NuNet: Secure framework for Edge AI with on-chain payments

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

NuNet: Secure framework for Edge AI with on-chain payments

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

100000

[Proposal Summary] Time

Please specify how many months you expect your project to last

8

[Proposal Summary] Translation Information

Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated

No

Original Language

en

[Proposal Summary] Problem Statement

What is the problem you want to solve?

Existing solutions are not designed for deployment of AI agents on decentralised and distributed edge infrastructure. EdgeAI needs decentralised alternative for secure deployment and payments

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://nunet.io/
,
• https://gitlab.com/nunet
,
• https://gitlab.com/nunet/device-management-service/-/blob/main/actor/README.md?ref_type=heads
,
• https://gitlab.com/nunet/device-management-service/-/tree/main/observability

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

Yes

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

NuNet NuActor system The NuActor framework is the secure communication and authentication mechanism through which different entities interact in the NuNet network. It enables any two entities to interact via secure, asynchronous messages, allowing only authorised entities to utilise resources, trigger workflows etc. For Agentic AI applications, it allows for utilisation of hardware resources provided via Nunet network for deployment of AI agents and other components in strict adherence to contract terms. Nunet Contract Framework Contracts in Nunet allow entities to define their terms of engagement which gets enforced during orchestration of compute workloads on available resources. The current architecture considers use of a trusted third party to manage all operations related to Contracts using the secure authentication and communication layer provided by NuActor framework Cardano CLI or equivalent We will leverage the underlying capabilities of Cardano CLI (or similar tools/libraries) to build and execute transactions on Cardano network using the NTX token. The transaction details will be determined by Nunet Contract structure. Nunet Observability Framework Observability package in Nunet is a solution for monitoring, logging and debugging workflows deployed on the Nunet network. Currently it uses Elastic APM for distributed tracing. Hardware Resources for deployment These can be sources from the Nunet community or data centre partners

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

License and Additional Information

NuNet licensing policy, adopted in April 2023, follows the principle of "Open Source code for community and business use" and publicly available at https://docs.nunet.io/docs/nunet-licensing-policy. It defines a licensing application for all NuNet's projects, publicly hosted at https://gitlab.com/nunet. All components developed as a result of this project will be categorised as core or non-core protocol components and licensed with Apache 2.0 open source software license from the start.

[Theme Selection] Theme

Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal.

AI

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Describe what makes your idea innovative compared to what has been previously funded (whether by you or others).

We are uniquely combining Decentralised Identity with Object Capability model to provide a mechanism for fine grained authorisation & decentralised authentication. This is needed for Agentic AI applications deployed on decentralised & distributed hardware at the edge. We leverage decentralized orchestration for AI agents deployment which can seamlessly integrate on premise hardware to cloud resources. This facilitates AI solutions that require privacy and strict control over data. Our contract implementation leverages the electronics rights paradigm with Integration of Cardano based payments.

Describe what your prototype or MVP will demonstrate, and where it can be accessed.

Our MVP will showcase secure AI agent deployment and execution on distributed devices via NuNet’s orchestration and NuNet Contracts. These contracts uniquely integrate Agoric’s ERTP with object-capability security to enable decentralized economic agreements for compute sharing. Value transfer and settlement will be automated on-chain with NTX on Cardano, ensuring trust-minimized execution. The solution will be fully open source and accessible on Gitlab, strengthening Cardano as a hub for decentralized AI and compute.

Describe realistic measures of success, ideally with on-chain metrics.

The following metrics will be monitored:

• Number of Deployed AI Agents: We aim for 2 - 5 unique AI agent workflows successfully deployed and running on the network by the end of the MVP period. This proves the technical feasibility of the deployment framework.
• Total NTX Transferred: We project a total transaction volume of 5000 - 10,000 NTX
• Number of Unique Active Addresses: Our target is to have ~20 unique addresses (mix of AI agent creators and edge device providers) interacting through our workflow

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

Nunet proposes the development of a framework for building Agentic AI workflows at the edge. Our solution covers secure deployment of AI agents and associated components based on a Contract. It uses the object capability model along with decentralised identifiers (DIDs) to ensure secure and authorised usage of hardware resources as well as secure interactions between AI agents and workflows. NuNet contracts are a novel integration of Agoric's Electronic Rights Transfer Protocol (ERTP) with object capability security models, creating secure decentralized economic contracts for compute resource sharing that can operate with both trusted third parties and blockchain execution environments while maintaining capability-based tokenomics.

