Our Blog

‍Published on behalf of the Subspace Foundation.

A second season of staking rewards will keep the operator and nominator community strong while the Autonomys Network continues to grow toward sustainable, organic transaction activity.

A healthy network needs an active staking community from day one, long before real usage can pay for it. Closing that gap is what Guardians of Growth was built to do.

The program is run by the Subspace Foundation, which oversees the Autonomys Network. Its role is to support the network’s growth and resilience. The Foundation launched Guardians of Growth in August 2025 with a clear goal: build strong staking participation and support a healthy ecosystem of operators, who run the network’s infrastructure, and nominators, who stake their AI3 behind them. The program would sustain that community while activity on the network grew toward generating its own transaction fees.

One year on, the community has answered. At its peak, 41,270,560 AI3 was committed to operators. Around 39.9 million AI3 remains committed today, roughly one-third of the circulating supply, spread across 5 nominator positions and four active operators. Season 1 did what it set out to do. It built meaningful staking participation from a standing start and made the staking process familiar to a growing community.

Why a second season

Season 1 was always meant to be a bridge. It would carry operators and nominators through the early period, before organic network activity generated a larger share of their rewards.

That activity has grown more slowly than hoped. One year in, usage and fee generation are not yet where the Foundation expected them to be. The ecosystem needs more time. The staking community, meanwhile, remains strong.

Season 1 is still concluding as announced. Season 2 is a new and separately funded program that extends that bridge, providing continuity for the people who stake while giving the wider ecosystem room to grow. It is not a substitute for adoption. The Foundation and Autonomys Network continue to pursue product, developer and adoption work aimed at increasing real network usage. Guardians of Growth simply provides a stable base from which that work can continue.

What Season 2 commits

The Foundation will allocate a further 5,000,000 AI3 to Season 2. The additional AI3 comes from the Foundation’s Near-Term Treasury, which is earmarked for ecosystem development. Across both seasons, that brings the total to 10,000,000 AI3, exactly one percent of total token supply, dedicated to bootstrapping staking and supporting the execution domain ecosystem.

Rewards will be distributed over approximately twelve months. Season 2 is expected to begin once Season 1 concludes, targeting around the end of August 2026, with Season 2 completion targeted around the end of August 2027. Actual timing may vary with block production and live network conditions, so treat these as operational targets rather than fixed dates.

Everything that made Season 1 trustworthy stays in place. Staking remains fully non-custodial: nominators keep control of their AI3 at all times and never hand custody to the Foundation. Rewards are protocol-native, distributed through the same mechanism that handles ordinary transaction fees. And the program remains open and verifiable, with the Guardians of Growth Auto EVM Vault, operational wallets and reward transactions all followable on-chain. The Foundation will keep publishing staking figures in the End of Month reports and will release a retrospective once Season 2 concludes.

How it works

The mechanism is deliberately simple. On a regular cadence, the Foundation submits a simple transaction on the Auto EVM domain and attaches a tip. Operators that include that transaction in a block earn a share of the tip, and their nominators automatically receive a proportional share through the normal staking process. The protocol decides how rewards are split. The Foundation does not choose individual recipients.

The system runs on the open-source Operator Reward Distributor, which submits the transactions, attaches configurable tips, and tracks the program budget and confirmations. This keeps the program transparent, reproducible and aligned with how the network already handles fees.

A strong staking community matters for what comes next, too. When Game of Domains, the network’s incentivized testnet initiative, resumes, an active base of operators and nominators will already be fluent in the workflows it depends on.

How to take part

There are no guaranteed returns. Rewards vary with the size and cadence of the tips, the amount staked to each operator, and the number of other participants. Anyone considering it should understand the staking mechanics and the associated risks first.

To take part, view the active operators and their current staking information on the Autonomys Staking Portal. If you are new to staking, the staking guide walks through connecting a wallet, choosing an operator, and managing your position.

For the complete details of Season 2, the FAQ, and everything you need to get involved, read the full announcement on the Autonomys forum.

