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Pearl
Pearl is a Layer-1 blockchain developed by Pearl Research Labs and uses Proof-of-Useful-Work (PoUW) as its consensus mechanism. Pearl Research Labs’ co-founder and CEO is Omri Weinstein.[5] This protocol replaces traditional hash-based mining with large-scale matrix multiplication, a core arithmetic operation used in artificial intelligence (AI) training and inference. The protocol’s proof verifies matrix computation, but does not by itself establish that the computation serves an AI task or customer-requested inference workload.[9] Pearl's native cryptocurrency is the PRL token (symbol: PRL).[1]
Overview
Pearl is a live Layer-1 blockchain whose consensus design uses matrix-multiplication proofs in place of conventional hash-based mining. The proof establishes matrix computation and associated proof conditions; it does not guarantee that miners perform useful customer AI inference.[9] Around October 14, 2026, the public mainnet explorer showed recent blocks and transactions.[10]
The Pearl whitepaper was published in April 2025, which is rooted in peer-reviewed research on matrix multiplication proofs. By April 27, 2026, the Pearl mainnet became operational.[3] Hashrate Index reports Pearl’s stated launch model as having no pre-mine, no founder token allocation, and no venture-capital funding.[4]
Pearl's code is available on GitHub.[12]
On August 11, 2026, Pearl released v1.4.1 for a salted noise-seed hard fork. The v1.5.0 release followed on October 13, 2026, consolidating security hardening across network and RPC resilience, proof and SPV validation, wallet safety, and service defaults; operators were advised to upgrade. Also on October 13, 2026, Pearl Desktop Wallet v3.0.0 bundled the node fixes and changed payment retry handling so a potentially broadcast payment is retained and can be rebroadcast, reducing the risk of duplicate payment.[11]
Technology
Pearl employs the Proof-of-Useful-Work (PoUW) consensus mechanism, utilizing matrix multiplication (MatMul) instead of SHA-256 hashing like Bitcoin.[6] This method secures the blockchain through matrix-multiplication proofs. The protocol’s cuPOW/NoisyGEMM proof verifies matrix computation and associated proof conditions, but does not cryptographically establish that the matrices came from an AI model or customer-requested inference workload.[9]
BLAKE3 hashes of the input matrices, mining parameters, and blockchain state form commitments and seeds that bind mining work to those inputs. The matrix data is organized as a Merkle tree, allowing a verifier to check the relevant matrix portions using Merkle proofs and verify the winning computation. A zero-knowledge proof lets the verifier validate the claimed multiplication and mining condition without seeing the full matrices.[14] Currently, the implementation focuses on exact integer MatMul, with future upgrades potentially supporting low-precision floating-point formats (BF16, FP8, FP4) though no specific timeline for this transition has been disclosed.[3]
Blocks on the Pearl network are targeted every 194 seconds, resulting in approximately 445 blocks mined daily, under normal conditions. Mining uses matrix multiplication. A June 2026 preprint by Abhinaba Basu, identified by its author as under review, reported that the dominant mining software examined lacked identifiable inference code, that the protocol accepted proofs based on random matrices, and that the author obtained pool-accepted shares in tests spanning NVIDIA RTX 3090 and AMD MI300X GPUs, as well as CPU and Apple M2 hardware.[9][12]
Products
Pearl Research Labs’ website presents inference services separately from the Pearl chain’s consensus mechanism. Its offerings include an OpenAI-compatible serverless inference API, managed inference, and on-premise inference deployments, alongside a multi-model catalog.[1]
PRL Token
PRL is the Pearl network’s native cryptocurrency, used for block subsidies and transaction fees. Miners receive newly issued PRL and transaction fees for valid blocks.[14] The whitepaper describes ongoing emissions through block rewards on a declining curve, while Hashrate Index reports Pearl’s stated launch model as having no pre-mine and no founder token allocation.[14][4] PRL has a fixed maximum supply of 2.1 billion tokens. The emission follows a polynomial curve, defined as A(t) = t / (t + H), where H equals 650,226 blocks (~four years), ensuring gradual token release without sudden cliffs like Bitcoin’s halvings.[7]
As of June 2026, the block rewards were approximately 2,700 PRL per block, which results in about 1.2 million PRL tokens being issued daily prior to incorporating transaction fees.[6]
Together AI Partnership
In May 2026, Pearl Research Labs entered an exclusive partnership with Together AI, an open-source AI inference provider valued at over $8 billion following its Series C funding. Together AI described "Gemma-4-31B-it-Pearl" as the first product integrating the Pearl Network: an inference endpoint available on Together AI's platform at a discounted rate, over 25% cheaper than standard offerings. The price reduction is offset by expected PRL emissions generated during inference computation.[8][5]
Omri Weinstein noted that this integration marks a shift in AI economics by enabling GPU cycles used in AI tasks to also generate a native digital asset, PRL, without additional cost. Together AI said it planned to expand its portfolio of Pearl-powered products and potentially offer customers ways to obtain a portion of currency emissions.[7][5]
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