01 · Produce
A node runs real work — an inference job or a governed agent task — and seals a signed receipt that embeds its own public key.
Proof of Contribution
Rewards follow verified work — or they don't follow at all
Proof of Contribution (PoC) is how the Maple AI Runtime makes distributed AI work trustworthy. Useful work is re-executed and checked by independent nodes, and value settles only when a reputation-weighted quorum agrees. The rule is blunt: no verified contribution, no reward.
The Invariant
Claiming work is not the same as doing it
Most incentive schemes reward asserted effort. PoC rewards independently verified effort. Every consequential action already produces a signed, hash-chained receipt in the WorldLine; PoC turns that evidence into a settlement decision that an adversary cannot game alone.
Lifecycle
How a contribution becomes a reward
02 · Attest
Independent nodes re-execute the same work and check the signature. Each attestation is a self-verifying artifact carrying the verifier's public key.
03 · Reach quorum
Rewards settle only when a reputation-weighted quorum of distinct verifiers agrees. The producer's own vote never counts toward its quorum.
04 · Reward or slash
Honest verifiers gain reputation; verifiers who rubber-stamp or falsely fail are slashed. No verified contribution, no reward.
Anti-Gaming Guarantees
What stops a node from rewarding itself
Cross-node verification, no shared secret
Receipts embed the producer's public key, so any node can re-execute and verify another's work with zero shared keys. Tampered receipts are detected immediately.
Reputation-weighted quorum
Acceptance requires N distinct, independently verifiable attestations. Each is scored against a deterministic re-execution; only verifiers above the reputation floor count.
Verifier slashing
A dishonest attestation — approving wrong work or failing correct work — costs reputation. Slashed verifiers drop below the floor and must rebuild trust before they count again.
Sybil and forgery resistance
Forged or altered attestations are ignored because each must carry a valid verifier signature. The producer is excluded from its own quorum, so a node cannot reward itself.
Why Not Proof of Work or Stake
PoC measures useful, verifiable contribution
| Mechanism | What it proves | What it rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of Work | Energy was burned | Hashpower, not useful output |
| Proof of Stake | Capital is locked | Capital, not contribution |
| Proof of Contribution | Real work was independently re-verified | Verified useful work, weighted by verifier reputation |
In the Runtime
The loop is real and runs today
PoC ships in the Maple AI Runtime, and verification is reproduction, not just a signature check: a verifier re-runs the same model on the public job and confirms the output hash byte-for-byte (bit-exact for the always-available embedded Hermon engine). A node that didn't do the work — or used a different model — can't reproduce it, and fails closed. Rewards settle only when a quorum of distinct verifiers agrees. CreditChain is an optional backend for anchoring and settlement — blockchain-capable, not blockchain-captive.
# Run the whole loop over REAL inference: one node produces, # independent nodes reproduce and attest, a quorum decides the reward. maple inference demo --prompt "maple governs accountable agents" \ --verifiers 3 --threshold 2 # => reward_settles: true (3/3 verifiers reproduced the output bit-exact) # Distributed (CreditChain backend): produce, verify, reward maple mlp job run --node-id node-a --model qwen2.5-7b --input task.json maple mlp verify --node-id node-a # independent reproduction + attest maple reputation show --node-id node-b # trust built from honest verification maple mlp reward --node-id node-a --threshold 3 # no quorum, no reward
Build on verifiable AI work
Proof of Contribution is part of the Maple AI Runtime's trust model — signed receipts, deterministic authority, and independent verification end to end.