Whitepaper

Founder: Ryan Paul Gallardo Pillas (Filipino) architected COGNITUM's system end to end, the post-quantum signature model, the consensus and governance design, the fixed-supply integer economy, and the protocol-enforced vesting and treasury controls. Trained as a computer programmer, he completed the 28th Executive Course on National Security (ECNS) in June 2019 at the National Defense College of the Philippines (Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City), and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Education and an honorary Doctorate of Humanities (honoris causa). He is the founding President of One Planet One Earth Foundation Inc. (established June 22, 2020, Philippines), which has held Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC) since July 2025, a governance-and-mission track record that informs COGNITUM's transparency-first, compliance-native design.

Co-founder & Chief Technical Officer: Arnold Gengania Balan brings over 32 years of information-technology experience. He previously served as IT Head of the ABS-CBN Knowledge Channel Foundation, where he developed Knowledge TV and other educational-support platforms. He formerly served as IT Assistant Manager at Watsons Philippines. He also won a 2013 SEO competition. He received the 2013 Catholic Mass Media Award for Best Website. The name "COGNITUM", the logo, trademark, and all associated intellectual property are exclusively owned.

COGNITUM™ is a Layer-1 blockchain secured end-to-end with post-quantum cryptography. Every transaction is signed with ML-DSA65 (NIST FIPS 204), with SLH-DSA / SPHINCS+ (FIPS 205) available as an optional hash-based scheme, so the network resists large-scale quantum attacks from day one, not retrofitted later.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most chains sign with ECDSA, which a sufficiently large quantum computer could break using Shor's algorithm. Under "harvest-now, decrypt-later", adversaries can record data today and break it once quantum hardware matures. COGNITUM removes that exposure by using quantum-resistant signatures natively.

Signatures use ML-DSA65 (CRYSTALS-Dilithium, NIST FIPS 204, ~192-bit quantum security), with SLH-DSA / SPHINCS+ (NIST FIPS 205) available as an optional hash-based alternative. Key encapsulation and encryption use ML-KEM768 (NIST FIPS 203). State and content are hashed with SHA3-256 (NIST FIPS 202).

A Node.js / TypeScript core persists to an embedded LMDB store and exposes a REST API. Blocks carry index, hashes, transactions, PoH hash, and an estimated carbon footprint; the target block time is 5 seconds. The mempool is bounded with fee-based eviction.

COGNITUM combines Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) voting with block-scoped Proof of History. A block finalizes when more than two-thirds of active validators vote yes. The network targets 5-10 independent validators across regions, with a 24-hour bonding period and a 21-day unbonding period.

COGN is a utility token (not an investment product): it pays for gas, secures consensus via staking, and powers governance. Fixed maximum supply of 1,000,000,000 (one billion). Block rewards start at 25 COGN and halve every 2,000,000 blocks. Transaction fees are ultra-low, about 0.0001 COGN, and rise only with mempool load. Token-creation and contract-gas fees are burned; ordinary transaction fees are paid to validators as part of the block reward. Allocation and vesting are enforced on-chain, protocol-locked vesting vaults (no early release), an M-of-N multisig treasury, and a public transparency dashboard, so the distribution is verifiable, not merely promised.

Anyone holding COGN can issue a COGN-20 token (2-8 uppercase ticker, 0-18 decimals, optional minting). Creating a token permanently burns 1 COGN, removing it from circulating supply. The COGN ticker itself is reserved.

Native modules include staking (time-deposit-style ladder: 1% at 1 month up to 6% APY for a 3-year lock, easing down as more COGN bonds so the rate stays sustainable), over-collateralized lending (150% minimum collateral, 120% liquidation threshold, ~8% APR), a constant-product AMM DEX (x·y=k, 0.3% fee), and an HTLC cross-chain bridge.

Authority is split so no single party controls the network: COGN holders govern protocol parameters (fees, staking yield, upgrades, validator policy) via on-chain proposals with quorum, vote delegation, and an optional, advisory AI-assisted review (off by default, and inactive on the current testnet); COGNITUM transparently holds and distributes the genesis treasury on-chain; and the protocol itself enforces the hard cap, halving, and slashing in code, limits no entity (the company, founder, or validator) can override. COGNITUM's role is heaviest at launch and recedes as on-chain governance matures (progressive decentralization).

Validators progress through a lifecycle: applied reviewed approved bonding active exiting. Misbehavior is slashed, equivocation (double-signing) forfeits 100% of stake; sustained downtime forfeits 1%. Validators earn block rewards plus a self-tapering staking-rewards reserve, distributed by reputation and tenure, with loyalty and graceful-exit bonuses, designed to reward their effort and secure their long-term future in COGN, all within the fixed supply.

The design documents an explicit threat model. The public HTTPS edge runs TLS 1.3 with hybrid post-quantum key exchange (X25519MLKEM768, classical X25519 combined with NIST ML-KEM-768), so transport sessions resist "harvest-now, decrypt-later", quantum safety extends end to end, not just on-chain. Optional compliance tooling provides KYC webhook integration and operator-configured sanctions-list screening at the transaction layer (production deployments load real OFAC/UN/EU feeds). Independent third-party audits are planned before mainnet, and reports will be published when complete, no audit is represented as finished.

COGNITUM runs an on-chain AI Act attestation registry. High-risk AI providers anchor a cryptographically-signed, tamper-evident record of a system's origin, safety, and conformity, which anyone can verify. Each attestation is signed with ML-DSA65 (FIPS 204); its content hash, status, and timestamp live on the post-quantum ledger, while the underlying documents stay off-chain and only digests are anchored, so no personal data or trade secrets touch the chain. The registry attests the integrity, authorship, and time of the evidence. It does not certify compliance, grant a CE marking, or replace the Article 43 conformity assessment, and because no harmonised standard is cited in the EU Official Journal yet, it confers no presumption of conformity. It aligns with Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, W3C Verifiable Credentials, C2PA, and ISO/IEC 42001, and is live at /aiact.

COGNITUM verifies AI reasoning, not only AI systems. The Reasoning Verification Framework (RVF) takes an AI or LLM reasoning output, its ordered steps and its conclusion, checks it, and anchors a tamper-evident record on the Witness Chain. The model does the reasoning; COGNITUM witnesses it.

Verification combines deterministic checks with independent model cross-examiners. The deterministic checks are pure and reproducible, so any node or auditor can re-run them and get the same result: structural completeness, whether the conclusion is grounded in the reasoning, internal-contradiction detection, grounding against supplied context, and confidence calibration. Optional model verifiers each attempt to refute the reasoning, and their majority folds into the outcome. The result is a verdict of verified, uncertain, or refuted, with per-check evidence and a confidence score.

Each result is sealed as an attestation: a hash of the exact reasoning together with the verdict and score, signed with ML-DSA65 (FIPS 204) and anchored on the post-quantum ledger. Altering the reasoning or the verdict breaks the signature, so the record is tamper-evident and anyone can re-verify it. An attestation can be attributed to a registered AI Act system, linking the Witness Chain to the AI Act registry: the registry attests a system conformity, while the Witness Chain records its verified reasoning.

Honest scope: a witness is proof of provenance and verification, not proof of truth. A verdict of verified means the reasoning passed the checks, not that its conclusion is correct. RVF is advisory and off the consensus path. It moves no value and gates no block; a verdict informs, it does not decide.

The same machinery supports public-integrity use cases such as budget and procurement transparency. An agent flags patterns like ghost projects, price inflation, and contract splitting, and each flag is verified and sealed on the Witness Chain, so a red flag cannot be quietly deleted and a flagged party can contest it against a fixed record.