Nunet Contract framework will allow parties to define terms of engagement over the network. This will include settlement using Cardano blockchain. It will leverage the inherent security and communication capabilities of the NuActor framework to manage the entire service lifecycle, from authentication to payment initiation.

The core of this solution lies in further developing the decentralised orchestration capabilities based on NuActor framework to support AI agent workflows, and integrating payments on Cardano blockchain within the Nunet Contract architecture. We will also look to enhance the Nunet observability solution to suit the specific needs to Agentic AI on the edge.

Core Components of the Solution:

AI Agent Functionality on Nunet: We will extend the Nunet frameworks to meet the requirements for defining, deploying, and managing AI agents on distributed devices at the edge. This includes:

• Secure Components: AI Agents and their associated components will be deployed using Nunet DMS (Device Management Service) component, providing them with isolated execution environments and restricting their access to resources and other agents.
• Decentralised Identifier: Entities are uniquely identified using DIDs which are an integral part of the NuActor framework
• Capability-based Authorization: Instead of centralized permissions, ability to deploy AI agent on edge resources will be determined by the capability that entity has been provided. These capabilities are non-transferable tokens that represent a specific right or permission, ensuring a zero-trust environment where no entity is inherently trusted.

DePIN Resource Integration: The framework will be configured to easily deploy these AI agent actors onto decentralized hardware resources (DePINs), ensuring a truly decentralized compute layer.

Trusted parties as Payment Provider and as Contract Host: The terms of a service agreement between two parties (e.g., a client and a service-providing AI agent) could be agreed off-chain or, if Cardano integration allows, via on-chain governance. These terms will be encapsulated and enforced by a Contract actor hosted by a trusted third party. Contract Actor also leverages NuActor framework for secure communication with authorised entities.

Settlement using NTX payments on Cardano: The payment process will be triggered only after a service is confirmed to be successfully completed by the Contract Actor.

• Payment Trigger: Upon successful completion of a service, the Contract Actor will trigger the Payment Provider actor.
• Secure Transaction Drafting: The Payment provider actor will securely draft a pre-formatted, unsigned Cardano transaction. This transaction will be structured for a direct payment from the client's address to the service provider's address.
• Zero-Trust Transaction Transmission: The unsigned transaction will be transmitted to the client's wallet for a final signature.
• Automated Submission: Once the client signs the transaction and returns it, the system will receive the signed transaction and automatically submit it to the Cardano blockchain for processing.
• The NuActor and NuNet contracts functionality can be potentially extended to individual AI agents and components. This means that the ability of an AI agent to call another agent or an external tool will be determined by the "capabilities" it holds. This paves the way for a world with autonomous AI agents that can securely interact with each other and transfer value to each other via on-chain payments on Cardano.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

It is estimated that the global market for AI agents is projected to reach approximately $90 billion in the next decade, highlighting a massive opportunity for innovation in this space. We believe that Decentralized AI is not just a technological advancement; it's a necessary evolution. Our solution puts plugs Cardano directly into this high-growth area with niche focus on still untapped markets of edge AI and private AI solutions

Adopting Cardano as our settlement layer provides a secure, scalable, and sustainable foundation for our project. Cardano's commitment to decentralisation, low transaction fees and stability make it an ideal choice for real-world applications. By using Cardano for payments, we are not only strengthening the credibility of the ecosystem but also building the infrastructure for a truly autonomous, agentic AI world. We can imagine a future where AI agents will be ubiquitous at the edge. Our project builds the necessary primitives to enable a scalable and secure Agentic AI ecosystem on a DePIN network powered by blockchain based micropayments on Cardano.