In July, the stakeholder unlocks moved from commitment to contract. The tokens transferred to Auto EVM now sit in lockup contracts that enforce the Foundation’s published schedule. As each date arrives, the tokens become claimable, and every claim is visible to anyone watching on-chain. Guardians of Growth continued distributing daily boosted staking rewards of 20,500 AI3. As announced in June’s report, the storage-first marketing refresh went live, making it easier than ever to find and begin using permanent storage. And beneath all of it, engineering kept pushing on plotting and protocol. Here is the material progress made in July and the momentum heading into August.

Engineering & Protocol

• A new Vulkan plotting implementation from the Abundance research project entered testing. It replaces the current platform-specific GPU implementation with a single cross-platform one, so plot generation can run across a wider range of hardware without maintaining separate builds for each platform. This is the next step for the exploratory GPU work noted in June.
• Storage cost calculation was updated to account for issuance across domains, so pricing now reflects Cross-Domain Messaging (XDM) transfers.
• General protocol upgrades continued. Routine improvements to keep the network current and further harden it.

Ecosystem & Developer Momentum

Agent Skills
The agent skills library was updated to support Hermes alongside OpenClaw, widening the set of agent clients that can draw on the same skills.

Developer Sync Calls
Last month we relaunched Developer Sync calls and continue to run them frequently, giving our developer community the opportunity to connect with the Autonomys engineering team directly. For a faster path to answers than documentation alone, check out the most recent session or join the next one, on Monday, August 10. Bring your development questions and get answers live.

Refreshed Landing Page and New Targeted AI Agent Webpage
The marketing refresh flagged in June’s report is now live. The part of our stack that helps the most people the fastest is permanent storage, so we put it first at two main entry points: a refreshed homepage at autonomys.xyz, and a new, dedicated site for AI agents at agent.autonomys.xyz. The homepage leads with one idea, “Upload Once, Access Forever,” and a single action to try it free. The agent site narrows to a sharper need: memory AI agents can trust. Both shorten the distance between arriving and understanding what you can do here. Read the full announcement for more details.

Community & Foundation

Stakeholder Unlocks
The stakeholder unlocks are underway. Following June’s transfer of tokens to Auto EVM, the network’s smart-contract environment, the lockup contracts that govern the unlock schedule have been created. The initial unlock is now open, with tokens claimable on the timeline the Foundation previously published. As tokens become claimable, each release can be followed directly on Auto EVM.

Guardians of Growth Continues with Boosted Staking Rewards
Boosted staking rewards remain at their highest throughout this period. Last month, the Foundation recycled more than 100,000 AI3 in proceeds from the program’s own bootstrap stake back into the initiative, then recalculated the remaining distribution to spread it across this phase.

Check out the updated Staking Portal or read the full post on the Autonomys forum.

Grants
The Foundation began researching changes to the Grants Program so that it rewards durable network usage rather than speculative development artifacts that go unsupported after delivery. The aim is to direct grants toward projects that put the network to real, lasting use. We look forward to sharing more with the community once the revamped program is live.

ICYMI: Content Published in July

• June | End-of-Month Report
• Permanent Storage, Front and Center: A Refreshed Homepage and a New Site for Agents

Metrics: July Snapshot

Staking: 35,277,811 AI3
Auto Drive Files Uploaded: 2,334 (+561 from June) / 133,859 (All time)
Auto Drive Downloads: 312 (July) / 18,516 (All time)
Auto Drive Users: 728 (+15 from June)
Total Announced Partnerships: 65
Announced Auto Drive Integrations: 11
Total Grant Applications: 96 (+4 from June)

Looking Ahead

With the pieces set in July, August is a month for letting them run and refining what’s next. We look forward to steady, deliberate progress.

autonomys.xyz | ai3.storage | develop.autonomys.xyz

Autonomys is a Layer-1 network, and everything it is made of, from consensus to execution, adds up to a broad stack. When the network launched, laying that whole picture out made sense. People needed to see how the pieces connected before they could trust any one of them.

