Qubic (QUBIC)

Qubic is a decentralized Layer 1 network founded by Sergey Ivancheglo, who also co-created IOTA and NXT. The protocol launched its mainnet in April 2022 and is built around a quorum-based architecture in which 676 elected “Computors” run identical hardware to validate the network state. Native to the chain is the QUBIC token, used as the unit of account for on-chain computations, mining rewards, and value transfer. Transactions on Qubic are feeless and reach finality in seconds, which is unusual for a Proof-of-Work network.

The defining feature of Qubic is Useful Proof of Work (UPoW). Instead of burning hash power on arbitrary puzzles, miners contribute compute to AIGARTH, a research effort aimed at training a form of artificial general intelligence directly on the network. Rewards are distributed weekly to Computors and the miners delegating hash power to them, and a portion of issued tokens is burned through the protocol’s revenue redistribution mechanism. Smart contracts on Qubic are written in C++ and executed in a custom virtual machine, with each contract limited to a compact tick-based budget.

The QUBIC token has a maximum supply of 200 trillion units, with roughly 138 trillion currently in circulation. Distribution is driven entirely by mining activity, and tokens are issued at the network’s weekly epoch. Qubic targets developers and researchers interested in marrying blockchain settlement with usable AI workloads, and the ecosystem now includes a native block explorer, documentation portal, and active Discord and Telegram communities. The project remains in active development with regular protocol upgrades.