Economics

Overview

Nockchain is the first L1 blockchain powered by Zero-Knowledge Proof of Work (zkPoW).

Nodes secure the chain and produce blocks by mining zero-knowledge proofs in a PoW competition. Transactions scale as the network difficulty grows to maintain a high velocity of money without bottlenecking.

Unlike many modern blockchain projects, Nockchain launched without any pre-mine, private sales, or venture capital allocation. Every single NOCK token in existence has been mined through the proof-of-work consensus mechanism, ensuring a truly decentralized distribution.

Mining & Provers

Nockchain replaces the wasted energy of traditional Nakamoto consensus with Useful Proof of Work.

Miners, referred to as "provers," compete to generate zero-knowledge proofs that secure the network and validate transactions. This work isn't wasted — the proofs generated during mining directly power the chain's computation and security guarantees.

Heavyweight computation takes place offchain, and only the proof needs to be posted. This means applications built on Nockchain inherit the mathematical guarantees of zero-knowledge proofs combined with proof-of-work consensus — delivering unprecedented security compared to classic blockchains.

Proof-of-work incentives invite many decentralized participants rather than the few large actors favored by proof-of-stake. Onchain execution is minimal, leading to a readily scalable chain while maintaining true decentralization.

The Logos Upgrade

From block 126,000, Nockchain mines with two puzzles at once.

Logos adds AI-PoW alongside the original ZK-PoW rather than replacing it. Where ZK-PoW rewards proof generation, AI-PoW rewards tiled INT8 matrix multiplication — the same arithmetic that trains and runs neural networks — with a recursive STARK certificate proving the work was really done. Both puzzles compete for the same blocks, and a block is won by whichever puzzle solves first.

Each puzzle retargets on its own ASERT schedule. Logos allocated roughly 70% of blocks to ZK-PoW and 30% to AI-PoW. From block 147,500, Anthropos changes those targets to 30% ZK and 70% AI: ZK blocks target 500 seconds and AI blocks 214 seconds. The combined cadence remains approximately 150 seconds. AI-PoW keeps the same mining algorithm and MAC/s units.

Because the two puzzles search different spaces, their difficulties are not directly comparable. Nockscan converts both into ZK-attempt-equivalents so a single work figure stays meaningful across the fork, and reports AI-PoW's own effort as a rate of multiply-accumulates per second.

Emission is unchanged: Logos alters how blocks are won, not how many NOCK they pay.

Emission Schedule

Since the Aletheia upgrade at block 65,500, NOCK follows a unified emission schedule: a 6-month activation era at 2,048 NOCK per block, nine 1-year eras with alternating 25% / 33% reward drops, then a 64-NOCK tail until the 2³² hard cap is met exactly at block 16,144,876. Each period is called an "Eon". Blocks target 2.5 minutes, with difficulty adjusted every block via ASERT.

Next Emission Drop

The next emission drop will reduce the block reward from 0 to — NOCK per block.

Zorp & Lockups

Zorp is a $NOCK treasury company that developed the initial version of the Nockchain protocol. During the early mining period, Zorp mined a total of approximately 603 million $NOCK.

Importantly, Zorp's team members and investors have mined 0 $NOCK on their own behalf. All tokens held by investors and team members come from Zorp's mining allocation.

Token Lockups

To align founders, team, and investors on a multi-year horizon and reduce short-term supply overhang, all major token holders have agreed to lockup schedules:

These lockups are designed to reduce short-term supply overhang, align all stakeholders on building long-term value, and provide transparency around Zorp's use of tokens.

Current Supply

The total mined supply grows with each block. The circulating supply accounts for Zorp investor and team token lockups that are not yet unlocked.

Tooling

Nockchain schedules everything by block height, but people schedule by the calendar. These convert between the two using the chain's recently observed block time — useful for timing a release against an activation height, or for telling a global team when a height will actually land.

Projections assume the recent block rate holds. Difficulty retargets every block, so the further out the estimate, the wider the error — treat distant dates as rough, and prefer the height when precision matters.