What if a blockchain wasn’t just a ledger — but a fully verifiable, distributed supercomputer?

This is the premise behind the Nexus Execution Layer. Based on an IVC machine design, the Execution Layer is built to orchestrate and verify vast amounts of computation in real time. The goal is to meet the demands of the modern Internet — where AI models, onchain economies, and critical infrastructure all require trustless, scalable execution.

This post walks through the concept of the IVC machine, how it works with the Nexus Layer 1, and why it matters.

The evolution of Incrementally Verifiable Computation

Traditional blockchains excel at consensus and storage — but struggle with compute. Each node must either re-execute every transaction or blindly trust off-chain actors. This creates an inherent tradeoff: the more computation you want to support, the harder it becomes to verify and trust that computation globally.

Incrementally Verifiable Computation (IVC) changes that. It allows computation to be performed anywhere — by anyone — while generating succinct, cryptographic proofs. These proofs can then be quickly checked by any verifier, no matter how complex the original computation was.

Nexus takes this idea and applies it at scale. The result is a distributed system capable of provable compute throughput orders of magnitude beyond current networks, while remaining transparent, permissionless, and auditable by design.

The IVC machine: A new class of infrastructure

At its core, the Nexus Execution Layer is a machine for proving computation, not just executing it. Here’s what defines this new model:

• Incremental verifiability: Every computation step generates a proof that can be efficiently verified, and these proofs can be recursively aggregated.
• Global parallelism: Computation is distributed across a dynamic, global mesh of nodes — each contributing to a shared task, coordinated via a DAG-style topology.
• Recursive aggregation: Proofs are not only verified — they are folded into larger proofs. This enables the system to scale linearly (and eventually superlinearly) with the number of participants.

This is the IVC machine — a compute network where proof is the product. And Nexus is the first to build it at Internet scale.

Architecture in action: Orchestration and delegation

To make this system usable and efficient, the Execution Layer introduces a hierarchical architecture:

• Delegators: These are the compute nodes. Any user can run the lightweight Nexus OS client to contribute CPU cycles to the network. Each node runs a local zkVM, executes assigned tasks, and emits proofs.
• Orchestrators: These nodes coordinate delegators, aggregate their proofs, and ensure high-quality throughput. In early phases, orchestrators are centralized for speed and debugging — but will gradually decentralize into a permissionless market.
• Proof trees: The network is structured as a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), where delegators form rings that feed into orchestrators. These trees recursively combine proofs into the Universal Proof that validates computation across the entire network.

This topology allows Nexus to dynamically scale compute supply while retaining strong guarantees of correctness. As more users join and more layers of delegation are added, the system scales both horizontally (bigger)  and vertically (faster) — without increasing verification cost.

Testnets in the wild

This isn’t just theory. Nexus has already launched multiple public testnets, each pushing the boundaries of verifiable compute at scale.

• Millions of nodes: Participants from around the world have joined via Nexus OS, contributing compute to live proving networks.
• Full zkVM integration: Every node runs zero-knowledge virtual machines, capable of producing succinct proofs for arbitrary EVM-like workloads.
• Universal Proofs in progress: The network is rapidly approaching the milestone of constructing the first Universal Proof — a succinct statement verifying an entire batch of block executions.

These testnets provide hard evidence that the IVC machine is not only possible — it’s operational. The next testnet is only weeks away. 

Why this matters

The rise of AI, complex rollups, and sovereign applications is straining the traditional blockchain model. More compute is needed — but it must be trustless, verifiable, and composable.

The Nexus Execution Layer addresses this gap directly. By turning compute into a provable, easily distributed resource, it allows developers to:

• Run untrusted computation with confidence
• Outsource tasks to a global mesh of verifiers
• Scale applications without sacrificing transparency

This is critical infrastructure for the Verifiable Internet. And unlike centralized cloud or opaque off-chain solutions, Nexus is grounded in open math and open participation.

Toward the proof economy

The implications go beyond blockchains. Imagine:

• AI models that prove their inferences.
• Legal contracts with executable, verifiable backends.
• Autonomous institutions running provably correct code at planetary scale.

All of this requires an execution environment that is both trustless and performant. The IVC machine is that environment. And Nexus is pioneering its path from theory to production.

Want to participate? Check out the Nexus OS at app.nexuz.xyz.