Our protocol has the flexibility to allow seamless interaction with private AI agents as well those hosted on a decentralised cloud. This capability empowers users and businesses to develop the best solution for their needs.

What are some of the possibilities?

• AI agents autonomously authenticate and pay each other in NTX
• Zero-trust data spaces: Hospitals, banks or governments can spin up private, permissioned AI workflows that still enjoy global liquidity—Cardano becomes the neutral settlement rail without ever touching sensitive payloads.
• Edge-to-cloud arbitrage: Device owners monetise idle GPUs/TPUs; AI builders tap cheaper, closer compute. Cardano captures every fee, driving organic demand for ADA/NTX liquidity.

In other words, our proposal is a first step to not just deploy AI at the edge; but to tokenise the edge itself, making Cardano the economic backbone of a trillion-edge-device world.

[Your Project and Solution] Capabilities & Feasibility

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Illustration of Capacity:

Our organization comes with a history of successfully bringing intricate technology projects to fruition. The pillars of our success lie in our deep-rooted technical understanding, stringent project management practices, and an unwavering focus on transparency and responsibility.

Our team is populated with seasoned software engineers with excellent skills to leverage containerization (Docker), Elastic Stack , Blockchain and peer-to-peer networking (Go libp2p). NuNet past work includes the implementation of projects in some sense similar to the one proposed here, showcasing our readiness to tackle the unique challenges this project poses.

NuNet is committed to Open Source Software development from the inception. Therefore, all our development and progress is available for public scrutiny at all times as well as open collaboration with the community. We actively invite and work with the community in regards to contribution, usage, work and testing of the platform codebase.

Link: https://gitlab.com/nunet

NuNet licencing policy:

https://docs.nunet.io/nunet-licensing-policy/

Openness and Responsibility:

We have established a robust framework to ensure openness and responsibility in the execution of the project and the management of finances:

1. Elaborate Budgeting: We present an exhaustive budget layout at the start of the project that details the fund allocation across various tasks. This leaves no room for ambiguity regarding the utilization of funds.
2. Periodic Reporting: Regular updates regarding the project and financial statements will be shared, offering complete transparency into the progression of the project and the use of funds.
3. External Auditing: We are open to audits conducted by independent third parties at regular intervals. This ensures responsibility and openness in our financial management.
4. Payment Based on Milestones: Our payment structure is built around specific, agreed-upon milestones. This ensures that funds are released as we achieve these milestones. The completion of each milestone can be verified, ensuring you pay only for verifiable progress.

These measures reflect our commitment to openness, responsibility, and proper management of funds. We believe that these factors, along with our technical capabilities, make us an ideal choice to successfully execute this project.

We understand that not all steps we have implemented are valid for the Catalyst proposal but it demonstrates the internal working procedures we have in place.

Catalyst Experience

NuNet also has received the funding for proposals in Fund7 and Fund8. Both proposals have been delivered. Overall, the funds were spent as intended on the development which can be monitored on Gitlab with daily commits since the award.

https://gitlab.com/groups/nunet/-/milestones/19#tab-issues

https://gitlab.com/groups/nunet/-/milestones/20#tab-issues

Financial Stability

As a 20+ strong team, we have independent funding to develop the core platform with a cash runway for at least 1-1.5 years. Cardano Catalyst proposals are used to extend the functionality and add features to the platform in order to enrich the possible use cases.

Risk analysis and mitigation:

We have identified the below potential risks for this project

Lack of compute providers with suitable resources - To mitigate this risk, we will use the resources offered by our data centre partners and large enterprises with spare capacity. Nunet will pay for these resources to ensure the functionality can be successfully demonstrated

Lack of suitable AI Agent workflows for deployment and testing - Nunet is part of the ASI ecosystem and it can leverage AI agents built by other entities in the ecosystem such as Singularity Net, Fetch AI etc

Further, we also plan to run a marketing campaign within our community to invite people to provide resources as well as AI agents that we can deploy

