Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, has published a technical whitepaper for FLOP Network, a proposed blockchain designed to connect AI inference payments directly to verifiable computation. The document, shared on Sept. 7, expands on an initial outline from August and remains explicitly labeled as a draft that could change before any launch.
The genesis supply is set at 2,483,460,000 FLOP tokens, with 100% allocated through airdrops and no presales or venture capital. Initial block rewards are 96 FLOP, distributed as 75% to miners, 10% to validators, 10% to participating AI agents, and 5% to staking delegators. Emissions halve every 730 days across five phases until reaching a permanent subsidy of 3 FLOP per block.
FLOP Network uses a model called Proof of Useful Inference (PoUI). An autonomous AI agent submits a session request containing the model-weight hash, maximum tolerated latency, floating-point computation metric, confidentiality parameter, and fee. A compatible miner runs the inference privately, generates a cryptographic proof, and validators record the proof hash on-chain. Miners and validators must stake FLOP, and dishonest claims or invalid blocks can trigger slashing.
The specification targets one-second average blocks and a validator set capped at 1,000, with about 50 validators expected to rotate monthly. Most governance changes would require two-thirds approval from active validators. Flop Labs plans a community airdrop in Q4 2026, while mainnet genesis block production is scheduled for Q1 2027.
