Psy Protocol Testnet Combines Internet Scale and Speed with Bitcoin-Level Security

October 2nd, 2025 – Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Psy makes web2 business models financially viable on web3, with applications from commerce to agentic AI.

Psy Protocol (formerly QED Protocol) today launched its public testnet, introducing a blockchain architecture designed to deliver internet-scale throughput and Bitcoin-level security. The launch demonstrates million-TPS capacity in internal benchmarks, enabled by client-side zero-knowledge proofs and a horizontally-scalable state architecture. Psy’s architecture is unique in that it achieves virtually unlimited transactions per second (TPS) and block times that scale logarithmically with the number of users.

The protocol is backed by leading investors and partners including Blockchain Capital, Arrington Capital, UTXO, Anagram, Draper Dragon, CoinSummer, Amber Group, Paper Ventures, Protagonist, LBank Labs, Valhalla Capital, StarkWare, Edessa Capital, and strategic mining groups F2Pool and ViaBTC Capital.

“Psy’s architecture tackles the core barrier to mainstream web3 adoption by solving the scalability and security trade-offs that have held decentralized applications back,” said Aleks Larsen, General Partner at Blockchain Capital. “For the first time, recognized high-concurrency models in the web2 ecosystem — from commerce to AI — can run on a fully decentralized foundation with Bitcoin-level security.”

How Psy Achieves Internet-Scale Throughput

Psy’s performance addresses one of blockchain’s most persistent limitations: the inability to support the high-concurrency applications that define modern internet usage. Fully on-chain DeFi, agentic payments, and decentralized versions of platforms like Amazon, eBay, or social networks have remained theoretical because existing blockchains cannot process the transaction volumes these applications demand.

Traditional blockchains face an unavoidable bottleneck: every full node must validate every transaction. This design provides strong security but sharply limits throughput. Ethereum processes roughly 60 transactions per second, while even high-performance proof-of-stake networks like Solana average roughly 1,000 TPS. Psy’s state model (PARTH) removes this bottleneck entirely.

Psy dramatically reduces the computational burden on the network by leveraging client-side compute. Rather than requiring every node to validate each transaction, users generate zero-knowledge proofs locally on their devices. These proofs are orders of magnitude faster to verify than the underlying transactions, and the network aggregates them in parallel through recursive zero-knowledge proofs, culminating in a single, succinct block proof that validates millions of transactions in seconds.

Crucially, the PARTH architecture enables block creation times that scale logarithmically with user count. In benchmark scenarios with one million users each submitting ten transactions, Psy processed 10 million transactions in roughly 10 seconds — demonstrating throughput exceeding one million transactions per second.

Enabling web3’s Next Evolution

Psy’s technology stack makes web3 business models competitive in demanding use cases such as fully on-chain DeFi and agentic payments. With faster transaction speeds, scalable architecture, and built-in data privacy, the testnet demonstrates how Psy achieves scale without compromising the security and decentralization that made Bitcoin revolutionary.

This performance enables blockchain applications to compete directly with centralized platforms while giving users back data ownership and control — rather than leaving it in the hands of tech monopolies.

The public testnet is live today, allowing developers and users to experience Psy’s performance firsthand. Mainnet deployment is planned for later this year.

Why Psy Chooses Proof-of-Useful-Work

Unlike most high-throughput blockchains that rely on proof-of-stake consensus, Psy builds on proof-of-work principles — the consensus mechanism introduced by Bitcoin. 

Proof-of-stake systems often concentrate power among validators with large token holdings, allowing them to extract value through practices like MEV. Their security depends on the very tokens they issue, creating circular dependencies that introduce systemic risk.

Psy eliminates proof-of-work’s traditional energy inefficiency by making mining “useful work” — the generation and aggregation of zero-knowledge proofs that directly secure transactions. This shifts mining from wasteful competition to collaborative value creation: instead of determining the blockchain by raw hash power, Psy advances the network by maximizing the useful work miners perform for users.

“Web3 commerce and the agentic economy never scaled because users were asked to choose between convenience and decentralization,” said Carter Feldman, founder and CEO of Psy Protocol. “Psy removes that false choice, giving developers the tools to build fast, secure, and scalable platforms that feel seamless — even though they run fully on-chain.” 

About Psy Protocol

Psy Protocol is a Proof-of-Useful-Work smart contract platform that combines the neutrality and security of proof-of-work with the scalability and speed promised by next-generation architectures. By shifting transaction proving to users and aggregating zero-knowledge proofs on-chain, Psy delivers internet-scale throughput, low fees, and open participation — without sacrificing proof-of-work’s superior security. Psy empowers developers to build hyper-scalable web3 applications, aiming to host the next generation of the decentralized internet.

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