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

Research on components for edge AI workflow & outreach to potential partners

Milestone Outputs

Our initial milestone delivers a well-defined Project Scope, informed by in-depth research into critical components for our edge AI solution, coupled with initial outreach to potential ecosystem partners. The scope will specify the types of distributed devices we'll target and how our decentralized orchestration will manage AI agent deployments. It will also specify which frameworks and components will be used for AI agent functionality

Acceptance Criteria

Report should sufficiently describe all the aspects needed to proceed further, including deployment configuration, insights from partner outreach, targeted AI functionality, use of DIDs and expected use of NuActor frameworks

Evidence of Completion

NuNet will submit and make public a Gitlab issue with the research findings documented under the NuNet public repository.

Delivery Month

1

Cost

10000

Progress

10 %

Milestone Title

Modification to Nunet deployment & observability frameworks to support Agentic AI deployment

Milestone Outputs

This milestone's output is the successful, end-to-end deployment of a complete AI agent workflow on a variety of edge devices. This includes integrating and validating the chosen foundational models (like LLMs) and AI agents identified in the first milestone. The process will showcase how the NuNet deployment and observability frameworks enable the seamless provisioning and monitoring of these complex, multi-component AI applications on a distributed network.

Acceptance Criteria

Fully working deployment of an AI Agent workflow via the NuNet ensemble. This must show the AI agent functioning as designed on at least one type of device onboarded to the NuNet network. The demonstration will prove the efficacy of our frameworks for secure and reliable edge deployment, validating the entire process from orchestration to execution and showcasing the agent's expected behavior and integration of NuActor and Observability frameworks.

Evidence of Completion

Video recording showing the deployment process and AI agent functionality. Open source Gitlab repo with appropriate code and documentation

Delivery Month

4

Cost

20000

Progress

30 %

Milestone Title

Modification to Nunet Contract framework to support manual payment of NTX

Milestone Outputs

Contract workflow with payment provider functionality implemented. This will allow parties to manually make payments using NTX on Cardano Blockchain. The Contract will update based on successful on-chain transaction between parties of the contract

Acceptance Criteria

When a party of the contract transfers the requisite NTX amount to the second party of the contract, the NuNet contract must automatically update its state to reflect the completed transaction, confirming the implemented payment provider functionality and the contract's ability to react to on-chain events.

Evidence of Completion

Video recording showing the contract workflow functionality. Open source Gitlab repo with appropriate code and documentation

Delivery Month

5

Cost

20000

Progress

40 %

Milestone Title

Modification to Nunet Contract framework to support automated payment request

Milestone Outputs

Fully functional contract workflow within the NuNet framework. It's capable of generating an automated payment request and sending it to the user. Once the user approves using their wallet, the workflow will automatically submit the transaction to the Cardano blockchain for settlement.

Acceptance Criteria

Entire payment workflow functioning autonomously. This includes the contract creating a payment request, the user approving it, and the system automatically submitting the NTX transaction to the Cardano network. The transaction must successfully settle on-chain without any manual intervention beyond initial user approval

Evidence of Completion

Video recording showing the automated payment functionality within the contract workflow. Open source Gitlab repo with appropriate code and documentation

Delivery Month

7

Cost

30000

Progress

80 %

Milestone Title

Demo of the entire functionality with or without external partners (ie. ASI Alliance)

Milestone Outputs

This milestone delivers a complete, end-to-end demonstration of our solution. The output is a full AI agent workflow deployed on edge devices within the NuNet network. This demonstration will seamlessly integrate all key components: decentralized orchestration, secure NuActor-based communication, and automated contract execution with NTX payments on Cardano. This is a functional prototype showcasing the entire lifecycle of an AI agent on our platform.

Acceptance Criteria

Successful integration of all the Nunet frameworks to support edge AI deployments. This includes NuActor framework for secure communication and authentication, Observability framework for monitoring and logging, Contract interaction during deployment and automated NTX-based payment settlements. Sample AI agent deployment leveraging the functionality developed in the project.

