Overview
Twilight is a proof-of-work blockchain that decouples the block reward from block production. Its validators are Slot operators, and each one passes its share of new coins on to the people whose agents did verified work.
A Slot is an independent verifier with work it defines itself. Its operator runs a validator, which collects the Slot's share, and an authorization server, which verifies the work and pays it out. One Slot is open today: web search, run by Jevlin. A coding agent's searches go through it, and each half hour in which the agent searched earns the person running it a share.
Twilight is a public preview on a network called devnet-3. The coins it pays are devnet TWLT, which are for testing and have no price. The numbers on this site are the preview's and can change between versions. Nothing here is a promise about a future mainnet.
Who can mine
Coding agents. The work the open Slot pays for is the web search an agent already does for its user, so any agent that can run a command on your machine can take part. These are set up by one install of the Slot's client, with a skill and hooks for each:
A person is behind every agent: the wallet, the payout address and the claim that ties an agent to an account are theirs. Get started is the setup; Agent authentication is how an agent signs in with no browser.
How it fits together
Five parts, three of them the Slot operator's. The chain keeps the Slot register, mints coins and moves money. A provider does the work and keeps a one-line record per unit. An authorization server, one per Slot, enrolls participants, verifies their reports against the provider, and submits the settlements that pay them. A validator per Slot runs the chain. The client on a participant's machine does the work through the provider, reports it, and holds the keys.
| Sees the work | Knows who you are | Moves money | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provider | yes | by provider account | no |
| Authorization server (MINIS) | no, metadata only | by enrollment | submits settlements |
| Chain | no | by payment address | pays, from escrow |
| Client, on your machine | yes | it is you | no, it only receives |
The chain credits each active Slot every block and, when the period closes, mints the period's new coins and writes each Slot's share as an entitlement addressed to the operator's payout address. Only the Slot's authorization server, signing with the settlement address on the Slot's record, can release part of it to participants. Whatever it does not release is paid to the operator. Architecture has the diagram and the chain's three modules.
Register a new Slot
A Slot is registered on the chain by the network authority, not by self-service. The operator prepares the pieces, the authority signs two transactions, and the operator runs everything else. Register a new Slot is the full procedure; in outline:
- Bring the record. An operator address, a payout address, a dedicated settlement address your verifier pays from, a fresh consensus key from a validator you run, and a moniker.
- The authority registers it. One transaction creates the Slot in the pending state with the next free id.
- Start your validator, then the authority activates it. The Slot joins the validator set with voting power 1 and, from the next period, receives a share of the chain's emission. Up to 100 Slots can be active.
- Stand up the provider and the verifier. The provider does the work and exposes a verification API. The authorization server, one per Slot, enrolls participants, checks their reports against the provider, and submits the settlements that pay them. Until it does, the Slot's share sits on chain as an entitlement.
twilightd coreslot register <operator> <payout> <settlement> <consensus-pubkey-base64> <moniker> --from <authority> ...
twilightd coreslot activate <slot-id> --from <authority> ...
If you want to run a Slot, tell us about it through the Slot operator form. To take part in a Slot that already exists rather than run one, see Get started.
What you can do
Here are some of the ways people use Twilight today:
Earn for the searches your agent already makes
Through the search Slot, each web search your coding agent makes is a unit of work, confirmed by the router that served it. It works from Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, opencode, Pi and Hermes, and any other agent that can run a command. One verified search in a half-hour period counts you in for that period's payment. More searches do not earn more, and nothing about your agent's work changes.
See How mining works and Jevlin.
Choose where you are paid
Setup makes a wallet for you, protected by a passphrase, and shows you 24 recovery words once. Or paste a twilight1… address you already have. Payments go straight to that address every period, with no claiming step. Nothing on your machine can spend from an address you brought.
jevlin wallet address
jevlin wallet balance
See Your wallet.
Check that you are earning
Doctor is the health check. It says in plain words whether you are connected, enrolled, joined to the current period, and earning, and names the one thing to fix if something is not right. Earnings lists what the chain has paid to your address.
jevlin doctor
jevlin earnings
See Get started.
Get paid every half hour
The chain splits each period's new coins between the active Slots. Each Slot then splits its share equally among everyone who did verified work in that period. You join a period two ahead, and coins are sent after it closes.
See Rewards.
Turn it on and off from your agent
Out of the box your agent prefers the Slot's search over its own. Tell it once if you would rather it used its own search unless you ask. Searches that do not go through the Slot simply earn nothing.
/jevlin off
/jevlin on
/jevlin status
See docs.jevlin.ai.
Keep your code and keys private
The part that sees your work does not pay you, and the part that pays you does not see your work. The provider sees your searches the way any search engine does. The verifier sees only that a search happened and when. The chain sees only your payment address. Your code, your recovery words and your passphrase never leave your machine.
See Who sees what.
Run a Slot of your own
A Slot is an independent verifier, and it defines its own work: a test run, a review, a translation, anything an agent does through a service that can confirm it. The chain registers up to 100 Slots and pays each active one a share of every block. Operators run a validator, a provider and a verifier, and the protocol between them is specified.
See Register a new Slot and Slots.
What exists today
- Slots active
- 3, up to 100
- Open to the public
- 1, web search
- Paid every
- about 30 minutes
- Total supply
- 21,000,000 TWLT
- Client
- one small program, no daemon
The preview network runs three Slots. Two belong to the network itself. The third is open to anyone: web search, run by Jevlin. Everything else on this site is about Twilight itself, and applies to every Slot.