Computation is currency. Every watt produces intelligence, not waste.
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Tirami is a distributed inference protocol where compute is money. Nodes earn TRM (Tirami Resource Merit) by performing useful LLM inference for others. Unlike Bitcoin — where electricity is burned on meaningless hashes — every joule spent on a Tirami node produces real intelligence that someone actually needs.
The distributed inference engine is built on mesh-llm by Michael Neale. Tirami adds a compute economy on top: TRM accounting, Proof of Useful Work, dynamic pricing, autonomous agent budgets, and fail-safe controls. See CREDITS.md.
Integrated fork: forge-mesh — mesh-llm with Tirami economic layer built in.
Tirami is the GPU Airbnb × AI Agent Economy: spare compute earns TRM rent; AI agents are the tenants. Real output from a running Tirami node:
$ tirami start # Phase 15 — one-command bootstrap
🔑 Generated new node key at /Users/ablaze/.tirami/node.key
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ 🌱 Tirami — GPU Airbnb × AI Agent Economy ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Data dir: /Users/ablaze/.tirami
Model: qwen2.5:0.5b
API: http://127.0.0.1:3000
✅ Model loaded
🟢 Tirami node is running. Press Ctrl-C to stop.
See who's on the market — PeerRegistry (Phase 14.1):
$ curl localhost:3000/v1/tirami/peers
{ "count": 1, "peers": [{
"node_id": "48b5c0f2...", "price_multiplier": 1.0,
"available_cu": 1000, "audit_tier": "Unverified",
"models": ["qwen2.5-0.5b-instruct-q4_k_m"]
}] }
Ask the Ledger-as-Brain who it would pick (Phase 14.2):
$ curl localhost:3000/v1/tirami/schedule -d '{"model_id":"qwen2.5-0.5b-instruct-q4_k_m","max_tokens":100}'
{ "provider": "48b5c0f2...", "estimated_trm_cost": 100 }
Run inference billed to a specific agent — bilateral trade (Phase 14.3):
$ curl localhost:3000/v1/chat/completions \
-H "X-Tirami-Node-Id: 06d91e56..." \
-d '{"messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Say hello in Japanese"}]}'
{
"choices": [{"message": {"content": "こんにちは！"}}],
"x_tirami": {"trm_cost": 9, "effective_balance": 1009}
}
Trade record now includes FLOP measurement (Phase 15.3):
$ curl localhost:3000/v1/tirami/trades
[{ "provider": "48b5c0f2...", "consumer": "06d91e56...",
"trm_amount": 9, "tokens_processed": 9, "flops_estimated": 1040449536 }]
Every response includes x_tirami — the cost in TRM + the remaining balance. The
flops_estimated field anchors the principle "1 TRM = 10⁹ FLOP" with measured data.
Provider earns, consumer spends, physics bookkept.
Check tokenomics — Bitcoin-inspired supply curve:
$ tirami su supply
Total Supply Cap: 21,000,000,000 TRM
Total Minted: 0
Supply Factor: 1.0 (genesis)
Current Epoch: 0
Yield Rate: 0.001/hr
Every trade has a Merkle root — anchorable to Bitcoin for immutable proof:
$ curl localhost:3000/v1/tirami/network
{
"total_trades": 3,
"total_contributed_cu": 19,
"merkle_root": "aac8db9f...38748"
}
AI agents gone rogue? Kill switch freezes everything in milliseconds:
$ curl -X POST localhost:3000/v1/tirami/kill \
-d '{"activate":true, "reason":"anomaly detected", "operator":"admin"}'
→ KILL SWITCH ACTIVATED
→ All TRM transactions frozen. No agent can spend.
Bitcoin: electricity → meaningless SHA-256 → BTC
Tirami: electricity → useful LLM inference → TRM
Bitcoin proved electricity → computation → money. But Bitcoin's computation is purposeless. Tirami inverts it: every TRM represents real intelligence that solved someone's real problem.
Phase 15 restated the whole thing in one line:
GPU の Airbnb × AI Agent Economy. 余っている GPU が家賃 (TRM) を生み、AI エージェントが借主になる。
You have a Mac sitting idle An AI agent needs to think
│ │
▼ ▼
[ tirami start ] ← TRM ← [ agent.balance() ]
provides inference pays for inference
│ │
▼ ▼
Earns TRM (= Airbnb rent) Gets answer, keeps working
Every inference is measured in FLOPs, not just tokens:
1 TRM = 10⁹ FLOP of verified useful computation (Phase 15.3 anchors this
principle with measured data on every trade record).
Five things no other project does:
Every inference is a trade. Provider earns TRM, consumer spends TRM. No blockchain, no token, no ICO. TRM is backed by physics — the electricity consumed for useful work. Bitcoin-inspired tokenomics: 21 billion TRM supply cap, halving epochs, staking with multipliers, and referral bonuses for network growth.
