What is Basis?

What Basis is

In one sentence: Basis is the inference layer for the agent economy — a Base-native network where developers and agents query language models through an OpenAI-compatible API, contributor GPUs register as workers and serve those jobs, and every settled job produces a verifiable inference receipt. Accounting is denominated in $BASIS credits, computed in integer base units with no floating point anywhere in the money path, and worker rewards settle in idempotent batches on Base.

Adopting Basis is a base URL change: existing OpenAI clients, streaming code, and tooling keep working. When no inference backend is configured, the API still answers in the same shape — a structured runtime_pending response — so clients fail predictably. For current runtime state, read /api/launch-status.

Who uses it

What you pay

Usage is metered in credits and settled in $BASIS. Each job is priced at the active pricing epoch into integer $BASIS base units — deterministically, with the price frozen into the job’s receipt so an accepted job is never silently repriced. Callers fund those credits in $BASIS, either by holding it directly or by routing ETH, WETH, or USDC into $BASIS at payment time. Payments are user-signed and verified on Base before they credit — Basis takes no custody of funds or keys and never executes a swap on your behalf.

See credits & payments for how charges, reservations, and the payment route work. $BASIS pricing fields reflect the active pricing epoch (placeholder until a live market price source is configured).

What workers earn

A contributor worker earns $BASIS for completed jobs it serves — drawn from the per-job worker pool and designed to be scaled by measured quality, uptime, and latency. A failed job creates no payable reward, and a worker needs a valid EVM reward address to earn at all. Rewards accrue to a ledger and settle in idempotent batches on Base; a batch settles once, and a failed batch stays recoverable rather than lost.

Earnings depend on the work actually served and on network demand. There are no guaranteed earnings, no yield, and no passive income — rewards are payment for measured, completed inference.

See the worker guide and settlement.

What receipts record

Every settled job produces a receipt: a canonical-JSON document hashed with SHA-256 that anyone can re-derive. A receipt records the accounting of a job — the model, server-counted token usage, the frozen pricing snapshot, the total charge in $BASIS, and the worker reward. It does not record your prompt text or the model’s output. Duplicate jobs and receipts are rejected, so a job has a verifiable trail and can never be settled twice.

See receipts for the exact fields and how to look one up.

Where Bankr fits

Bankr is the launch rail — the venue that brought $BASIS into being on Base. That is the entire role Bankr plays here: it is how the token was launched, not a part of the inference path, the accounting, or settlement. live

See the Bankr launch and $BASIS token pages for current state.

Live vs pending

The panel below is derived from real configuration — not a roadmap. A fresh deployment with no addresses set reads honestly as pending, and fields stay null until the corresponding piece is launched.