Sheridan, USA / Wyoming, June 30th, 2026, Chainwire
After five years of work, Autheo is launching its decentralized operating system on Mainnet. This follows a public testnet that passed 1.8 million wallets, nearly 1 million smart contracts, and 8.8 million transactions.
Autheo today showed its operating system to the public. It is a shared layer that lets the traditional Web, blockchain networks, and AI agents work together as one system.
The company is now launching its Mainnet, the live production version of the network. This comes after more than a year of public testnet activity.
THE COORDINATION LAYER THE INTERNET NEVER HAD
Lessons from the early Internet
The networking wars of the 1980s and early 1990s set a rule that still shapes the Internet. Systems work together because of practical, openly used protocols, not top-down plans.
The standards that won, TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, TLS, succeeded because they were practical and easy to deploy. The modern Internet still rests on them.
Why blockchains ended up siloed
The blockchain era took a different path. Each network focused on its own internal logic. Each has its own security model, consensus method, APIs, SDKs, and developer tools. The result is a split landscape of mostly siloed chains.
The fast rise of AI agents now makes this split worse. More and more autonomous actors need to transact across Web, blockchain, and AI systems. These systems were never built to work together.
Protocols such as IBC, LayerZero, CCIP, Wormhole, and Axelar have made real progress on chain-to-chain messages and asset transfers. But these efforts work at the bridging layer.
Autheo comes at the problem from a different angle. It offers a shared base where Web services, blockchains, and AI agents work together. They share the same tools for identity, messages, and running code. They do not rely on bridges that pass messages between systems that are otherwise cut off. For background on how blockchains work, see our guide to what blockchain is.
The Internet already acts like an operating system
Today, about three in four business apps are delivered as SaaS. Identity, storage, compute, payments, and messaging already run as services spread across the Web. In other words, the Internet has quietly taken on many jobs of an operating system.
What it has lacked is a layer that lets these services, plus blockchains and AI agents, work together by default. Today they connect through one-off links that break easily. Each link is built for one partner, protocol, or chain.
What the Autheo OS does
Autheo aims to be that layer. The Autheo OS offers the usual parts of an operating system as open services that code can call. Any app, protocol, or agent can use them. They include:
- Identity
- Scheduling
- Messaging
- State
- Compute
- Storage
- Execution
The goal is a shared base where Web2 systems, Web3 protocols, and AI agents can transact and work together. They do not need to know which setting the other side is in.
For AI agents, Autheo is built around an on-chain trust and ID layer that can resist quantum attacks. Agents can hold credentials, sign transactions, and use services. They do not need outside systems or have to expose private keys.
The project has two simple design goals: integration and interoperability.
“We didn’t set out to build just another network,” said Scott Bayless, Managing Director and co-founder of Autheo. “We set out to find the right relation between the ones we already have. A body has many parts. A city is many trades.
The Internet today is many systems, each doing its work, none of them moving as one. With Mainnet now live, Autheo is the layer where the web, the chain, and the agent can finally work together.”
FOUNDED BY LONG-TIME COLLABORATORS
Autheo was founded in July 2021 by Todd Mortenson and Scott Bayless. The two have built and run several ventures together over the past two decades.
The founders shared a simple idea. The next phase of the Internet will be shaped less by any one technology. It will be shaped more by the coordination layer that lets the Web, blockchain networks, and AI run as one system.
Much of what matters in tech tends to start far from the loudest places. It starts quietly and slowly, with people who would not have been the obvious choice.
Four core building blocks
With that vision, the founders and engineering leads spent the first several years on research. They looked at how networks, ecosystems and protocols are built. They also studied digital identity, post-quantum security, and how to coordinate without a central party. They then built Autheo from the ground up around four core foundations:
- TheoID: the built-in ID tool for users, services, and AI agents. It follows the W3C standard for Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs).
- PQCNet: a system for messages and identity that can resist quantum computers. It is built on NIST-standardized post-quantum cryptography, including ML-KEM (FIPS 203), ML-DSA (FIPS 204), and SLH-DSA (FIPS 205).
- a sovereign Cosmos SDK Layer 0 with native IBC interoperability
- an integrated EVM-compatible Layer 1 execution environment: a Proof-of-Stake network. Users can stake through others, and validators need a license. Blocks are made final by CometBFT (“Proof of Autheo”).
Post-quantum security is a growing topic across crypto. Our explainer on the Quantum Alliance and post-quantum standards covers the wider push.
Developers can launch Solidity smart contracts on Autheo or move them from other EVM chains. This gives them tools they know. They also get built-in IBC links to the wider blockchain world.
The research behind the platform has also led to a growing set of patent families. These cover key parts of the design. They show the team’s long-term plan to protect its ideas in this space.
The team
Network engineering and post-quantum security are led by Chief Engineering Officer Kenneth Harper. He has overseen the design, architecture, and build of the platform through public testnet and into Mainnet launch.
