# 🧠 Cortex Node — Cortex: AI on Blockchain (Go) ### Official Golang implementation of the Cortex full node — a decentralized blockchain that runs AI/ML model inference on‑chain.

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📖 Overview

BlockchainAi is the official Golang implementation of Cortex — a public blockchain that brings artificial intelligence and machine‑learning inference on‑chain. Cortex lets smart contracts call AI/ML models directly through the Cortex Virtual Machine (CVM), enabling decentralized AI DApps where model execution is verifiable and reproducible across every node.

The node (Go module github.com/CortexFoundation/CortexTheseus) implements the full Cortex protocol: networking, transaction processing, the EVM‑compatible CVM runtime, state storage, mining, RPC/console tooling, and a Proof‑of‑Work consensus based on the Cortex Cuckoo cycle. AI models and input data are distributed via a content‑addressed storage layer, and inference results are computed deterministically (with optional CUDA/GPU acceleration) so that on‑chain AI is trustless.

This repository is for blockchain engineers, AI/ML researchers, miners, and DApp developers who want to run a Cortex full node, build AI‑powered smart contracts, or experiment with decentralized machine learning.

🔎 Keywords: AI on blockchain, decentralized AI, Cortex blockchain, on‑chain machine learning, Cortex Virtual Machine (CVM), Golang blockchain node, smart contract AI inference, proof‑of‑work Cuckoo cycle, GPU mining, Web3 AI.

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✨ Features

• 🧠 On‑chain AI/ML inference — execute machine‑learning models directly from smart contracts via the CVM.
• 🔗 Full Cortex node — networking (p2p), state, transactions, consensus, RPC, and console in one binary.
• ⛏️ Proof‑of‑Work mining — Cortex Cuckoo cycle PoW with optional CUDA/GPU acceleration.
• 🤖 Deterministic CVM — EVM‑compatible virtual machine extended for verifiable AI model execution.
• 🗂️ Decentralized model & data storage — AI models/inputs distributed via content‑addressed (TorrentFS) storage.
• 🧪 Developer tooling — CLIs under cmd/ (cortex, bootnode, abigen, devp2p, keytools, …).
• 🌐 Testnet support — run the Bernard testnet for development.
• 🐧 Cross‑platform builds — Linux‑first (Ubuntu/CentOS), x64 with Makefile‑driven builds.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Language	Go 1.22
Module	github.com/CortexFoundation/CortexTheseus
Virtual machine	Cortex Virtual Machine (CVM), EVM‑compatible
Consensus	Proof‑of‑Work (Cortex Cuckoo cycle)
AI runtime	CVM runtime (libcvm_runtime.so), optional CUDA/GPU
Storage	Content‑addressed model/data storage (TorrentFS)
Build	Make, CMake, GCC/G++

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go 1.20+ (built/tested with Go 1.22)
• CMake 3.11.0+, GCC/G++ 5.4+, make
• 8 GB+ RAM recommended for compilation
• x64 CPU (AVX2 recommended)
• (Optional, for GPU mining) CUDA 9.2+ and a compatible NVIDIA driver (396.37+)
• Linux (Ubuntu 18.04+ recommended; CentOS 7.6 supported but not recommended)

Build from source

git clone --recursive https://github.com/CortexFoundation/CortexTheseus.git
cd CortexTheseus
make clean && make -j$(nproc)

Verify the CVM runtime library links correctly:

ldd plugins/libcvm_runtime.so

If it fails, run rm -rf cvm-runtime && git submodule init && git submodule update, then rebuild.

Run a full node

cd CortexTheseus
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD:$PWD/plugins:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
./build/bin/cortex

View all available options:

./build/bin/cortex --help

Run the developer testnet (Bernard)

./cortex --bernard

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🔗 Related Projects

Project	Description
cvm-runtime	CVM runtime — the AI inference container
torrentfs	Decentralized file/model storage layer
inference	AI wrapper — fixed API for inference & storage
solution	PoW — Cortex Cuckoo cycle
rosetta-cortex	Rosetta API integration
docker	Docker images & deployment

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🗂️ Project Structure

BlockchainAi/
├── cmd/            # CLIs: cortex, bootnode, abigen, devp2p, keytools, …
├── consensus/      # Proof-of-Work consensus (Cuckoo cycle)
├── core/           # Blockchain core, state & transaction processing
├── ctxc/           # Cortex protocol & full-node service
├── miner/          # Mining
├── p2p/            # Peer-to-peer networking
├── rpc/            # JSON-RPC layer
├── console/        # Interactive JS console
├── crypto/         # Cryptography primitives
├── pow/            # Proof-of-Work
├── params/         # Network & chain parameters
├── genesis.json    # Genesis configuration
├── go.mod          # Go module definition
└── Makefile        # Build automation

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please review CODINGSTYLE.md, then open an issue or submit a pull request.

📜 License

The library packages are licensed under GNU LGPL‑3.0 (COPYING.LESSER); the command‑line binaries are licensed under GNU GPL‑3.0 (COPYING). See LICENSE, COPYING, and COPYING.LESSER for details.

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👤 Author — Morpheus Adam

Web developer & cheerful hacker · PHP · Laravel · Go

⭐ If this decentralized‑AI node interests you, consider giving it a star! ⭐

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⭐ Star History

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