DeepWorm

DeepWorm is the world first verifiable digital organism — a blockchain project that faithfully simulates the complete nervous system of C. elegans, a microscopic roundworm whose 302-neuron connectome is the most thoroughly mapped in biology. The simulation runs perpetually inside a Trusted Execution Environment on Marlin Protocol Oyster infrastructure, producing cryptographically verifiable neural state updates posted on-chain. The worm sensory stimuli are not laboratory inputs but live token price data fetched from Solana through the Jupiter API. When WORM prices move, the worm moves with them.

C. elegans is a 1-millimeter soil nematode. Its nervous system — 302 neurons connected by roughly 7,000 synapses — was the first to be completely mapped, a milestone known as the connectome. The project implements the Nematoduino model: 397 cells including 299 neurons and 98 muscles. The model uses a simplified leaky integrate-and-fire framework where neuron states exceeding a threshold of 30 fire, propagating weighted activation to connected cells, then reset. States decay after 10 inactive ticks, mimicking neural fatigue.

Two behavioral modes drive the simulation: chemotaxis (movement toward chemical attractants, food-seeking) and nose touch (avoidance). At each cycle, there is an 8:2 probability split in favor of chemotaxis. The balance between left and right neck muscle activation determines turning direction; body muscle output determines movement distance.

DeepWorm adopts a compute-offchain, verify-on-chain design. The worm executes inside a Marlin Oyster TEE — a hardware-secured enclave generating remote attestations proving the code ran without tampering. The enclave image file is reproducibly built using Nix. A private key generated inside the TEE signs every state update. DeepWorm generates a zero-knowledge proof from the attestation and submits it to a state contract on Hyperliquid EVM testnet. Smart contracts and dApps can read from this contract, treating the worm neural output as an autonomous on-chain primitive.

The WORM token trades on Raydium on Solana (DwDtUqBZJtbRpdjsFw3N7YKB5epocSru25BGcVhfcYtg). The TEE queries Jupiter price API for the current WORM/SOL price. The absolute price difference between cycles — scaled by a constant — determines simulation tick count. High volatility means more neural computation; flat prices mean fewer ticks. This creates an unusual feedback loop: market activity literally shapes organism behavior.

WORM has a total supply of one billion tokens. At its all-time high around November 2024 launch, WORM traded at approximately 0.09 USD per token. By mid-2026 the market cap had retreated to roughly 45,000 to 90,000 USD with minimal daily volume, reflecting the project niche appeal.

The project is developed under the GitHub organization BrainsOnChain. The repository has 128 commits and 37 stars as of mid-2026. The team operates pseudonymously. Marlin Protocol endorsed DeepWorm at launch as a first-of-its-kind project making a living organism brain available on-chain. The codebase is public and the enclave image reproducibly buildable, enabling independent verification.

DeepWorm sits at an unusual intersection of computational neuroscience, verifiable computation, and memecoin culture. It is not an AI model — the neural architecture is a faithful biological simulation. Its core contribution is demonstrating that a biological neural system can run perpetually on public infrastructure with cryptographic verification, opening possibilities for broader digital biology experiments on Solana.