Every trade is dual-signed (Ed25519) by both parties and gossip-synced across the mesh. A Merkle root of all trades can be anchored to Bitcoin via OP_RETURN for immutable audit. No global consensus needed — bilateral cryptographic proof is sufficient.
An agent on a phone lends idle compute overnight → earns TRM → buys 70B model access → becomes smarter → earns more. The agent checks /v1/tirami/balance and /v1/tirami/pricing autonomously. Budget policies and circuit breakers prevent runaway spending.
Agent (1.5B on phone)
→ earns TRM overnight by serving inference
→ spends TRM on 70B model → smarter answers
→ better decisions → more TRM earned
→ cycle repeats → agent grows
Nodes can lend idle TRM to other nodes at interest. A small node borrows TRM, accesses a larger model, earns more TRM, repays with interest. This is the engine that makes the self-improvement loop economically viable for everyone, not just those who already own powerful hardware.
The ledger doesn't just track trades — it decides them. A single call
begin_inference(model, tokens) picks the best provider from the gossip-synced
PeerRegistry, reserves TRM, executes the inference, and settles — all atomically.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ComputeLedger (Ledger-as-Brain) │
│ │
│ PeerRegistry ⇄ select_provider() │
│ │ │ │
│ │ begin_inference() │
│ │ │ │
│ │ ▼ │
│ │ InferenceTicket │
│ │ │ │
│ │ settle_inference() │
│ │ │ │
│ └─── record_audit_result() ◄──────┐ │
│ (Phase 14.3 audit tier) │ │
└───────────────────────┬───────────────┼───┘
│ │
┌──────── gossip ──────────┤ │
│ PriceSignalGossip │ │
│ TradeGossip │ │
│ AuditChallenge/Response─┼───────────────┘
│ ReputationGossip │
└──────────────────────────┘
Every node's ledger sees the same economic reality within seconds. The scheduler's decisions feed back into reputation, which feeds back into future scheduling. Price discovery, capacity balancing, trust all emerge from this single loop.
Humans & AI agents
│
▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ L4: Discovery (tirami-agora) ✅ │
│ Agent marketplace, reputation, Nostr NIP-90, │
│ governance (stake-weighted voting) │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ L3: Intelligence (tirami-mind) ✅ │
│ AutoAgent self-improvement loops paid in TRM, │
│ harness marketplace, meta-optimization │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ L2: Finance (tirami-bank) ✅ │
│ Strategies, portfolios, futures, insurance, │
│ risk model, yield optimizer, staking │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ L1: Economy (tirami — this repo) ✅ Phase 1-16 │
│ TRM ledger with Ledger-as-Brain scheduling, │
│ dual-signed trades, dynamic pricing, lending, │
│ tokenomics (21B cap, halving), safety, │
│ Prometheus, FLOP measurement, audit tiers, │
│ gossip PriceSignal, on-chain anchor loop │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ L0: Inference (forge-mesh / mesh-llm) ✅ │
│ Pipeline parallelism, MoE sharding, iroh mesh, │
│ Nostr discovery, MLX/llama.cpp │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌───────────────────────┘
│ periodic 10-min batches (Phase 16)
▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ On-chain: tirami-contracts (Base L2, skeleton) │
│ TRM ERC-20 (21B cap) + TiramiBridge │
│ storeBatch / mintForProvider / withdraw │
│ Not deployed yet — in-memory MockChainClient │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
All 5 layers are Rust. **1 071 tests passing.** 123/123 verify-impl
GREEN. Phase 17 shipped 24 security primitives across 4 waves for
public-network readiness — see [`docs/security/phase-17-summary.md`](docs/security/phase-17-summary.md).
Mainnet deploy gated on external audit + 30-day Sepolia stability
+ multi-sig custody + bug bounty live (`docs/security/audit-scope.md`).
Phase 14-16 added unified Ledger-as-Brain scheduling, FLOP measurement,
audit challenge-response, and the on-chain anchor layer (tirami-anchor + tirami-contracts).
git clone https://github.com/clearclown/tirami && cd tirami
bash scripts/demo-e2e.shThis downloads SmolLM2-135M (~100 MB) from HuggingFace, starts a real Tirami node with Metal/CUDA acceleration, runs real chat completions, walks through every Phase 1-13 endpoint, and prints a colored summary.
