Arthur Hayes proposes AI compute futures and perpetual swaps benchmarked to Flop Network

Former BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes proposes quarterly futures and perpetual swaps on AI compute, using the Flop Network's hourly compute rate as the benchmark. The contracts would be margined in dollars despite being priced in the network's native token FLOP. Hayes argues that current compute pricing is fragmented across chip rentals and model-specific rates, and his proposed Flop Reference Compute Rate aims to create a unified index for derivatives. The Flop Network testnet has no confirmed launch date, with genesis targeted for Q1 2027.