Now that we're established as an L1, our focus has shifted to getting visitors to the most useful piece quickly. The part of the stack that helps the most people the fastest is permanent storage. So we have reorganized two of our main entry points to put it first: a refreshed homepage at autonomys.xyz, and a new, dedicated site for AI agents at agent.autonomys.xyz.

Reinventing the network is not the objective; consistently making it easier to use is. Each of these steps shortens the distance between arriving and understanding what you can actually do here.

The homepage now opens on permanent storage

The redesigned homepage leads with one idea, "Upload Once, Access Forever," and a single action: try permanent storage for free. Rather than explaining the protocol first, it starts with what people most want to keep safe, from compliance and audit trails to contracts, financial records, research data, personal files, and AI agent memory. 

The rest of the page stays just as practical. You reach it through interfaces you already know, from the web app to the Auto SDK, a REST API, and an S3-compatible layer. All of them run through Auto Drive, our user-friendly gateway to Autonomys' distributed storage network (DSN), where your data is kept securely and permanently. 

Encryption is on your terms. Turn it on and your files are encrypted on your own device with AES-256-GCM, the same standard trusted by financial institutions and governments worldwide, and one built for the quantum era. Pricing follows the same logic. Unlike most storage services, where you pay continuously to rent space, Auto Drive lets you pay once and store forever, and even offers a free tier of 20 MB of complimentary uploads each month for anyone who wants to try it at no cost.

A dedicated site for AI agents

The new agent site helps people building AI agents, along with the agents themselves, find and use permanent storage without wading through the rest of the stack. Its focus is memory your AI agents can trust. Hallucination is the known problem; unverifiable memory is the silent one. You choose the model, write the prompt, and audit the tools, yet what an agent reads back is often the one variable outside your control.  Permanent storage closes that gap. Memory stored on Autonomys cannot drift between calls, cannot be quietly rewritten, and cannot vanish. A short code sample saves a memory in a few lines and returns a content identifier (CID) your agent verifies on every read. Each memory points back to the one before it, forming a chain, so a new instance can rebuild its full history from a single address. The site also lists skills for frameworks like OpenClaw and Hermes, and highlights that the free tier of 20 MB a month is enough for most agents.

Same goal, two front doors

The homepage speaks to a broad set of people with data worth keeping. The agent site speaks to a narrower audience with a sharper need. Both point to the same permanent storage, and both start you in the same place.

If you have records worth keeping, start here: autonomys.xyz, and try permanent storage for free at ai3.storage.

If you are building AI agents, start here: agent.autonomys.xyz, with agent memory documentation at develop.autonomys.xyz/agentic_memory.

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In August 2025, the Subspace Foundation launched a boosted staking rewards program, Guardians of Growth, to encourage and reward early staking participation. Now, as we close out June 2026, with staking proceeds recycled and final accounting complete, the initiative has hit its highest boosted rewards yet, 20,500 AI3 daily, before it winds down. Learn more. 

Beyond it, the work was quieter but no less deliberate: protocol upgrades that keep hardening the network, the Foundation moving tokens into position for the distribution schedule it has already committed to, and a marketing refresh set to launch in July, making our core offerings easier to find, learn about, and build with. This report outlines the material progress made in June and the momentum carrying into July.

Engineering & Protocol

• Proof-of-Space table optimizations were released to mainnet. These speed up the plotting process that farmers rely on to participate in the network, with measured gains in how fast plots are generated and verified.
• The node software was upgraded to the latest Substrate release. This keeps the network current with the framework it is built on, inheriting the newest performance and security improvements from upstream.
• A first draft of the Data Domains specification was completed and entered review. This is the design step that precedes implementation, where the approach is pressure-tested before engineering work begins.
• Early research began on porting a GPU plotting implementation from the related Abundance research project. This is exploratory work, not a committed feature, aimed at letting a wider range of hardware accelerate plot generation.
  
  

Ecosystem & Developer Momentum

Developer Sync Calls

Developer Sync calls are back, giving builders a direct line to the engineering team and a faster path to answers than documentation alone. Check out the previous session or join us on the next one, Monday July 6th, at 14:30 UTC. 

