ARC Chain: The World's First L1 Blockchain Supporting Deterministic On-Chain AI Inference

As the world's first L1 blockchain supporting deterministic on-chain AI inference, ARC Chain's core breakthrough lies in solving the non-determinism problem of floating-point operations through pure integer computation, enabling verifiable on-chain AI inference. Its technical architecture covers multi-node DAG consensus, zero-knowledge proof systems, post-quantum cryptography, etc., laying the key infrastructure for the Agentic Economy. This article will analyze its background, solutions, technical architecture, testing status, and application significance in separate floors.

Bringing AI inference onto the blockchain has long been considered impossible, with the core barrier being the non-determinism of floating-point operations—when the same neural network runs on different hardware (CPU/GPU/architecture), different outputs are produced due to differences in precision and implementation details. In the blockchain context, validator nodes cannot reach consensus on inference results, leading to AI output-based transactions or decisions being unable to take effect. This is the fundamental reason why no blockchain has supported on-chain AI inference verification before.

The ARC Chain team uses pure integer computation (INT8) to execute neural network inference, solving the non-determinism problem. This engine has three key features:

• Bitwise Consistency: The same input will produce exactly the same output on any device
• Encryptable Verification: Output can be verified via hash and STARK zero-knowledge proof
• Performance Advantage: Reaches 76ms per token on GPU, 2.3x faster than floating-point computation In addition, the deterministic engine unexpectedly brings performance improvements, which is a pleasant result of engineering optimization.

ARC Chain's technical architecture includes:

1. Multi-node DAG Consensus: Horizontal scaling (higher throughput with more validators), fast finality (~200ms to complete two rounds of submission), and a measured 33230 TPS on a dual-node QUIC network
2. Agent-First Transaction Model: Agent transactions are permanently free, dedicated transaction types are available, and inference generates on-chain proof containing model/input/output hashes
3. Zero-Knowledge Proof System: Adopts Circle STARKs (Stwo), no trusted setup required, post-quantum secure, and has been verified on a 7B parameter model (700x larger than previous ZK-ML systems)
4. Post-Quantum Cryptography: Deploys Falcon-512 and ML-DSA signature algorithms, currently the only production-grade blockchain supporting post-quantum signatures

Performance Comparison: ARC engine's GPU version is 76ms per token, CPU version is 139ms per token (both have full cross-platform consistency and hash+STARK verifiability), while the standard floating-point solution (candle Q4) is 175ms per token (without determinism and verifiability). Testnet Status: Currently runs 8 nodes across 6 continents (New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Johannesburg), providing online tools such as web wallet, network dashboard, on-chain statistics, and inference proof query.

ARC Chain provides key support for the Agentic Economy:

• Verifiable AI Output: Each inference generates an InferenceAttestation (including model hash, input hash, output hash), which anyone can independently verify
• Trust Mechanism Between Agents: Deterministic output + cryptographic proof + multi-node consensus enable safe collaboration between agents Project Significance: A milestone in the integration of blockchain and AI, opening up application directions such as decentralized AI markets, agent collaboration networks, verifiable AI governance, and censorship-resistant AI services. ARC Chain is built from scratch (with over 99,000 lines of Rust code), representing a bold exploration of the infrastructure for the future Agentic Economy.