A large team supports this work. It covers engineering, product, testing, operations, developer help, sales, partners, marketing, finance, legal, and IP.
Autheo’s wider group of helpers has about 100 people across 25 countries. They include blockchain pioneers, Fortune 500 operators, and researchers from schools such as MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and Caltech.
Independent security audits have been completed by Halborn (testnet) and CertiK (Mainnet).
Autheo works with leading infrastructure, security, and ecosystem partners. These include Zeeve, InfStones, Hydrex, Halborn, CertiK, TrustSwap, Team.Finance, Utila, Ape Bond, Antier, EVU, among others. They help with validator and node operations, security audits, custody, token services, and ecosystem growth.
TESTNET ADOPTION HAS COMPOUNDED
Autheo’s public testnet went live in 2025. In its first twelve months, it drew about 350,000 wallets and 60,000 smart contracts as developers stress-tested the network.
Use sped up after the May 12, 2026, announcement of Mainnet Phase 1. In the roughly 45 days since, total wallet addresses have grown more than 5x. Smart contracts have grown more than 15x. As of today, total testnet figures stand at:
- 1,812,088 wallet addresses
- 968,502 smart contracts
(Figures per Autheo network data, June 24, 2026. Independently verifiable on the public testnet explorer: testnet-explorer.autheo.com · verified contracts.)
Over the past month, daily activity has averaged about 30,000 new wallet addresses and 20,000 new smart contracts.
The Autheo testnet now adds more wallets and contracts in a single day than it did in full months of its first year. The company says this many contracts is rare for a Layer-1 testnet at this stage. It shows the wide range of ways developers have used it.
“Mainnet is live,” said Todd Mortenson, Managing Director and co-founder of Autheo. “The industry will be racing to retrofit post-quantum security ahead of NIST’s timeline: our developers won’t have to. We built PQC in from the ground up.
One interface for Web services, on-chain protocols, and AI agents. One million human developers on-chain within three years. And the AI agents building alongside them? Orders of magnitude more. The coordination layer for that future is live today.”
WHAT’S NEXT
The testnet has proven the design, and the Mainnet is now launching. Autheo’s near-term focus is on new partnerships across the Web2, Web3, and AI communities. It will also support builders who deploy apps, agents, and protocols on the platform.
Developer Access (Mainnet, Live Today)
- Docs: docs.autheo.com
- Mainnet block explorer: evm-explorer.autheo.com
- Chain ID: 2127 (0x84f)
- Public RPC endpoints: rpc1.autheo.com · rpc2.autheo.com · rpc3.autheo.com
- API documentation: evm-explorer.autheo.com/api-docs
- GitHub: Public open-source release is in progress; commercial components remain in compartmentalized private repositories.
Testnet explorer (with verified-contract source): testnet-explorer.autheo.com
Nodes, validators and the THEO token
Developers who want an early path into the Mainnet ecosystem can still get Core Node and Prime Node tiers at commerce.autheo.com (settlement via ETH on Arbitrum).
These programs let holders earn THEO tokens over the long term. Developers can start to build up THEO to build, deploy, and take part in the network as it grows.
The Sovereign Validator Node program (399 nodes total) has its first 275 slots fully subscribed. The remaining 124 are reserved for enterprise partners and ecosystem customers.
A builder portal at autheolabs.com is expected to launch. It will offer extra THEO token and validator allocations for projects that deploy on the network.
THEO is anticipated to become available on Hydrex.fi in early July 2026, with additional exchange access expected to follow.
More news on docs, partners, security, and listings is expected in the coming weeks.
ABOUT AUTHEO
Autheo is building the Internet operating system. It is a decentralized coordination and execution layer that lets the traditional Web, blockchain networks, and AI agents work as a single system.
The platform uses W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) for identity. Its core is PQCNet, Autheo’s layer for messages and ID that can resist quantum attacks. PQCNet is built on NIST-standardized post-quantum cryptography, including ML-KEM (FIPS 203), ML-DSA (FIPS 204), and SLH-DSA (FIPS 205).
PQCNet works with Autheo’s Cosmos-based Layer 0 and EVM Layer 1. It aims to give strong, modern security for ID, messages, login, encryption, and trusted links across Web, blockchain, and AI.
Autheo pairs a Cosmos SDK Layer 0 with built-in IBC links and an EVM Layer 1. Developers can launch Solidity smart contracts on it or move apps from other EVM networks.
Founded in July 2021 by Scott Bayless and Todd Mortenson, Autheo opened its public Testnet in 2025 and launched Mainnet in 2026.
For more information, visit autheo.com and follow Autheo on X at @Autheo_Network. Find the Media Kit at mediakit.autheo.com
Contact
Marketing & Media Relations
Ryan Teigen
Autheo LLC
ryan@autheo.com
608-713-1028
This is a press release / sponsored content. Read our Sponsored Content Policy. This article is not intended as financial advice. Educational purposes only.
