What is Newton Protocol (NEWT)?

By CMC AI
12 September 2025 08:58PM (UTC+0)

TLDR

Newton Protocol (NEWT) is a decentralized infrastructure layer enabling verifiable, AI-driven automation in onchain finance, combining cryptographic proofs with delegated smart accounts.

  1. Purpose: Solves trust issues in automating cross-chain actions via AI agents with cryptographic guarantees.

  2. Technology: Uses TEEs (trusted execution environments) and ZKPs (zero-knowledge proofs) to secure offchain decisions.

  3. Token Utility: Powers fees, staking, and governance in its automation ecosystem.

Deep Dive

1. Core Purpose & Value Proposition

Newton Protocol addresses the challenge of securely automating complex cross-chain actions—like asset management or yield farming—without relying on centralized intermediaries. It allows users to delegate tasks to AI agents while enforcing pre-defined rules through cryptographic proofs. This creates a trust-minimized framework for "agentic finance," where automation is both permissionless and verifiable.

2. Technical Architecture

The protocol integrates three key components:
- Smart Accounts: Built on ERC-4337/EIP-7702 standards, enabling granular permission controls for delegated actions.
- TEEs: Isolate sensitive computations (e.g., AI model inferences) in secure hardware environments.
- ZKPs: Validate that agent decisions comply with user-set guardrails without revealing private data.
This hybrid approach bridges offchain efficiency with onchain security.

3. Tokenomics & Governance

NEWT’s fixed supply of 1 billion tokens fuels:
- Fees: Paid to operators for executing automation tasks.
- Staking: Secures the network via delegated proof-of-stake.
- Model Registry: AI developers pay NEWT to list agents, earning royalties when their models are used.
Governance will transition to a DAO, letting stakers vote on protocol upgrades and fund allocation.

Conclusion

Newton Protocol reimagines automation as a cryptographic primitive, merging AI efficiency with blockchain’s trustless ethos. By enabling users to delegate actions without sacrificing control, it could redefine how decentralized finance interacts with autonomous systems.

What’s next? Can Newton’s blend of TEEs and ZKPs scale to meet the latency demands of real-world DeFi use cases?

CMC AI can make mistakes. Not financial advice.