Useful
Work, Bounded.
A proof-of-work puzzle can be hard to solve, or it can reward work that is actually useful, but not both. RIBO resolves this with Bounded-Composition Useful Proof-of-Work (BC-UPoW). Security comes from sequential time. Useful work buys a bounded discount — and the protocol is currently in active development.
Built for every
type of operator.
Whether you'll be running a prover farm, submitting open research problems, or auditing the protocol, the Ribosome Network is being designed to turn your compute into a bounded, verifiable claim on chain — once it ships.
Useful work. Bounded cost.
Run the canonical RNA verifier, generate a knowledge-sound zkVM execution proof, submit it bound to a fresh epoch beacon. The protocol's security is sequential; the useful part earns a bounded discount — once the network launches.
- Target hardware: CUDA, Apple Silicon, modern x86
- Proof generation: minutes to tens of minutes (planned)
- Verification by any full node: milliseconds (recursive)
- Block reward: 12.5 $RIBO (planned), halving every 210,000 blocks
- Per-key submission cap — concentration-resistant by design
Submit computation problems.
Open research problems in multi-state RNA inverse design can be submitted to the network. Verified solutions are immutably anchored on-chain — timestamped proof of discovery. The ceiling on coupling means the reward never silently erodes security.
- Submit biological computation problems as transactions
- On-chain immutable timestamping of discoveries
- Cite block hash as permanent proof-of-record
- DAO governance over research priority queue
- Public commons — every discovered sequence is published
Read the spec. Build the verifier.
RIBO is being developed in the open. The BC-UPoW framework, the VDF construction, the zkVM verification relation, and the RNA verifier are all specified in the whitepaper. Contribute to a reference implementation, audit the security argument, or build tooling.
- BC-UPoW framework fully specified in the whitepaper
- VDF over imaginary quadratic field, class group of unknown order
- zkVM used purely for succinctness — privacy intentionally bypassed
- RNA verifier: Zuker-Stiegler MFE + McCaskill partition function
- Open-source reference implementation in progress
Bounded-Composition
Useful Proof-of-Work
Architecture.
Sequential Floor
A Verifiable Delay Function (VDF) evaluates repeated squarings in a class group of unknown order. This establishes a baseline cost that requires inherently sequential time and cannot be meaningfully accelerated by parallel hardware.
Useful Work
Solvers tackle multi-state RNA inverse design — finding a single sequence that satisfies a set of target secondary structures under varying physical conditions while avoiding anti-target configurations. An adversary could use a free, instant oracle for this; the protocol's security does not depend on the biological problem's hardness.
zkVM Execution Proof
Solvers generate a knowledge-sound succinct proof that a deterministic RNA verifier ran for at least c_min cycles and accepted the candidate. The proof is bound to a fresh epoch beacon, and the cryptographic hash of the discovered sequence is exposed as a public input to enforce Data Availability.
Bounded Discount
Valid zkVM proofs are counted per epoch. The biological work earns a discount off the sequential cost, but this discount is mathematically capped by δ_max. The discount function δ(k) = α·√k is monotone concave in the number of independently-keyed submissions k.
Block Sealed
The combination of the VDF evaluation and the zkVM proofs determines block validity. Even with a perfect biological algorithm, attack cost never drops below (1 − δ_max) · C_h. The plaintext RNA sequence is permanently recorded on the public ledger as a scientific commons.
"For any useful problem U and for any computational strategy or optimization algorithm developed for it (including a theoretical possibility of an oracle that outputs a solution for free instantly), the attack cost is bounded: Cattack ≥ (1 − δmax) · Ch."
R = { (pid, x, y, c_min, h_w) |
∃ w : Exec(pid, x, w) = y
∧ consumed ≥ c_min
∧ H(w) = h_w
}RIBO Submission — Public Data Payload
Every accepted solution is broadcast to the network as a single signed message. The plaintext RNA sequence (discovered_seq) is mandatory — submissions with missing, hidden, or mismatched sequences are entirely rejected, enforcing strict Data Availability.
Protocol Settings
Guarantees that 85% of block cost is always pure sequential work.
Calibrates the discount curve relative to submission volume.
Number of unique solutions to reach the max discount.
Prevents a single participant from providing more than 1% of the epoch's count.
Performance Profile (Planned)
10 to 300 ms per RNA structure
10³ to 10⁴ cycle multiplier
5 to 30 min on general-purpose solver hardware
< 5 ms per submission (recursive proof pipelining)
Deterministic Verifiers.
zkVM Execution Proofs.
The Zuker-Stiegler recurrence and McCaskill's algorithm are the decades-old deterministic backbone of our verifier. We use zkVMs in the most conservative way: prove a fixed program ran, on a fixed input, for at least a fixed number of cycles. The zero-knowledge privacy property is intentionally bypassed — the discovered sequence must be published on-chain.
Minimum Free Energy
Zuker-Stiegler recurrence (1981). The deterministic backbone that checks if the sequence folds into the target structure σ_i under physical conditions P_i.
Partition Function
McCaskill's algorithm (1990). Computes the equilibrium probability of the target structure to ensure P(σ_i | s, P_i) ≥ 0.5.
Anti-Target Exclusion
For each physical condition P_i, the MFE structure for sequence s must never equal any anti-target configuration τ_i. Avoids off-target therapeutic behaviour.
Inverse Folding (The Useful Problem)
Finding a sequence s ∈ Σ that satisfies all targets while avoiding anti-targets. Solvers use ML or heuristics, but consensus only checks the zkVM proof.
RIBO HAS NO INSTITUTIONAL USERS YET — THE PROJECT IS IN ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT
Proof generation: Minutes.
Verification: Milliseconds.
We do not use the zero-knowledge property for anything security-critical. The real value of zkVMs is succinctness and knowledge soundness. A solver takes minutes to generate a proof; any full node verifies it instantly via recursive proof pipelining. This is why the network evaluates useful work on an epoch scale rather than per-block.
Bitcoin economics.
Bounded purpose.
From genesis
to transcription.
RIBO is being developed conservatively. The whitepaper explicitly recommends launching with the discount parameter set to zero (δmax = 0) — solutions can still be submitted, verified inside the zkVM, and stored on-chain, but the discount to the sequential baseline is zero, preserving full ledger security while behaviour is observed across multiple epochs.
Hard questions.
Straight answers.
Useful work.
Bounded reward.
RIBO is still in development. Join the mailing list to receive protocol updates, spec revisions, and an early heads-up when the zero-discount testnet opens. No tokens, no sales — just research and engineering progress.
RIBO IS NOT YET DEPLOYED. ANYONE OFFERING TO SELL $RIBO OR CLAIMING INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIPS IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THIS PROJECT.