Staking ends the same way almost everywhere: you lock a token, the protocol pays you more of the same token, and the rewards sit in your wallet until you sell them.
Infinite AI changes what staking pays out. You stake 0G, lock it to mint iAI, and stake that iAI. Under initial parameters, each staked iAI is designed to receive 1.271 compute credits a day, a stated usage value of more than $1 per day, subject to applicable product terms, ready to spend on 0G Private Computer, the 0G App and other supported apps. Your collateral stays yours, held in a contract, and you can take it back by burning the token it created.
Compute stops being something you rent by the month and becomes something you hold and can use.
The first 2,000 iAI are minted on September 28, and public minting is scheduled to open September 29 at 09:00 UTC on iai.finance. This post covers what iAI is, how to get it, and what a day of credit actually buys. The technical breakdown covers the mint curve, the launch mechanics, and the numbers behind it.
What iAI is
iAI is a compute-focused digital asset on 0G Chain. What makes it different is what staking it pays: not more tokens, but AI compute. Under initial parameters, eligible staked iAI is designed to receive 1.271 compute credits a day, a stated usage value of more than $1 per day, spendable on 0G Private Computer, the 0G App and other supported apps at list prices, subject to applicable product terms.
The trade is worth stating plainly. The staking rewards on the a0G you lock are split down the middle: half keep accruing to you, and the other half goes to the issuer. You give up half of those rewards and receive a daily compute allowance on top of the half you keep.
This is the difference between iAI and one more liquid staking token. An ordinary LST leaves your stake sitting there, earning a number. iAI puts the same stake to work: 0G is the trust layer for AI, and here your staked 0G unlocks AI you can actually run.
How it works: three steps, done once
Step 1: Get a0G. Stake your 0G on iai.finance and receive a0G, the liquid staking token powered by Ascend. a0G is non-rebasing, so your balance stays constant while each token grows in value as rewards accrue, and it stays liquid the whole time. While it is simply held, a0G earns staking rewards normally. No 0G yet? Get it at hub.0g.ai, or buy a0G directly and skip a step.
Step 2: Mint iAI. Lock your a0G as collateral and iAI is minted against it at the current rate on the curve. The collateral is held, not spent, and the rate you mint at is fixed for that position.
Step 3: Stake iAI on iai.finance. This is the switch that turns collateral into compute. Your daily credit activates from the next 00:00 UTC refresh: 1.271 credits per staked iAI, every day, landing in your balance on Private Computer and the 0G App.
You can also skip the first two steps entirely: iAI is expected to trade on comfy.fun, so you can buy it there and stake it. The credits work exactly the same. Early trading is expected to be thin, so prices there can move sharply in the first days.
What a day of credit actually buys
One day of credit sounds small until you price out inference. At the list price of 0GM-1.0-35B-A3B, 0G's own model, one day of credit buys roughly 3 million output tokens. Credits spend across more than 100 models, frontier and open weight, including private in-enclave inference. Here is what that budget covers.
An agent team that keeps working. About 1,030 agent actions a day: a supervisor that breaks the job apart, researchers running in parallel, a critic checking them, a writer producing the answer. Then the allowance renews and they go again.
A support inbox that answers itself. At roughly 2,000 tokens a conversation, one staked iAI covers about 1,550 conversations a day, which for most products is the entire front line.
A reviewer on every pull request. A review at around 50,000 tokens covers the diff plus the files around it. One iAI covers about 62 of them a day, more than most teams open in a week.
Deep research on tap. At about 200,000 tokens a run, roughly 15 source-backed research reports a day, more than one for every hour of the working day.
Work that never leaves the enclave. Private Computer runs inference inside trusted execution environments, so filings, board packs and portfolio positions get analysed without being exposed. About 25 large documents a day fit inside a single token's allowance.
Credits refresh at 00:00 UTC each day and unused credit does not carry over, so the allowance is there to be used.
The one thing to understand before you mint
iAI carries two separate rights, and they do not travel together.
