COTI is the native utility token of the COTI protocol. It is primarily used to pay for confidential smart contract execution on COTI V2, a privacy-focused Layer 2 built on Ethereum. In addition, COTI is used for staking in the Treasury system and will enable on-chain governance participation as the ecosystem matures. The most important role of COTI today is as a computation token. Applications that run on COTI V2 use garbled circuits to process encrypted data without exposing the logic or inputs on-chain. These privacy-preserving contracts consume computational resources, and the cost of execution is paid using the COTI token. This model creates real utility demand for COTI based on application activity rather than market hype.
COTI is also used for staking. Token holders can deposit COTI into the Treasury to support the protocol and earn periodic rewards. These rewards are designed to reflect real usage of the system. The more applications interact with the private execution layer, the more revenue is generated and shared with stakers. This creates a feedback loop between activity and incentive.
Governance is another emerging use case. As the protocol introduces more decentralized components, COTI holders will be able to vote on key decisions. This may include Treasury parameters, protocol upgrades, ecosystem grant approvals, and other network-level policies. Governance features will be deployed in phases, following increased user participation and stable reward flows. While COTI originally supported use cases like retail payments and merchant tools on its older Trustchain infrastructure, the token's function has evolved. Its primary role today is to support infrastructure for Ethereum applications that require privacy, control, and composable logic without exposure.
COTI is not a store of value or a stable asset. It is an active utility token that powers one of the few confidential execution environments in the Ethereum ecosystem. With use cases expanding across private DeFi, secure AI, and data-sensitive smart contracts, COTI is designed to support real protocol usage, not speculative transactions.
🔗 Related Questions