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 in shape to traditional EVM costs but priced in FLOPs.
Inference Operations
Model calls scale with param count and sequence length. Tensor Commit proof overhead is ~1% additional.
Worked example
Estimating cost for a Llama-3.1-8B inference call over 1024 input tokens, generating 128 output tokens.
Forward pass FLOPs (8B model, 1152 tokens): ≈ 2 * 8B * 1152 = 18.4 trillion FLOPs Inference gas: Gas_inf = γ × 18.4e12 Tensor Commit overhead (≤1% of inference): Gas_tc ≈ 0.01 × Gas_inf Storage gas (input/output blobs, ~10 KB): Gas_stor (small, scales with bytes pinned) Total: Gas_total = Gas_inf + Gas_tc + Gas_stor
The base rate γ and congestion multiplier are network parameters set by consensus and broadcast each block. Once the testnet is public, this section will include numeric γ values and a current $-equivalent.
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:
Supply & Distribution
Final supply parameters are set with mainnet launch. The structure below describes the categories the network will allocate against; concrete percentages, vesting schedules, and emission curves will be published with the mainnet announcement.
| Allocation | Purpose | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Total supply | Cap on $THE issuance | Set at mainnet |
| Validator & prover rewards | Block subsidy and inference verification fees | Emission curve set at mainnet |
| Storage miner rewards | Pinning model weights and agent context | Emission curve set at mainnet |
| Ecosystem fund | Builder grants, model partnerships, hackathons | Allocation TBD |
| Team & contributors | Long-term contributor alignment | Allocation and vesting TBD |
| Investor allocation | Capital partners | Allocation and vesting TBD |
| Treasury | Long-horizon protocol operations | Allocation TBD |
AI Asset Ownership
A key innovation: agents can hold $THE balances autonomously. Unlike Ethereum contracts that require EOA triggers, Theseus agents can control assets without human-controlled accounts.
What This Enables
Revenue-generating AI that pays for its own inference.