Here are the limits, stated before anyone else states them.
- A proof in seconds. Not at launch. Proving a full block today needs a cluster of 100 to 200 consumer GPUs, approximate, so Igneum launches with proofs within about a minute and tightens as hardware improves. Users still see their transaction land in one second.
- - A chip is impossible. No. A chip wired for one program is a bad bet, because the program moves before it ships. A programmable chip is not stopped by the moving target: everything it needs is public at genesis and every drawn parameter is firmware to it (an address permute, a rotator, an immediate table), so the defence against it is the latency-shadow work (class v4) and the price per joule, not the schedule (the Horizon lane analysis, 6 October 2026, section 5.4; ledger M32). The published model (5 October 2026) prices the strongest chip we can name, one with the whole cache on-die computing dataset items on the fly, at 0.92x the hash rate of an RTX 5090 per unit of silicon with a 3x fixed-function allowance, approximate. The same model, drawn out to the chip that stores the dataset (6 October 2026): The strongest recompute chip we can price, holding the whole 256 MiB cache on-die, reaches under 1x per chip against an RTX 5090. A memory-controller chip that stores the whole dataset reaches 1.2x per chip and, in our model, 5x to 9x per joule; the Ethash chips of this class reached 2.1x to 4.8x. The lever against it, program work in the latency shadow, is measured and in its gates: it brings the chip to 2.1x to 3.9x, the range running from a chip core as costly per operation as the GPU’s (k = 1) to the core Bitmain claimed for its withdrawn Antminer X9 (k about 0.33, never measured); the ladder’s second rung takes that bracket to about 2.8x. Sources: the chip model analysis (6 October 2026); the Ethash rows of the ASIC history (Linzhi Phoenix 2020, Jasminer X4 2021, Antminer E9 2022); Counter ASIC 3.0 item 8 (100,000 ops per hash: the chip's per-joule edge over the RTX 5090 falls from 5.6x to 2.1x on GDDR7 at a chip core equal to the GPU's (k = 1) and to 3.9x at the X9’s claimed core (k about 0.33, never measured), the 5090 at 0.2% less rate, gates G1 to G6 in progress). No hash has stayed free of chips forever; Igneum does not claim to. Monero’s RandomX has held for about seven years; the one chip announced against it, Bitmain’s Antminer X9, was withdrawn in mid-May 2026 before any unit shipped, its claimed core (k about 0.33) never measured. That record says nothing about the price of a chip with the 256 MB cache on its die; that price is a cost model, not a measurement.
+ - A chip is impossible. No. A chip wired for one program is a bad bet, because the program moves before it ships. A programmable chip is not stopped by the moving target: everything it needs is public at genesis and every drawn parameter is firmware to it (an address permute, a rotator, an immediate table), so the defence against it is the latency-shadow work (class v4) and the price per joule, not the schedule (the Horizon lane analysis, 6 October 2026, section 5.4; ledger M32). At launch the strongest chip in our public model reaches 2.1x to 3.9x per joule against an RTX 5090, under class v4 from the first block: a memory-controller chip that stores the whole dataset and carries a GPU-class datapath beside its memory for the 100,000 ops per hash in the shadow, the range running from a chip core as costly per operation as the GPU’s (k = 1, modelled on measured card watts, 6 October 2026) to the core Bitmain claimed for its withdrawn Antminer X9 (k about 0.33, never measured); the ladder’s second rung takes that bracket to about 2.8x (modelled, 7 October 2026). Class v5 then makes the dataset the chain’s own state, so a chip that stores it or recomputes it is wrong on every item (designed, 7 October 2026). The baseline the work started from, never the launch state: without class v4 the same stored-dataset chip would reach 1.2x per chip and 5x to 9x per joule in our model (6 October 2026); the Ethash chips of this class reached 2.1x to 4.8x (Linzhi Phoenix 2020, Jasminer X4 2021, Antminer E9 2022). The strongest recompute chip we can price, holding the whole 256 MiB cache on-die, reaches under 1x per chip against an RTX 5090 (the published model, 5 October 2026: 0.92x per unit of silicon with a 3x fixed-function allowance, approximate). Sources: the chip model analysis (6 October 2026); the ASIC history’s Ethash rows; Counter ASIC 3.0 item 8 (the chip’s per-joule edge over the RTX 5090 falls from 5.6x to 2.1x on GDDR7 at k = 1 and to 3.9x at the X9’s claimed core, the 5090 at 0.2% less rate; gates G1 to G6 passed, 6 October 2026). No hash has stayed free of chips forever; Igneum does not claim to. Monero’s RandomX has held for about seven years; the one chip announced against it, Bitmain’s Antminer X9, was withdrawn in mid-May 2026 before any unit shipped, its claimed core (k about 0.33) never measured. That record says nothing about the price of a chip with the 256 MB cache on its die; that price is a cost model, not a measurement.
- A guaranteed income floor. No. External proving is a small market today. Igneum's miners' electricity cost in it is close to power, but the price they must charge is the subsidy they forgo, which falls as one over network hash: an edge at scale and nothing more.
- A memory-hard prototype on every vendor. Not yet. The 256 MB cache closed the shortcut on Apple silicon (computing items runs 4.8x slower than loading them, measured 3 October 2026). The same ratio on NVIDIA and on a discrete AMD card is Open.
- Finality in the first month. No. No checkpoint locks until the 30-day window has 30 days of history. The first month of mainnet is proof of work with a 12-hour depth, and the text above says so wherever a day count appears.
