Arthur Hayes releases the Flop Yellow Paper, turning AI inference computing power into an on-chain commodity, with all tokens allocated via airdrop.

Arthur Hayes has published the yellow paper for his new project FLOP on social media. According to the introduction, FLOP is a proof-of-useful-inference blockchain and native token tailored for the Agent economy. Agents use FLOP to pay miners for inference fees, directly converting the token into computing power and intelligence. Simply put, FLOP aims to position AI inference computing power as an on-chain commodity that is purchasable, verifiable, and settleable. The workflow operates as follows: AI Agents use FLOP to pay for inference requests; miners run the required models; verifiers confirm that "the inference is roughly credible and the work is valid", then settle rewards and block rewards. On token supply, FLOP has a genesis supply of approximately 2.48346 billion tokens, all allocated via airdrop, with no VC pre-mining or auctions. The initial phase reward distribution is 75% to miners, 10% to verifiers, 10% to Agents, and 5% to regular stakers. The network features an average block time of one second, with an initial block reward of 96 FLOP, which halves every 730 days for a total of five halving cycles—dropping from 96 to 48, 24, 12, 6, and finally 3—after which the reward will remain permanently at 3 FLOP. To become a miner or verifier, participants must stake FLOP tokens, and dishonest staking will incur penalties. Verifiers serve as network guardians and manage the protocol through FLOP Improvement Proposals (FIPs).