Evidence of Completion

Video recording showing the entire AI agent deployment lifecycle along with payments using NTX on Cardano. Open source Gitlab repo with appropriate code and documentation

Delivery Month

8

Cost

20000

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Our budget will be allocated across these key areas:

Development & Integration: This covers the engineering resources for modifying the NuNet frameworks, building and integrating the payment functionality on Cardano, and implementing AI workflow deployments. This includes research, software development, tools, documentation and testing.

Infrastructure & Operations: This budget will support the initial setup and maintenance of our own nodes for testing, as well as covering any operational costs related to the initial deployment and orchestration of the MVP on distributed edge devices.

If needed we may utilise funds to market the solution to Nunet community and partners in ASI ecosystem.

Milestone #1 Research on Edge AI & Partner Outreach

10,000 ADA / Resources & Skills Needed: Research team, technical analysts, knowledge of AI frameworks, understanding of distributed systems, communication skills for partner outreach, documentation skills

Milestone #2 Deploy AI Agent Workflow on Edge Devices

20,000 ADA / Resources & Skills Needed: Software engineers, DevOps skills, knowledge of orchestration frameworks, NuActor expertise, AI/ML model integration, edge device deployment experience, observability and monitoring setup

Milestone #3 NuNet Contract: Manual NTX Payment

20,000 ADA / Resources & Skills Needed: Smart contract developers, Cardano blockchain expertise, Go programming, NTX token integration, testing and QA skills

Milestone #4 NuNet Contract: Automated NTX Payment

30,000 ADA / Resources & Skills Needed: Advanced smart contract development, blockchain transaction automation, wallet integration, Go and/or Plutus programming, testing, QA, and security knowledge

Milestone #5 Full Demo of AI Agent Lifecycle

20,000 ADA / Resources & Skills Needed: Full-stack developers, DevOps/Orchestration experts, AI/ML engineers, NuActor and observability experts, smart contract and blockchain specialists, video/demo production skills

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?

Our proposal represents a uniquely high value opportunity for the Cardano ecosystem because it leverages NuNet’s open-source decentralised compute frameworks and integrates them tightly with Cardano’s secure, low-cost, and sustainable settlement layer. We are building primitives that can unlock a multi-billion-dollar market: edge-deployed AI agents operating within decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs), transacting seamlessly via on-chain NTX-based micropayments.

Unlike conventional cloud-based AI deployments, our approach harnesses the object capability security model combined with decentralized identifiers (DIDs) to enable fine-grained, zero-trust authorisation between AI agents, devices, and workflows. This is a forward-looking architecture that aligns directly with the needs of Agentic AI: autonomous, interoperable AI agents capable of securely consuming compute, orchestrating tasks, and settling payments without intermediaries. By positioning Cardano as the default settlement layer for these interactions, our project expands the ecosystem into the $80+ billion Edge AI market expected to mature within the decade.

The return on investment for Cardano is not measured in immediate profit, but in strategic positioning:

• Ecosystem Growth: Every AI agent deployed via NuNet is a potential on-chain user of Cardano, creating consistent transaction volume, unique active addresses, and long-tail adoption of NTX-settled workflows.
• AI Readiness: By integrating zero-trust orchestration, DePIN compute, and on-chain settlement, Cardano can stake its claim as the blockchain of choice for real-world AI applications at the edge.
• Open Source Multiplier: Every line of code developed under this proposal will be open-sourced (Apache 2.0 license), ensuring that the community, ecosystem projects, and future innovators can build upon our work at no additional cost.

Cardano gains a fully operational, auditable, and open-source framework demonstrating: (1) secure AI agent deployment on distributed edge devices, (2) automated settlement of NTX transactions on Cardano, and (3) novel implementation of capability-driven contract workflows tied to blockchain micropayments.

This is not just a proof of concept—it is infrastructure. It lays the groundwork for an autonomous machine economy where AI agents negotiate, contract, and pay on Cardano, embedding the network deeply into the future of decentralized AI. That combination of tangible outputs, strategic positioning, and open-source leverage makes our proposal a clear high-value investment for the Catalyst community.

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

Terms and Conditions:

Yes