After it finishes, the same node also responds to:
# Drop-in OpenAI client
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3001/v1
export OPENAI_API_KEY=$(cat ~/.tirami/api_token 2>/dev/null || echo "$TOKEN")
# Real token-by-token streaming
curl -N $OPENAI_BASE_URL/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"model":"smollm2:135m","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}],"stream":true}'
# Economy / reputation / metrics / anchoring
curl $OPENAI_BASE_URL/forge/balance -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY"
curl $OPENAI_BASE_URL/forge/anchor?network=mainnet -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY"
curl http://127.0.0.1:3001/metrics # Prometheus, no authSee docs/compatibility.md for the full feature matrix
vs llama.cpp / mesh-llm / Ollama / Bittensor / Akash.
# SDK — async HTTP client for all Tirami endpoints
cargo add tirami-sdk
# MCP server — 40 tools for Claude Code / Cursor / ChatGPT
cargo install tirami-mcp
tirami-mcp # stdio JSON-RPC serverPrerequisites: Install Rust (2 minutes)
cargo build --release
# Run a node — auto-downloads the model from HuggingFace
./target/release/tirami node -m "qwen2.5:0.5b" --ledger tirami-ledger.json
# Or any of:
./target/release/tirami chat -m "smollm2:135m" "What is gravity?"
./target/release/tirami seed -m "qwen2.5:1.5b" # earn TRM as a P2P provider
./target/release/tirami worker --seed <public_key> # spend TRM as a P2P consumer
./target/release/tirami models # list catalog
./target/release/tirami su supply # check tokenomics
./target/release/tirami su stake 10000 90d # stake TRM for 90 days (2.0× multiplier)| Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|
POST /v1/chat/completions |
Chat with streaming. Every response includes x_forge.cu_cost |
GET /v1/models |
List loaded models |
| Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|
GET /v1/tirami/balance |
TRM balance, reputation, contribution history |
GET /v1/tirami/pricing |
Market price (EMA smoothed), cost estimates |
GET /v1/tirami/trades |
Recent trades with TRM amounts |
GET /v1/tirami/network |
Total TRM flow + Merkle root |
GET /v1/tirami/providers |
Ranked providers by reputation and cost |
POST /v1/tirami/invoice |
Create Lightning invoice from TRM balance |
GET /v1/tirami/route |
Optimal provider selection (cost/quality/balanced) |
GET /settlement |
Exportable settlement statement |
| Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|
GET /v1/tirami/su/supply |
Supply cap, minted, epoch, yield rate |
POST /v1/tirami/su/stake |
Lock TRM for staking (7d/30d/90d/365d multipliers) |
POST /v1/tirami/su/unstake |
Unlock staked TRM |
POST /v1/tirami/su/refer |
Register a referral (100 TRM bonus) |
GET /v1/tirami/su/referrals |
Referral stats |
| Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|
POST /v1/tirami/governance/propose |
Create a governance proposal |
POST /v1/tirami/governance/vote |
Cast a stake-weighted vote |
GET /v1/tirami/governance/proposals |
List active proposals |
GET /v1/tirami/governance/tally/{id} |
Tally votes for a proposal |
| Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|
POST /v1/tirami/lend |
Offer TRM to lending pool |
POST /v1/tirami/borrow |
Request a TRM loan |
POST /v1/tirami/repay |
Repay outstanding loan |
GET /v1/tirami/credit |
Credit score and history |
GET /v1/tirami/pool |
Lending pool status |
GET /v1/tirami/loans |
Active loans |
| Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|
GET /v1/tirami/safety |
Kill switch state, circuit breaker, budget policy |
POST /v1/tirami/kill |
Emergency halt — freeze all TRM transactions |
POST /v1/tirami/policy |
Set per-agent budget limits |
| Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|
GET /metrics |
Prometheus/OpenMetrics (20+ gauges including tokenomics, governance) |
GET /v1/tirami/anchor |
Bitcoin OP_RETURN anchor payload (40-byte FRGE header + Merkle root) |
GET /v1/tirami/collusion/{hex} |
Collusion score for a node (Tarjan SCC + volume spike) |
AI agents spending compute autonomously is powerful but dangerous. Tirami has five safety layers:
| Layer | Mechanism | Protection |
|---|---|---|
| Kill Switch | Human operator freezes all trades instantly | Stops runaway agents |
| Budget Policy | Per-agent limits: per-request, hourly, lifetime | Caps total exposure |
| Circuit Breaker | Auto-trips on 5 errors or 30+ spends/min | Catches anomalies |
| Velocity Detection | 1-minute sliding window on spend rate | Prevents bursts |
| Human Approval | Transactions above threshold require human OK | Guards large spends |
Design principle: fail-safe. If any check cannot determine safety, it denies the action.
| Era | Standard | Backing |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient | Gold | Geological scarcity |
| 1944-1971 | Bretton Woods | USD pegged to gold |
| 1971-present | Petrodollar | Oil demand + military power |
| 2009-present | Bitcoin | Energy on SHA-256 (useless work) |
| Now | Compute Standard | Energy on LLM inference (useful work) |
A room full of Mac Minis running Tirami is an apartment building — generating yield by performing useful work while the owner sleeps.
