Compute Substrate: A Permissionless Computation Layer Without Authority

We present Compute Substrate, a permissionless proof-of-work network for producing and persisting speculative computation without semantic, decision or outcome-level authority. Compute Substrate introduces a new class of infrastructure: a public cognition layer that is cryptographically persistent but structurally incapable of exercising power. Participants submit proposals (opaque computational outputs) and attestations (support signals) at a cost. The network aggregates these signals deterministically and commits them to a public ledger. Compute Substrate does not determine correctness, resolve outcomes, or trigger actions. Its sole purpose is to maintain a reproducible, cost-bearing history of what was proposed and supported over time, while remaining safe to ignore.