGENT; slash on misbehavior	Deterministic policy parameters
	JobEscrow	Escrows $AGENT fees; enforces proof & 70/28/1/1 split	Label 2222 events
	StreamDistributor	Batches & pays staker rewards once per epoch in $AGENT	Gas‑efficient payouts
	PoI Anchor (metadata)	Stores compact job fingerprint (jobId, resultHash, receiptHash)	Standardized schema (label 2222)
	FeeTank (Aquarium)	Babel‑fee provider & ADA sink for UTxO/ops	Auto‑topped‑up (1% slice)
Off‑chain	Dispatcher	Queues jobs; builds tx metadata; quotes model/time/VRAM	Signs $AGENT‑only txs
	Verifier / Oracle	Validates result hash vs receipt; price oracle (Charli3)	Multi‑sig capable
	Epoch‑Roll Aggregator	Writes one payout per staker per epoch	Minimizes chain load
Liquidity & pricing	External venues	Provide $AGENT liquidity and small ADA conversions (for 1% slices)	Use conservative oracle‑guided quotes

We no longer rely on, operate, or reference ownership of any DEX. Liquidity access is venue‑agnostic and uses conservative quoting plus oracle checks.

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6) Economics & incentives (no buy‑backs—$AGENT is the fee token)

Fee split (all sourced from $AGENT job fees)

Share	Receiver	Purpose
70%	Pool operator	Energy / rental / API
28%	Stakers	Usage‑driven rewards (epoch‑rolled in $AGENT)
1%	DAO Treasury	Swapped to ADA for audits & grants
1%	FeeTank top‑up	Swapped to ADA to keep Babel/ops solvent

• Staking flywheel: More inference → more $AGENT fees → periodic distributions to stakers → stronger security and liquidity.

• Operator alignment: Uptime + correctness = more jobs and revenue; misreports risk slashing.

• No emissions: Max supply 1B $AGENT (fixed). No new issuance. Utility demand only.

• Governance: Proposals via Clarity.vote / Agora DAO. Voting power = bonded $AGENT, snapshotted once per epoch.

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7) Full flow

1. User submits job → pays entirely in $AGENT (Babel‑fees cover ADA).

2. Runner executes deterministically (seed/params fixed).

3. Runner emits a signed PoI receipt (model ID, prompt hash, seed/params, transcript rolling hash).

4. Protocol posts a compact on‑chain anchor (label 2222).

5. JobEscrow applies the 70/28/1/1 policy; staker rewards roll once per epoch.

6. Fraud proof or SLA miss → slash the operator’s bond.

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8) Token utility

• Bonding: Pools stake/bond $AGENT sized to hardware tier.

• Fee token: All jobs quote and settle in $AGENT.

• Governance: Bonded $AGENT = voting power (epoch‑snapshot).

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9) Treasury note

DAO treasury already lives on Clarity.vote (Agora UTxO). The protocol routes 1% of each job fee to DAO (swapped to ADA), and 1% to FeeTank.

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10) Roadmap

Milestone	Status / ETA	Deliverables
Preview testnet	Done	PoI receipts; on‑chain anchors; $AGENT‑only tx (Babel‑fee); escrow events
Mainnet v1	Q4 ’25	Epoch roll‑up payouts; slashing; $AGENT‑as‑gas live
Strategy Marketplace	Q1 ’26	Mintable quant strategies as NFTs; plug‑and‑play routing of fee flows

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11) Risk & mitigation

1. FeeTank drain / Babel LP risk → Daily caps + automatic 1% top‑up; emergency ADA fallback if required.

2. Oracle/Verifier collusion → Multi‑sig verifiers; open‑source client to recompute hashes.

3. Liquidity crunch → Diversify across major Cardano DEXs/aggregators; oracle‑guided quoting; moving‑average price guards and rate‑limiters.

4. Regulatory clarity → $AGENT used for compute, bonding, and governance; no passive ROI promises.

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12) FAQ

Q1 — Do I need ADA in my wallet? No. Jobs and fees are $AGENT‑only. Babel‑fees and the FeeTank supply ADA where the chain requires it.

Q2 — What hardware qualifies to run a pool (EXAMPLES)?

• Edge — Pi 5 / RK3588 / Jetson‑Orin‑Nano (bond: 5,000 $AGENT)

• GPU — RTX 4090 (≥24GB VRAM) (bond: 80,000 $AGENT)

• Datacenter — A100/H100 (bond: 800,000 $AGENT)

Q3 — How are rewards delivered? Aggregated per epoch (~5 days). StreamDistributor writes one $AGENT payout UTxO per staker. No manual claiming.