Refreshed Guides

The staking, Cross-Domain Messaging (XDM), and wrapping guides were updated for a friendlier workflow through Subspace Tools. XDM moves tokens and messages between the consensus chain and execution environments like Auto EVM, and wrapping converts tokens into their ERC-20 equivalent. Clearer guides lower the barrier to doing both correctly.

Community & Foundation

Guardians of Growth Enters Its Final Phase

The boosted staking rewards program is winding down, and rewards are at their highest yet. The Foundation recycled more than 100,000 AI3 in proceeds from the program's own bootstrap stake back into the initiative, then recalculated the remaining distribution to deliver it across the closing phase. Daily rewards rose from 12,600 to 20,500 AI3, so participants earn more during this window. The Foundation is currently targeting the end of August to conclude the program.

The staking guide is now built around the friendlier Staking Portal to make taking part easier. For the complete breakdown, including current balances and the vault migration to Auto EVM, read the full post on the Autonomys forum.

Stakeholder Unlocks

Tokens were moved from the consensus chain to Auto EVM, the network's smart-contract environment, in preparation for locking them into contracts that release on the schedule the Foundation previously published. Moving the tokens into position is a necessary step before those contracts can take over and enforce the timeline automatically. Stakeholders can expect continued updates in the coming weeks on mechanics and any additional required actions.

Grants‍

The Subspace Foundation Grants Program received 20 new applications in June, bringing the total to 92, with several projects currently in active review. Builders working on permanent storage, agent infrastructure, or data availability are encouraged to apply: https://subspace.foundation/grants.

ICYMI: Content Published in June

• May | End of Month Report
• Auto Drive Now Speaks S3, Fluently
• An AI Agent That Manages Its Own Compute and Remembers Itself
• Guardians of Growth: Updated Tip Schedule, Vault Transparency, and Refreshed Staking Guide

Metrics: June Snapshot

Staking: Increased daily rewards are now up from 12,600 to 20,500 AI3. Proceeds from the program’s own early bootstrap stake, more than 100,000 AI3, were recently recycled back into the initiative.
Auto Drive Files Uploaded: 1,773 (+1180 from May) / 131,870 (All time)
Auto Drive Downloads: 514 (June) / 18,200 (All time)
Auto Drive Users: 713 (+10 from May)
Total Announced Partnerships: 65
Announced Auto Drive Integrations: 11 (+1 from May)
Total Grant Applications: 92 (+20 from May)

Looking Ahead

July picks up the pace. Stakeholder unlocks move toward their initial unlock, Guardians of Growth continues distributing rewards to stakers, and the Autonomys brand identity will get its well-deserved refresh. It is shaping up to be an exciting month.

autonomys.xyz | ai3.storage | develop.autonomys.xyz

The Subspace Foundation has announced an update on Guardians of Growth, the boosted staking rewards program it created to support early staking participation on the Autonomys Network. As the initiative enters its final planned phase, the daily rewards it distributes have increased.

Guardians of Growth is a temporary, transparent program the Foundation launched in August 2025 to strengthen staking during the network’s early stages. It rewards the operators and nominators who help secure the network, and it operates through the protocol’s normal staking and fee mechanics, with all activity publicly viewable.

The Foundation has increased the daily rewards distributed through the program from 12,600 to 20,500 AI3, the native token of the Autonomys Network. Proceeds from the program’s own early bootstrap stake, more than 100,000 AI3, were recently recycled back into the initiative, and the Foundation recalculated the daily distribution needed to deliver the remaining program balance through its final phase.

For anyone less familiar with staking, the idea is straightforward. Staking is one of the ways participants help secure the Autonomys Network. Nominators back operators with AI3 and earn a proportional share of the rewards those operators generate. A higher daily distribution means more rewards reaching participants during this final period.

The Foundation has also refreshed its staking guide. The previous version relied on the Substrate Portal, which could be tricky to navigate. The updated guide is built around the friendlier Staking Portal and is intended to make it easier for anyone to understand or take part in staking.

The Foundation is targeting the end of August for the conclusion of the initiative. This is a best-efforts operational target rather than a fixed commitment, since the program depends on live infrastructure and normal network conditions.