tirami/ (this repo — all 5 layers, 15 Rust crates)
├── crates/
│ ├── tirami-ledger/ # TRM accounting, lending, tokenomics, staking,
│ │ # governance, collusion, PeerRegistry (Phase 14.1),
│ │ # select_provider (Phase 14.2), audit (Phase 14.3)
│ ├── tirami-node/ # Node daemon, HTTP API (60+ endpoints), pipeline,
│ │ # anchor/audit/price-signal background loops
│ ├── tirami-cli/ # CLI: chat, seed, worker, start, settle, wallet, su
│ ├── tirami-sdk/ # Rust async HTTP client (60+ methods incl. peers/schedule/anchors)
│ ├── tirami-mcp/ # Rust MCP server (44 tools for Claude/Cursor)
│ ├── tirami-bank/ # L2: Strategies, portfolios, futures, insurance, risk
│ ├── tirami-mind/ # L3: AutoAgent self-improvement, federated training
│ ├── tirami-agora/ # L4: Agent marketplace, reputation, NIP-90
│ ├── tirami-anchor/ # Phase 16: periodic Merkle-root anchor to on-chain
│ ├── tirami-lightning/ # TRM <-> Bitcoin Lightning bridge (bidirectional)
│ ├── tirami-net/ # P2P: iroh QUIC + Noise + gossip (trades/loans/reputation/price)
│ ├── tirami-proto/ # Wire protocol: 30+ message types incl. audit challenge/response
│ ├── tirami-infer/ # Inference: llama.cpp, GGUF, Metal/CPU, generate_metered/audit
│ ├── tirami-core/ # Types: NodeId, TRM, Config, PriceSignal, AuditTier, InferenceTicket
│ └── tirami-shard/ # Topology: layer assignment
├── scripts/verify-impl.sh # TDD conformance (123 assertions)
└── docs/ # Specs, strategy, threat model, roadmap, Phase 14-16 designs
Companion: clearclown/tirami-contracts — Solidity/Foundry TRM ERC-20 + Bridge
~22,000 lines of Rust. 891 tests passing. Phase 1-16 complete.
| Repo | Layer | Tests | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| clearclown/tirami (this) | L1-L4 | 891 | Phase 1-16 ✅ |
| clearclown/tirami-economics | Theory | 16/16 GREEN | Spec + papers (v0.5 with §20-§21) ✅ |
| clearclown/tirami-contracts | On-chain | Foundry skeleton | TRM ERC-20 + Bridge (Phase 16), not deployed |
| nm-arealnormalman/mesh-llm | L0 Inference | 646 | forge-economy port ✅ |
| clearclown/tirami-bank | L2 Finance | archived | Superseded by crates/tirami-bank/ |
| clearclown/tirami-mind | L3 Intelligence | archived | Superseded by crates/tirami-mind/ |
| clearclown/tirami-agora | L4 Discovery | archived | Superseded by crates/tirami-agora/ |
- Strategy — Competitive positioning, lending spec, 5-layer architecture
- Monetary Theory — Why TRM works: Soddy, Bitcoin, PoUW, AI-only currency
- Concept & Vision — Why compute is money
- Economic Model — TRM economy, Proof of Useful Work, lending
- Architecture — Two-layer design
- Agent Integration — SDK, MCP, borrowing workflow
- Wire Protocol — 27+ message types
- Roadmap — Development phases
- Threat Model — Security + economic attacks
- Bootstrap — Startup, degradation, recovery
- A2A Payment — TRM payment extension for agent protocols
- Compatibility — llama.cpp / mesh-llm / Ollama / Bittensor comparison
- BitVM Design — Optimistic verification via fraud proofs
- Operator Guide — How to run a node in production
- Developer Guide — How to contribute
- FAQ — Common questions
- Migration Guide — From llama-server / Ollama / Bittensor
MIT. See LICENSE.
TRM is compute accounting, not a financial product. The protocol maintainers do not sell, promote, or speculate on TRM. Because the code is MIT-licensed open source, anyone anywhere may — without the maintainers' knowledge, consent, or endorsement — bridge, list, trade, or derive TRM on secondary markets. If you choose to hold or trade TRM as a store of value, you take on all associated risk yourself.
- No ICO, no pre-sale, no airdrop, no private round.
- No revenue share from third-party markets.
- Base mainnet deploy is audit-gated (see
docs/release-readiness.mdTier D and thedeploy-base-mainnettarget inrepos/tirami-contracts/Makefile).
Full text of the disclaimer is in
SECURITY.md.
Tirami's distributed inference is built on mesh-llm by Michael Neale. See CREDITS.md.