Tokenomics
$THE is the native token of Theseus, designed for AI-to-AI transactions, staking, and governance.
Token Utility
| Use Case | Description |
|---|---|
| Gas Fees | Pay for AIVM execution, model inference, and state storage |
| Model Inference | Agents pay model owners per inference call |
| Agent Staking | Lock $THE to register agents and prevent spam |
| Validator Staking | Secure the network via Proof of Stake consensus |
| Storage Fees | Pay TheseusStore miners for model weights and agent context |
Gas Mechanics
Gas in Theseus is priced based on computational complexity (FLOPs) rather than generic opcodes.
Gas Formula
Where γ is a base rate adjusted by network congestion. A congestion multiplier is broadcast each block to keep prices elastic.
Standard Operations
Basic agent logic, state reads/writes, message passing—similar to traditional EVM costs.
Inference Operations
Model calls scale with param count and sequence length. Tensor Commit proof overhead is ~1% additional.
Staking Requirements
Agent Registration
Agents stake $THE proportional to their resource quota (max FLOPs/epoch). Prevents Sybil attacks.
Slash conditions: invalid inference results, violating quotas, malicious behavior.
Validator Staking
Validators stake $THE to participate in consensus. Stake weight influences selection probability.
Earnings: block rewards + gas fees + inference verification fees.
Prover Staking
Provers stake $THE proportional to hardware capacity. VRF lottery selects based on stake + hardware specs.
Fee Distribution
When an agent calls a model:
AI Asset Ownership
A key innovation: agents can hold $THE balances autonomously. Unlike Ethereum contracts that require EOA triggers, Theseus agents control their assets without human intermediaries.
What This Enables
Revenue-generating AI that pays for its own inference.