Q4 — Can my bond be slashed? Yes. Incorrect results, missed deadlines, or failed verification can trigger on‑chain slashing.

Q5 — When can I withdraw rewards or un‑bond?

• Reward vesting: Rewards accrue immediately but are locked for 6 months; after day 180, withdraw anytime.

• Un‑bond cool‑down: 2 epochs (~10 days) before bonded $AGENT returns, to prevent “bond‑and‑run.”

Q6 — Where can I get $AGENT? On major Cardano DEXs/aggregators; see market pages such as TapTools for venues and pairs.

Q7 — What if the FeeTank runs out of ADA? Dispatcher can temporarily fall back to normal ADA settlement. The 1% top‑up keeps it solvent in normal conditions.

Q8 — How are fees quoted? Quotes are in $AGENT based on model × tokens/time × tier. The dispatcher shows the quote before you sign. No hidden spreads; DAO and FeeTank slices are visible.

Q9 — How do I run an Inference Pool? (≈5‑minute checklist)

1. Hardware — Bring a qualifying device (Edge / GPU / DC).

2. Wallet — Fund with the bond in $AGENT (no ADA required in your wallet).

3. Docker — Install ≥24.0; pull the pool image:

docker run -d --restart unless-stopped \
  -e CARDANO_NET=mainnet \
  -e WALLET_MNEMONIC="..." \
  ghcr.io/fluxpoint/agent-pool:latest

1. Bond — Container emits a bond.cmd; run it to post the Bond UTxO (Babel‑fee covered).

2. Networking — Open port 3000 (Edge NAT punches via WebSocket tunnel).

3. Dashboard — localhost:8080 shows Bond ✓ | Jobs | Rewards; jobs flow from the next epoch.

Q10 — Can I co‑run Iagon Storage/Compute with my pool? Yes, if you still meet both SLAs.

• Edge: not recommended.

• Multi‑GPU: pin Iagon to --gpus="device=1" (or MIG); keep primary GPU free for inference.

• A100/H100: isolate via CUDA context or MIG; NVIDIA MPS will arbitrate. If benchmarks dip, your reputation and rewards will fall; chronic misses can be slashed.

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13) Demo: verify the preview run yourself (≈90 seconds)

Prereqs: Blockfrost preview API key in BLOCKFROST and the local receipt file.

1) Fetch anchor metadata

export BLOCKFROST=<your_preview_project_id>
curl -s -H "project_id: $BLOCKFROST" \
https://cardano-preview.blockfrost.io/api/v0/txs/1a697155ec50babafde25d5908c19a6b0c80c068476ef6ff84d0048e3fdef344/metadata | jq .
# label 2222: { action:"anchor", jobId:"petals_1758832859921", resultHash, receiptHash }

2) Check the rolling hash from your receipt

jq -r '.transcript.rolling_hash' receipts/petals_1758832859921.poi.receipt.json
# 631166715f80b93133221ca4e62df6c03fdcca693249485676929452b5bf82aa

3) Recompute the signature‑stripped receiptHash

node -e "const fs=require('fs');const c=JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('receipts/petals_1758832859921.poi.receipt.json','utf8'));c.signature='';const h=require('crypto').createHash('sha256').update(JSON.stringify(c)).digest('hex');console.log(h)"
# 14fbdfe780ce6223f549ea514db3493a5b3ea4ceb0cb0f17a09880bd6e33b3e2

4) (Optional) Inspect escrow initiation

curl -s -H "project_id: $BLOCKFROST" \
https://cardano-preview.blockfrost.io/api/v0/txs/3a7b52a2852b05fba71301716c11dd486de295bd68d33013d28a3b1069bbe325/metadata | jq .
# label 2222: { action:"initiate", jobId:"...", model:"bigscience/bloom-560m", ... }

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14) Compliance

This document is informational and does not constitute an offer to sell tokens. Forward‑looking statements are subject to change at the discretion of Flux Point Studios, Inc.

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15) Contact

• Web: fluxpointstudios.com

• X/Twitter: @fluxpointstudio

• Discord: discord.gg/MfYUMnfrJM

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From black boxes to balance sheets: AI usage becomes an auditable line item—with cryptographic receipts and $AGENT‑denominated cash flows.