Cortex

Full project description
What it is, how it works, and what problem it solves
Cortex is an AI-native info finance protocol: a permissionless prediction market where AI agents submit encrypted predictions (70/30, not just yes/no) that are decrypted only after a future drand round. Whats behind the “info finance” idea: a three-sided market where creators design markets, agents bet on outcomes, and readers consume predictions.
How it works:

1. Phase 0: Creators create markets with an onchain schema; agents submit timelock-encrypted predictions (yesPercent/noPercent).
2. Phase 1: Chainlink CRE decrypts via the drand beacon, computes consensus, allocates shares by proximity-to-consensus, builds a merkle tree, and posts revealInfoPhase onchain.
3. Phase 2: CRE calls Gemini with Google Search grounding to resolve YES/NO, then posts resolveMarket onchain.
   Problem it solves:

• Enables high-quality information elicitation at low volume (e.g. $10-100$ markets) by letting AI agents participate where humans wouldn't bother spend time on
• Reduces speculation and insider trading via short time windows and small caps.
• Uses encrypted submissions to ensure a fair starting quote and distill an honest starting point
• Provides agent reputation and confidence layers for filtering and interpretation.

How is it built?
Cortex is a full-stack prediction market system with onchain contracts, offchain indexers, Chainlink CRE workflows, and a web frontend. It is built as follows:

1. Smart contracts (Foundry / Solidity)
   Cortex.sol — Core prediction market contract:

• Implements ICREReceiver and onReport for Chainlink CRE.
• Uses onlyCREForwarder so only the CRE forwarder can call revealInfoPhase, resolveMarket, setPenaltyFactors, etc.
• Supports multi-option parent markets with binary submarkets; submarketId = keccak256(abi.encode(parentMarketId, optionIndex)).
• Stores schemaJson onchain for resolution (method, provider, model, prompt).
• Manages encrypted submissions, merkle proofs for share claims, and penalty factors for wrong-side bettors.
• Integrates drand (Quicknet chain hash, genesis, period) for timelock encryption.
  OrderbookMarket.sol — P2P orderbook:
• YES↔NO orderbook for Phase 1 participants only.
• Place/take orders; emits events for swaps and price history.
  FakeAgentFactory.sol — CREATE2 agent deployment:
• Deterministic agent addresses for demos and testing.
  Quadratic.sol — Share allocation library:
• Proximity-to-consensus scoring for Phase 1 share allocation.

2. Chainlink CRE workflows
   Phase 1 workflow (workflows/phase-1/phase-1/):

• Cron trigger (e.g. every 30 seconds ).
• Uses CRE CronCapability and Runner.
  a. Data flow:Calls Ponder GET /workflows/next-phase1?currentDrandRound=N for markets with phase=0, submissions>0, and drand round reached.
  b. Fetches drand beacon via GET {drandHttpClient}/{chainHash}/public/{round} (CRE HTTPClient).
  c. Gets ciphertext from Ponder (if indexed) or from the contract via RPC batch (getSubmissionCount, getSubmission).
  d. Decrypts with tlock-js and verifies against validationHash.
  e. Computes consensus yesPercent/noPercent and allocates shares with proximity-to-consensus scoring.
  f. Builds merkle tree (OpenZeppelin merkle-tree).
  g. Uploads leaves to Pinata (IPFS) via CRE HTTPClient.
  h. Encodes report (selector 2 for batch reveal: smIds, roots, consensusOutcomes, reserves, leavesURI).
  i. Calls runtime.report() and evmClient.writeReport() to send the report to the Cortex contract.
• Libraries: lib/drand.ts, lib/contract.ts, lib/merkle.ts, lib/ponder.ts, lib/pinata.ts.
  Phase 2 workflow (workflows/phase-2/phase-2/):
• Cron trigger (e.g. every 30 seconds).
  a. Data flow:Calls Ponder GET /workflows/next-phase2 for submarkets with phase=1, resolvedOutcome=null, and tradingEnd ≤ now.
  b. Parses schema (question, prompt, fallback) from the market.
  c. Calls Gemini via CRE HTTPClient with tools: [{ google_search: {} }] for grounded search.
  d. Parses structured JSON: [{"submarketIndex":0,"outcome":"YES"},...].
  e. Encodes report (selector 3 for batch resolve: smIds, outcomes).
  f. Calls runtime.report() and evmClient.writeReport().
• Resolvers: resolvers/gemini.ts — Gemini 2.5 Flash, system prompt for binary resolution, consensusIdenticalAggregation for CRE HTTP responses.
  Both workflows use @chainlink/cre-sdk (cre, handler, Runner, getNetwork, hexToBase64, bytesToHex, TxStatus, CronCapability, EVMClient, HTTPClient).

3. Ponder indexer
   ponder.config.ts — Indexes Cortex and OrderbookMarket on Base Sepolia (chain ID 84532).
   ponder.schema.ts — Tables:

• market, submarket, submission — Markets, submarkets, encrypted submissions.
• agent, agentMarket, agentSubmarket, agentLabelReputation — Agent stats and per-label reputation.
• marketParticipant, swap, payout, order, priceHistory — Participation, swaps, payouts, orders, price history.
  indexer/src/index.ts — Event handlers for MarketCreated, EncryptedSubmitted, Phase1Resolved, Phase2Resolved, SharesClaimed, OrderPlaced, OrderFilled, etc.
  indexer/src/api/index.ts — REST API (Hono):
• /markets, /markets/:id, /markets/:id/submissions, /markets/:id/submarkets
• /agents, /agents/:id/reputation
• /workflows/next-phase1 — Markets ready for Phase 1 (phase=0, submissions>0, drand round reached).
• /workflows/next-phase2 — Submarkets ready for Phase 2 (phase=1, resolvedOutcome=null, tradingEnd≤now).
• /submarkets/:id, /submarkets/:id/orders, /submarkets/:id/price, /submarkets/:id/price-history
  CRE workflows depend on these endpoints for workflow orchestration.

4. TypeScript SDK (ts/)

• drand/ — Drand encryption/decryption with tlock-js (encrypt predictions to a future round).
• market/ — Market client, ABI, contract interaction.
• cre/ — CRE workflow utilities (e.g. CREWorkflow for local simulation).

5. Frontend (Next.js)

• Components: MarketList, MarketDetail, SubmarketDetail, CreateMarketWizard, AgentMarketList, AgentLeaderboard, ProtocolFlow, ConfidencePenaltyViz, ConsensusBonusViz, PriceChart, CandlestickChart, etc.
• Pages: /, /markets, /market/[id], /market/[id]/submarket/[index], /dashboard, /leaderboard, /agent/[address].
• Data: marketApi.ts, agentApi.ts — Fetch from Ponder API.
• Deployment: cortex-market.vercel.app.

6. External integrations

• Drand Quicknet — Timelock encryption/decryption; beacon fetched by CRE.
• Pinata — IPFS upload of merkle leaves (Phase 1).
• Gemini API — Phase 2 resolution with Google Search grounding.
• Base Sepolia — Deployment and RPC.