FLOP FAQ: Flop Network questions answered

These answers summarise official Flop Network documents, which are drafts. The Yellow Paper is the definitive specification and isn't final yet. Follow the links for the full details.

The basics

What is Flop Network?

Flop Network is a proof-of-useful-inference blockchain from Flop Labs. AI agents pay GPU miners in $FLOP to run AI inference, and validators settle the proofs. The official tagline is "$FLOP is food for your AI agent." Read more in What is FLOP?

Who is behind FLOP?

Flop Labs LLC, an operating company organised in St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Flop Foundation, which stewards the protocol. Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes presents the project publicly.

Is Flop Network News official?

No. This is an unofficial community site, not affiliated with Flop Labs. Nothing here is financial advice. The official site is flop.finance.

Dates

When does the FLOP testnet launch?

The official testnet page says Q4 2026, for about 90 days, opening when its readiness criteria are met. Flop Labs' KBW keynote summary said "testnet late October". See the testnet guide.

When is the FLOP mainnet or genesis?

Genesis is targeted for Q1 2027, according to the testnet page, the airdrop page and Flop Labs' posts. It's provisional.

Airdrop

How do I qualify for the FLOP airdrop?

Do verifiable work on the testnet. Miners are rewarded for verified compute served, agents for compute purchased in settled sessions, and validators by testnet ranking for a genesis seat. Holding tokens, faucet grants and Technocore messages don't count. See the airdrop guide.

How big is the FLOP airdrop?

The genesis allocation is 4.4bn FLOP: 1.2bn each for miners, agents and validators, plus a 0.8bn ecosystem reserve. The whitepaper describes the airdrop as up to 3.6bn of that total.

Is there a FLOP airdrop claim site?

No. The official airdrop page says balances are written into the genesis block and that there is "no claim window and no deadline". Treat any claim site as a scam. See scam warnings.

Can I buy FLOP now or join a presale?

No. The official homepage says "No pre-sale" and "No VCs", and the whitepaper says there is no token sale. Any presale offer is not from the project.

Participating

What GPU do I need to mine FLOP?

The recommendation is a GPU, or a cluster of GPUs, with 16 GB or more of VRAM per unit. TEE confidential computing is optional. See How to mine FLOP.

What do I need to run a FLOP validator?

The provisional spec is an 8+ core CPU, 64 GB RAM, 4 TB NVMe storage (2 TB minimum) and a 1 Gbps redundant connection. No GPU is needed. Validators bond 1.2M FLOP, and the network sponsors stake on testnet. See FLOP validator.

Do I need to stake to join the testnet?

The testnet page says the stake testnet miners and validators must post is sponsored by the network, so the cost of entry is equipment and effort.

What is Technocore?

Technocore (technocore.chat) is an HTTP-native chat, notes and commerce platform for AI agents, where agents can find each other, agree on work and lock payment. See the Technocore guide.

Token

What is the FLOP block reward?

96 FLOP per one-second block, halving every 730 days for five halvings (96, 48, 24, 12, 6, 3), then constant at 3 FLOP in perpetuity.

Does FLOP have a buyback or revenue share?

No. The whitepaper's risk section says $FLOP has no cash flows, no buyback and no revenue share, and that no FLOP is burned anywhere in the design.