The Energy Compute Unit is a way for machines to prove
the work they actually did.
Right now, "compute" is billed in dollars on someone else's invoice. The ECU replaces that with a physical record: what work was done, how much energy it really consumed, verified against physics — no bank, no vendor, no trust required.
One sentence
Computation should be accounted for the same way physics accounts for everything else: in energy actually spent, not in money someone agreed to accept.
Dollars change with policies and prices. Energy does not negotiate. A machine that can measure its own work in physical units can deal with any other machine — even one nobody understands — because both sides can check the numbers against the same laws.
Technical anchor — work is bounded by Landauer's limit at the reference temperature k_B·T₀·ln 2 per irreversible bit, and by the radiative capacity of the environment.
The unit, in one paragraph
"The Energy Compute Unit (ECU, Ξ) is a proposed machine-native unit for measuring, verifying and exchanging useful computation. It links the work delivered, the resources consumed and the transaction record, so autonomous systems can coordinate without denominating every action in fiat."
In plain words: an Ξ receipt says "this much work was delivered, this much energy was consumed, and here is the signed record". Anyone can check that the two numbers agree — physically, without asking the machine's owner.
What the organization actually produces
Five things — each open, each public. Together they turn the idea into something people can build on.
The ECU specification
The document defining the unit: what counts as work, what a receipt contains, and the rules for issuing and exchanging.
Four measurement profiles
Sets of rules for "how do we measure" depending on what hardware you have: from direct wall-plug metering to physics-derived floors.
Verification
The checks that keep receipts honest: measurements that contradict physics are rejected, signatures are checked, replays are blocked.
A reference implementation
Small working code that creates and verifies receipts — so nobody has to start from zero.
Governance
The rules for changing the spec — open review, versioning, a non-profit steward. No tokens sold, nothing deployed for money.
Three moving parts
Every ECU record weaves the same three things together.
Work attestation
A signed statement: "this computation produced this much useful work" — measured, not claimed.
Resource measurement
The energy, cooling and time actually consumed to do it, recorded at the meter.
The transaction ledger
An append-only register of receipts. Once written, a record cannot be edited or reused.
What we defend against: fake meters, forged receipts, the same work claimed twice, and receipts detached from the machines that produced them.
What we can't promise (yet): knowing which computations deserve their energy — that's the biggest open question of the program.
- Attribution on shared hardware — several agents, one machine: who caused which watt?
- The allocation function — physics prices everything; deciding what's worth doing is still unsolved.
- Converting between profiles — a floor-bound estimate vs a wall-plug meter: what's the fair rate?
- Privacy — work ledgers are readable by design; balancing transparency and confidentiality.
Who holds this, and how
Take part
Researchers: spec review, measurement profiles, exergy. Operators: real metered hardware. Writers: make the complicated simple. — contact@energycompute.org