PRANA
PRANA is the compute blockchain of the SoapBox ecosystem — a proof-of-work, EVM-compatible Layer-1 that you mine with an ordinary computer, and whose mining does useful work. It is the sister chain to the social chain MELEK, and it is the engine that pays for the ecosystem's artificial-intelligence compute.
What it is
PRANA is its own Layer-1 blockchain. It is EVM-compatible — the same tools as Ethereum (MetaMask, Solidity, Remix, Hardhat, Foundry) — and it is Proof of Work, mined with the Etchash algorithm (GPU- and laptop-friendly). It is a fair launch: no premine, no presale, no insider allocation; supply starts at zero and is entirely earned by mining. Tokens issued on PRANA are ERC-20s — we call them PRC-20 (see Token standards).
The idea that makes it different
The chain is the mining pool, and mining does useful work. There are two ways to earn, both paid from the same reward pool:
- HASH lane — classic Etchash proof-of-work that secures and orders blocks.
- TASK lane — verified AI / GPU compute. Real, useful work, paid in PRANA.
This is why PRANA exists: an AI needs GPUs to think, and GPUs cost money. Instead of renting cloud compute until a treasury runs dry, PRANA turns mining into the compute the AI runs on. When you mine PRANA, you are the datacenter for a living AI — and that is what makes the AI Hathor sustainable and forkable.
PRANA and KULA
Miners earn PRANA + KULA as a paired reward — like the STEEM/SBD pair, but for EVM miners. KULA is the ecosystem's DeFi collateral coin and the answer to the "stable" token MELEK deliberately left out.
How to take part
- Mine it at the pool — Etchash on a GPU, or CryptoNote / RandomX on a CPU, even in the browser. Earn from the first share.
- Learn it at the Witness School (the pool + how mining works).
- Build on it — deploy PRC-20 tokens, the KULA DEX, and dApps, exactly as you would on Ethereum.
Where PRANA fits
PRANA is the compute layer of the ecosystem: MELEK (social), PRANA (compute / proof-of-work / AI work), and KULA (DeFi). The apps built on top are SoapBox.
See also: MELEK · KULA · SoapBox · Hathor · PRC-20 token standards