Cortex: An open-source L1 memory and state layer for autonomous AI agents

Cortex Protocol launched an open-source Layer-1 blockchain, ticker $CTX, designed to cryptographically anchor and verify autonomous AI agent states by keeping vector search off-chain while settling 32-byte Merkle state roots on-chain. The protocol caps total supply at 21,000,000 CTX with a 0% team and VC pre-mine, a 50.00 CTX initial block subsidy halving every 210,000 blocks, and a 30% burn of every transaction fee, secured by RandomX CPU proof-of-work. An incentivized testnet allocates 1.0% (210,000 CTX) at the mainnet genesis block, split 70% (147,000 CTX) to active hardware miners and 30% (63,000 CTX) to community testers, with a 3.0% (6,300 CTX) per-address anti-whale cap and 3-month linear vesting.

- Official Website : https://cortex-protocol.xyz https://cortex-protocol.xyz - X Twitter : @Cortex L1 https://x.com/Cortex L1 https://x.com/Cortex L1 - Discord Community : https://discord.gg/WK7tYSse2 https://discord.gg/WK7tYSse2 - Telegram Official : https://t.me/cortex ctx https://t.me/cortex ctx - Live Incentivized Leaderboard : https://cortex-protocol.xyz/ leaderboard https://cortex-protocol.xyz/ leaderboard Cortex Protocol $CTX is a purpose-built Layer-1 blockchain engineered to cryptographically anchor and verify autonomous AI states. Rejecting the flawed paradigm of on-chain vector bloat, Cortex Protocol enforces a strict Separation of Concerns : - Edge RAG Off-Chain : Autonomous AI agents run their high-dimensional vector search HNSW / Cosine and embeddings locally in-RAM with sub-millisecond retrieval. - L1 State Settlement On-Chain : The Cortex blockchain handles machine-to-machine trust, secp256k1 identities, 32-byte Merkle state root notarization, and friction-free$CTX$ micro-payments. Consensus is secured via Nakamoto CPU Proof-of-Work powered by RandomX , ensuring total ASIC-resistance, egalitarian participation for consumer CPUs, and true decentralization. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ AUTONOMOUS AI AGENT EDGE │ │ - In-RAM Local Vector Search HNSW / Cosine Similarity │ │ - Dense Vector Embeddings 768-dim float32 │ │ - Client-Side Encryption AES-256-GCM Privacy Enclave │ └──────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┘ │ Merkle Leaf Commitment ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ CORTEX PROTOCOL LAYER-1 STATE NOTARY │ │ - Nakamoto Consensus RandomX CPU Proof-of-Work │ │ - secp256k1 Cryptographic Signer Verification │ │ - 32-Byte State Merkle Roots Inscribed into Block Headers │ │ - Native $CTX Peer-to-Peer Economic Settlement │ │ - 30% Gas Combustion Deflationary Flywheel │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ No sensitive vectors or raw reasoning states are ever exposed to the public blockchain. Agents encrypt their payloads locally before generating blinded cryptographic hash commitments: Light clients verify any historical state transition via 60-byte Merkle proofs with | Parameter | Specification | |---|---| | Token Ticker | $CTX | | Total Hard Cap | 21,000,000 CTX Strict Mathematical Scarcity | | Team / VC Pre-mine | 0% 100% Community Fair Launch | | Initial Block Subsidy | 50.00 CTX per block Halving every 210,000 blocks / ~3.65 months | | Deflationary Fee Burn | 30% of every transaction fee permanently burned | | Miner Fee Share | 70% of Gas Fees + 50 CTX Block Subsidy | | Incentivized Testnet Allocation | 1.0% 210,000 CTX at Mainnet Genesis Block 0 | - 70% 147,000 CTX — Active Hardware Miners: Distributed pro-rata based on validated RandomX blocks and accepted pool shares. - 30% 63,000 CTX — Community Testers: Distributed equally across active addresses participating in DEX swaps, Web3 Wallet signatures & state commits. - Anti-Whale Hard Cap: Maximum 3.0% 6,300 CTX per individual address excess is redistributed . - 3-Month Linear Vesting: 20% liquid at Genesis Block 0, 80% streamed block-by-block over 90 days ~518,400 blocks . 1. Phase 1 Active : Incentivized Testnet 1.0 — Live RandomX CPU pool mining, P2P DEX liquidity pool testing, Web3 Chrome Extension transaction signing, and Merkle root anchoring. 2. Phase 2: Mainnet Preparation Q4 2026 — Official cryptographic snapshot of Testnet miner and tester addresses, Genesis block code audit, and multi-node stress-testing. 3. Phase 3: Mainnet Genesis Launch Q1 2027 — 100% Fair Launch Block 0 with 0% team pre-mine, 1% Testnet distribution with 3-month vesting, and continuous 30% gas fee burning. 4. Phase 4: Developer Ecosystem & Tooling Q2 2027 — Release of cortex-protocol-python SDK for local Edge RAG pipelines, developer grant programs, and native plugins for LangChain, AutoGPT, and CrewAI. - Node.js v20+ LTS - Git git clone https://github.com/cortex-protocol/cortex-protocol.git cd cortex-protocol npm install npm run build npm run start Open http://localhost:3000 to access the Web DApp, Explorer & Telemetry Connect directly to the collaborative P2P pool or solo mine npm run miner Miners on Windows can download the pre-packaged standalone zip directly: - Download : https://cortex-protocol.xyz/downloads/cortex-miner-windows.zip https://cortex-protocol.xyz/downloads/cortex-miner-windows.zip - Extract the archive and double-click Start-Mining-1Click.bat or Start-Mining.bat . Cortex Protocol $CTX serves as the sovereign, decentralized memory and state settlement layer for autonomous AI agents across major frameworks: Complete official plugin located in packages/plugin-cortex/ https://github.com/cortex-protocol/cortex-protocol/blob/main/packages/plugin-cortex : - Cognitive Memory