The compute is a bearer right. Whoever stakes the token earns the daily credit. Buy iAI on the market, stake it, and you earn the same daily credit as the person who minted it.
The collateral claim belongs to the minter. Only the wallet that minted a given iAI can burn it to release the a0G behind it. Buying iAI on the market does not buy anyone's collateral.
The practical consequence: if you minted iAI and then sell it, your collateral stays locked. To release it you have to buy an iAI back and burn it, at whatever the market price is then. Selling your minted token is a decision about your collateral, not just about the token.
Getting out
Every step is reversible.
Unstaking iAI comes first. Your credits stop renewing after 00:00 UTC that day, and after a cooldown of about 24 hours, subject to the terms, you can withdraw the token. From there you can sell it, or, if you minted it, burn it to release your collateral.
Burning returns what you locked, plus your share of the staking rewards it earned while locked. Your position is tracked in 0G value, not in a0G tokens, so you can get back fewer a0G than you put in even though each one is worth more. If you minted more than once at different points on the curve, you get back the weighted average across your mints. Burning also lowers total supply, which frees mint capacity for everyone else.
Released a0G can be swapped for other assets on Bond, or unstaked back into 0G through Ascend, which takes up to 22 days. What any of these tokens are worth in dollars still moves with the market, in both directions.
Launch day
September 28: the pre-mint. Before public minting opens, the issuer mints the first 2,000 iAI on the same curve, with 0G locked as collateral like any other mint. They are used for the initial iAI liquidity on comfy.fun, so there is a market from the first hour. Nothing is issued outside the collateral model.
September 29, 09:00 UTC: public minting opens on iai.finance, at a starting rate of 1,221 0G per iAI, about $314 at today's 0G price. The rate climbs with total supply, so minting early locks less collateral per token than minting later does.
The target supply is 9,270 iAI, and the contract also caps minting there. In practice the curve is the real gatekeeper: the closer supply gets to the target, the more each mint costs, and burning frees capacity back up. The technical breakdown has the full curve, the formula, and the launch sequence.
Minting is not available in every jurisdiction. Restricted regions are listed in the terms on the iAI site.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to mint iAI to earn the credits?
No. Credits follow whoever stakes the token. Buying iAI on the market, where it is expected to trade on comfy.fun, and staking it earns the same daily credit, without locking collateral of your own.
Is my 0G spent when I mint?
No. It is locked as collateral in a contract and is not used or transferred anywhere else. Burning the iAI you minted releases it back to you.
Do I still earn staking rewards on the collateral?
Half of them. The staking rewards on locked collateral are split: half keep accruing to you, and the other half goes to the issuer. a0G you simply hold, without locking it to mint, earns rewards in full.
What can I spend or use the credits on?
Any model on 0G Private Computer, the 0G App and other supported apps, at list prices, including private in-enclave inference. Paying as you go with a card still works alongside iAI credits.
Do unused credits roll over?
No. The allowance refreshes at 00:00 UTC each day and unused credit expires.
What happens if I buy iAI instead of minting it?
You can stake it and earn credits exactly like a minter. Buying iAI does not buy anyone's collateral: redemption works off each wallet's own mint record, so a wallet that never minted has nothing to redeem.
Do liquidity providers earn credits?
No. Only staked iAI earns credits. iAI sitting in a liquidity pool is not staked, so LP positions do not earn compute credits.
Get started
- Mint iAI: iai.finance
- Where iAI is expected to trade: comfy.fun
- Get 0G: hub.0g.ai
- Try 0G Private Computer: pc.0g.ai
- How Private Computer works: 0G Private Computer: Verifiable AI Inference
- The technical breakdown: Infinite AI: The Technical Breakdown
- Follow @0G_labs for launch updates
Ascend, Infinite AI (iAI) and related compute credits are not available in all jurisdictions and are subject to eligibility criteria and applicable product terms. Compute credits are intended solely to access supported 0G AI services, are not redeemable for cash, and do not represent interest, dividends, or any type of guaranteed return. Product features, pricing, timing and availability are subject to change. Digital assets involve significant risk. This is not investment, financial, or legal advice.
