POSITRONIC

POSITRONIC is the next major upgrade of the Neurai network. It expands what Neurai can express on-chain: a script engine with covenants and transaction introspection, a transaction format with read-only reference inputs, post-quantum addresses, a soulbound asset class for devices and memberships, and a private messaging layer gated by those assets. The name comes from the positronic brain of Isaac Asimov's stories, a system defined by a leap in capability.

Status

Every consensus change in POSITRONIC is live on testnet and regtest and inactive on mainnet. Mainnet activation will follow the audit phase described in Path to mainnet.

The upgrade as a stack

Each layer builds on the one below it. Covenants need introspection opcodes. Reference inputs need transaction v3. Post-quantum keys need AuthScript outputs that can hold a large signature. DePIN messaging needs a soulbound asset to decide who takes part.

At a glance

Area	What POSITRONIC adds	Page
Script engine	Covenant primitives (OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY, OP_CHECKSIGFROMSTACK), transaction, asset and chain introspection, byte manipulation, 64-bit arithmetic, modern hash opcodes, Ed25519 and a signature accumulator	Covenants and opcodes
Transactions and consensus	Transaction v3 with reference inputs, 30-second blocks, the xna asset marker, non-replaceable asset-AuthScript spends	Transactions and consensus
Post-quantum	AuthScript witness v1 outputs, ML-DSA-44 keys, nq1 / tnq1 addresses, native PQ-HD derivation, PQ-aware wallet and RPC	Post-quantum addresses
DePIN	&TOKEN soulbound assets with sections, freezing and transfer states, plus token-gated encrypted messaging and the MCP responder	DePIN assets and messaging
Ecosystem	Wallets, JavaScript SDK, device libraries and the path to mainnet	Ecosystem and roadmap
Toolchain	C++20, Qt 6.8.3 LTS, native Qt build, Wayland support	Ecosystem and roadmap

Design principles

• Opt-in by flag. Each feature is gated by its own consensus parameter. Testnet and regtest enable all of them. Mainnet keeps them off until a coordinated activation.
• Graceful degradation. Opcodes that replace a NOP behave as that NOP when their flag is off. Opcodes on new byte slots fail closed. Upgraded nodes stay compatible with the current mainnet rules.
• Authentication separated from authorization. AuthScript decides who may spend with a key check and then runs a script that decides how. Covenants become plain script logic.
• Nothing sensitive on-chain. DePIN messages, keys and prompts stay off-chain and encrypted. The chain holds only who may take part.

Neurai Improvement Proposals

POSITRONIC is specified as a series of NIPs. The ones referenced across this section:

NIP	Subject
NIP-001 to NIP-010	Individual opcodes: OP_SPLIT, OP_TXFIELD, OP_REVERSEBYTES, OP_OUTPUTVALUE, OP_TXLOCKTIME, OP_OUTPUTSCRIPT, OP_OUTPUTASSETFIELD, 64-bit arithmetic, OP_INPUTASSETFIELD, input and output counts
NIP-012, NIP-013	64-bit script verification flags, C++20 migration
NIP-014, NIP-017	Transaction v3 with reference inputs and the OP_REFINPUT family
NIP-018 to NIP-022	Post-quantum script element sizes, RPC and wallet support, policy flags, witness standardness, PQ-HD derivation
NIP-023 to NIP-026	OP_OUTPUTAUTHCOMMITMENT, OP_INPUTVALUE, non-replaceable asset-AuthScript spends, OP_CHAINCONTEXT
NIP-028	Block-time reduction to 30 seconds with coupled subsidy halving
NIP-030, NIP-031, NIP-034, NIP-035, NIP-036, NIP-039	Hash opcodes, Merkle inclusion, Ed25519, Poseidon, OP_CHECKSIGADD
NIP-040	Asset marker migration from rvn to xna

The NIP texts live in the Neurai node repository.