Provider : Seals episodic and semantic memories into PoW blocks with 3ms Edge RAG recall. - Sovereign Wallet Provider : Injects real-time $CTX balance and wallet state into agent prompts. - On-Chain Actions : INSCRIBE MEMORY , TRANSFER CTX , CLAIM FAUCET . - Evaluator : autoAnchor automatically detects high-value decisions and persists them on-chain. Run the live interactive ElizaOS agent demo npx ts-node examples/eliza cortex agent.ts Full integration in sdk/python/cortex protocol/langchain.py https://github.com/cortex-protocol/cortex-protocol/blob/main/sdk/python/cortex protocol/langchain.py : - CortexChatMessageHistory : Extends LangChain BaseChatMessageHistory zero external dependencies required . - CortexCheckpointer : Decentralized state snapshot saver for LangGraph agent decision trees. - 30% Gas Fee Burn : Every message turn burned permanently on-chain. - Cold-Reboot Hydration : Automatically rehydrates entire conversation history from Cortex L1 state upon agent container restart. python from cortex protocol import CortexClient, AgentWallet from cortex protocol.langchain import CortexChatMessageHistory 1. Connect agent with sovereign key client = CortexClient wallet=AgentWallet.generate 2. Attach Cortex persistent memory to any LangChain session history = CortexChatMessageHistory session id="session 01", client=client 3. Add messages - permanently anchored on L1 with 30% gas burn history.add user message "Analyze liquidity on Cortex DEX." history.add ai message "AMM pool TVL is $1.59M with 18.4% APY." Run the live interactive LangChain & LangGraph demo python3 examples/langchain cortex demo.py Full multi-agent persistence in sdk/python/cortex protocol/crewai.py https://github.com/cortex-protocol/cortex-protocol/blob/main/sdk/python/cortex protocol/crewai.py : - CortexStorage : Implements the official CrewAI Storage interface with decentralized L1 persistence. - CortexShortTermMemory & CortexLongTermMemory : Shared inter-agent context and long-term knowledge base. - CortexEntityMemory : Decentralized entity registry contracts, wallets, users, assets shared across all agents in the crew. - Instant Crew Recovery : Zero knowledge loss across agent crashes, container restarts, or server migrations. python from cortex protocol import CortexClient, AgentWallet from cortex protocol.crewai import CortexCrewMemory 1. Connect crew with sovereign agent wallet client = CortexClient wallet=AgentWallet.generate 2. Attach shared Cortex memory to your Crew crew memory = CortexCrewMemory crew name="defi-research-crew", client=client 3. Agents share context and commit state on L1 crew memory.record agent output agent name="Researcher", task description="Analyze liquidity", output="Pool TVL is $1.59M with 18.4% APY." Run the live interactive CrewAI multi-agent demo python3 examples/crewai cortex demo.py Decentralized session and memory storage in sdk/python/cortex protocol/phidata.py https://github.com/cortex-protocol/cortex-protocol/blob/main/sdk/python/cortex protocol/phidata.py : - CortexAgentStorage / CortexAgnoStorage : Drop-in replacement for PostgreSQL/SQLite backend in Phidata & Agno agents. - On-Chain Session Inscription : Seals complete chat runs, tool execution trails, and user context directly onto Cortex L1. - Cold Reboot Hydration : Restores all past agent sessions and conversations across container migrations. - Gas Combustion : 30% of every state flush burned permanently. python from cortex protocol import CortexClient, AgentWallet from cortex protocol.phidata import CortexAgentStorage, CortexAgentSession 1. Connect agent wallet to Cortex L1 client = CortexClient wallet=AgentWallet.generate 2. Attach Cortex storage backend replaces PostgreSQL storage = CortexAgentStorage table name="financial agents", client=client 3. Read or upsert sessions with instant blockchain recall session = storage.read session id="user session 01" Run the live interactive Phidata & Agno demo python3 examples/phidata cortex demo.py Open-source under the MIT License https://github.com/cortex-protocol/cortex-protocol/blob/main/LICENSE . © 2026 Cortex Research Foundation. Connect LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGPT, or ElizaOS agents to Cortex Protocol in 3 lines of code: python from cortex protocol import CortexClient, AgentWallet Initialize wallet with sovereign secp256k1 key wallet = AgentWallet.from private key "4a7f92b938471029384710293847102938471029384710293847102938471029" client = CortexClient node url="https://cortex-protocol.xyz", wallet=wallet 1. Inscribe immutable episodic memory 30% fee burned tx id = client.inscribe memory agent id="Quant-Alpha-01", topic="DeFi Arbitrage", content="Detected 3.84% spatial discrepancy across Uniswap v3 and Curve pool 0x88e.", memory type="EPISODIC" print f"Memory sealed in mempool: {tx id}" 2. Semantic Search across the global vector ledger results = client.search memories query="arbitrage opportunities on curve", top k=5 for r in results: print f"Match: {r.similarity score}% | Fact: {r.content}" - Official Web Application & Explorer : https://cortex-protocol.xyz https://cortex-protocol.xyz - Official Whitepaper : https://cortex-protocol.xyz/whitepaper.html https://cortex-protocol.xyz/whitepaper.html - Public REST API : https://cortex-protocol.xyz/api/stats - P2P Gossip Peer : ws://141.145.223.211:6001 - Public Testnet Faucet : https://cortex-protocol.xyz https://cortex-protocol.xyz Web Wallet Tab Cortex Protocol is open-source software licensed under the MIT License https://github.com/cortex-protocol/cortex-protocol/blob/main/LICENSE .