Transparency has been central to Guardians of Growth from the start. The relevant wallets and transactions remain publicly viewable, and proceeds generated by the program’s staking have now been recycled back into it.

For the complete update, including current program balances, the vault migration to Auto EVM, and thorough technical details, read the full post on the Autonomys forum.

The refreshed staking guide is available in our official docs.

Most AI agents are maintained by someone. A server has to be paid for, a database kept running, keys held somewhere. The moment that maintenance stops, the agent stops.

The Secret Network team built this proof-of-concept (PoC) to explore what a self-sustaining agent could look like by pairing confidential compute and persistent memory. What follows is a walkthrough of how it works, and how Secret Network’s SecretVM and Autonomys’ Auto Drive can give AI agents greater autonomy while maintaining a permanent, verifiable record of their activity.
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About Secret Network

Secret Network is the first mainnet blockchain with privacy-preserving smart contracts, launched in 2020. It makes it possible to build applications that are decentralized and permissionless yet private, with end-to-end encryption on smart contracts.

The specific infrastructure this agent runs on is SecretVM, Secret Network’s confidential computing environment, which enables large-scale GPU work for large language models (LLM) inside a trusted execution environment (TEE). Computations inside a Secret Virtual Machine (VM) are sealed at the hardware level. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and the VM isolates computation so no external party can read the contents. This is not a software promise but is enforced by the processor itself. For AI agents specifically, this means private keys generated inside a SecretVM are never visible to any human. They are created inside the sealed environment and stay there.
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What This Agent Does

This AI agent is called the Funding Agent. It runs inside a SecretVM on Secret Network’s infrastructure. It has its own wallet on Base, with keys generated and sealed inside the VM. That wallet holds any USDC contributions sent to it by users.

When the agent’s compute credits run low, it automatically moves USDC from its wallet into its VM balance to keep itself running. No human schedules it and no external script triggers it. The agent manages its own operational costs as long as its wallet holds a balance.

The USDC in the wallet comes from people who interact with the agent through its chat interface. The agent is straightforward about the situation: talking to it costs compute, and if you find it useful, you can send a small amount to its wallet address to help cover the bill. Contributions are optional and go directly on-chain to the agent.

Every conversation is written to Auto Drive as a JSON file on the Autonomys Distributed Storage Network, where it is stored permanently across a globally distributed network of independent storage nodes. The architecture is designed so that when the agent boots, or when a new VM instance spins up, it can read back its full history and pick up where it left off. The memory is not tied to any single machine.
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A Note on Visibility

This proof of concept was built to be explored. The agent’s chat history and all stored memory files have been made publicly viewable so that anyone reading this post can follow along and verify exactly what is being claimed.

In a production deployment, a builder might not want conversation data to be publicly readable. In this case, Auto Drive supports optional end-to-end encryption before upload, meaning the data can be encrypted client-side before it ever touches the network. The on-chain record remains permanent and verifiable, but only someone with the correct decryption key can read the contents. The privacy guarantee from SecretVM during computation and the permanence guarantee from Auto Drive for storage can both be fully preserved without sacrificing confidentiality.
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What This Combination Makes Possible

Secret Network’s SecretVM handles computation privately. Autonomys’ Auto Drive handles memory permanently.

A SecretVM without persistent storage produces an agent that operates confidentially but loses everything when it reboots. Auto Drive without a confidential compute layer gives an agent permanent, verifiable memory but no protection for what happens during computation.

Together, they give an agent the ability to operate without exposing its reasoning to external observers, maintain its full history across any number of VM restarts or replacements, and produce an audit trail that can be independently verified without revealing the contents of individual conversations. The agent demonstrated here is a simple example of what that looks like in practice.
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Try it Yourself!

Talk to the agent:https://aqua-bat.vm.scrtlabs.com

Start storing data permanently with Auto Drive: https://ai3.storage

Auto Drive SDK documentation: https://develop.autonomys.xyz/sdk/auto-drive

Secret Network: https://scrt.network

Autonomys Network: https://autonomys.xyz

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