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Here are the limits, stated before anyone else states them.
- A proof in seconds. Not at launch. Proving a full block today needs a cluster of 100 to 200 consumer GPUs, approximate, so Igneum launches with proofs within about a minute and tightens as hardware improves. Users still see their transaction land in one second.
- - A chip is impossible. No. A chip wired for one program is a bad bet, because the program moves before it ships. A programmable chip is not stopped by the moving target: everything it needs is public at genesis and every drawn parameter is firmware to it (an address permute, a rotator, an immediate table), so the defence against it is the latency-shadow work (class v4) and the price per joule, not the schedule (the Horizon lane analysis, 6 October 2026, section 5.4; ledger M32). The published model (5 October 2026) prices the strongest chip we can name, one with the whole cache on-die computing dataset items on the fly, at 0.92x the hash rate of an RTX 5090 per unit of silicon with a 3x fixed-function allowance, approximate. The same model, drawn out to the chip that stores the dataset (6 October 2026): The strongest recompute chip we can price, holding the whole 256 MiB cache on-die, reaches under 1x per chip against an RTX 5090. A memory-controller chip that stores the whole dataset reaches 1.2x per chip and, in our model, 5x to 9x per joule; the Ethash chips of this class reached 2.1x to 4.8x. The lever against it, program work in the latency shadow, is measured and in its gates: it brings the chip to 2.1x to 3.9x, the range running from a chip core as costly per operation as the GPU’s (k = 1) to the core Bitmain claimed for its withdrawn Antminer X9 (k about 0.33, never measured); the ladder’s second rung takes that bracket to about 2.8x. Sources: the chip model analysis (6 October 2026); the Ethash rows of the ASIC history (Linzhi Phoenix 2020, Jasminer X4 2021, Antminer E9 2022); Counter ASIC 3.0 item 8 (100,000 ops per hash: the chip's per-joule edge over the RTX 5090 falls from 5.6x to 2.1x on GDDR7 at a chip core equal to the GPU's (k = 1) and to 3.9x at the X9’s claimed core (k about 0.33, never measured), the 5090 at 0.2% less rate, gates G1 to G6 in progress). No hash has stayed free of chips forever; Igneum does not claim to. Monero’s RandomX has held for about seven years; the one chip announced against it, Bitmain’s Antminer X9, was withdrawn in mid-May 2026 before any unit shipped, its claimed core (k about 0.33) never measured. That record says nothing about the price of a chip with the 256 MB cache on its die; that price is a cost model, not a measurement.
+ - A chip is impossible. No. A chip wired for one program is a bad bet, because the program moves before it ships. A programmable chip is not stopped by the moving target: everything it needs is public at genesis and every drawn parameter is firmware to it (an address permute, a rotator, an immediate table), so the defence against it is the latency-shadow work (class v4) and the price per joule, not the schedule (the Horizon lane analysis, 6 October 2026, section 5.4; ledger M32). At launch the strongest chip in our public model reaches 2.1x to 3.9x per joule against an RTX 5090, under class v4 from the first block: a memory-controller chip that stores the whole dataset and carries a GPU-class datapath beside its memory for the 100,000 ops per hash in the shadow, the range running from a chip core as costly per operation as the GPU’s (k = 1, modelled on measured card watts, 6 October 2026) to the core Bitmain claimed for its withdrawn Antminer X9 (k about 0.33, never measured); the ladder’s second rung takes that bracket to about 2.8x (modelled, 7 October 2026). Class v5 then makes the dataset the chain’s own state, so a chip that stores it or recomputes it is wrong on every item (designed, 7 October 2026). The baseline the work started from, never the launch state: without class v4 the same stored-dataset chip would reach 1.2x per chip and 5x to 9x per joule in our model (6 October 2026); the Ethash chips of this class reached 2.1x to 4.8x (Linzhi Phoenix 2020, Jasminer X4 2021, Antminer E9 2022). The strongest recompute chip we can price, holding the whole 256 MiB cache on-die, reaches under 1x per chip against an RTX 5090 (the published model, 5 October 2026: 0.92x per unit of silicon with a 3x fixed-function allowance, approximate). Sources: the chip model analysis (6 October 2026); the ASIC history’s Ethash rows; Counter ASIC 3.0 item 8 (the chip’s per-joule edge over the RTX 5090 falls from 5.6x to 2.1x on GDDR7 at k = 1 and to 3.9x at the X9’s claimed core, the 5090 at 0.2% less rate; gates G1 to G6 passed, 6 October 2026). No hash has stayed free of chips forever; Igneum does not claim to. Monero’s RandomX has held for about seven years; the one chip announced against it, Bitmain’s Antminer X9, was withdrawn in mid-May 2026 before any unit shipped, its claimed core (k about 0.33) never measured. That record says nothing about the price of a chip with the 256 MB cache on its die; that price is a cost model, not a measurement.
- A guaranteed income floor. No. External proving is a small market today. Igneum's miners' electricity cost in it is close to power, but the price they must charge is the subsidy they forgo, which falls as one over network hash: an edge at scale and nothing more.
- A memory-hard prototype on every vendor. Not yet. The 256 MB cache closed the shortcut on Apple silicon (computing items runs 4.8x slower than loading them, measured 3 October 2026). The same ratio on NVIDIA and on a discrete AMD card is Open.
- Finality in the first month. No. No checkpoint locks until the 30-day window has 30 days of history. The first month of mainnet is proof of work with a 12-hour depth, and the text above says so wherever a day count appears.