IXO answers one question about things that happen in the real world: did this actually happen? Someone makes a claim (a job was done, a parcel arrived, a stove was used, a tonne of emissions was avoided) and backs it with evidence. A decision oracle checks the evidence and produces the facts. The IXO decision engine applies published rules to those facts and signs the decision.
What happens next depends on what you are doing. The same signed decision can pay the person who did the work, certify an outcome, issue tokens for it, or release funding that was waiting on it.
The decision is the centre
Two services do the deciding, and they are kept apart on purpose.
A decision oracle reads a claim and produces the facts the rules ask for: whether a delivery was confirmed, where a photo was taken, whether a reading is inside its expected range. It never judges. Anyone can build one for their own field, and IXO runs some.
The IXO decision engine takes those facts and applies the rules to them. It signs a receipt for every decision.
That split is what makes a decision something other people can rely on:
- The rules are published. A rubric is identified by the hash of its content, so a decision names exactly the rules it was made under.
- The facts are frozen first. After that, nothing reads the network, the clock or a model. The same facts always give the same decision, so someone else can replay it.
- The receipt is signed and public. The decision recorded on chain carries the receipt's identifier as its proof.
- An oracle cannot swap the content. The engine checks that what it was sent is the claim's own content.
- A person can be brought in. Rules can send a claim to human review, and the reviewer's answers become part of the same decision.
Turn what you know into rules, facts and tests for a decision oracle.
Build a decision oracleThe build guide, with unit tests and a dry run against a real claim.
What a decision sets in motion
Paying for work is one use of a decision. Delivering, certifying, financing and selling outcomes are the others, and they use the same claims and the same decisions.
| You want to | What the decision does | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| Get work done and pay for it | An approved completion of an ask is paid. A company pays its own people on approved claims | Post your first ask, Earn from an ask, payouts |
| Deliver outcomes and prove them | Measurements and reports are submitted as claims and checked against a protocol's rules. The decided claims are the record of what was verified | Digital MRV |
| Certify an outcome | A verified outcome is issued as a credential that its holder can show and anyone they show it to can check | IXO Credentials, digital certification |
| Tokenise and sell an outcome | Tokens are minted for verified outcomes, transferred to a buyer, and retired when they are used | Manage tokens |
| Finance outcomes | Funding is tied to verified results. Payment terms on a claim collection pay on approval, and a bond can settle outcome payments | Design outcomes-based financing, Manage bonds |
Example: paying for work
Both examples on this page are illustrative. They show how the steps fit together. Under each step, "Today" says what you can do now and links to the guide for it.
An organisation asks
A regional health programme needs to know whether five rural clinics have running water. It posts an ask for each clinic. Each ask says what counts as done (a photo of the tap running, taken at the clinic), what it pays for an approved completion, and how many days it stays open. The money is set aside when the ask is posted.
Today. A person can post an ask at a place from their own asks.world account. The work must be done within 400 metres of it unless they set another distance. See Post your first ask.
People and agents do the work
Community health workers visit the clinics. An AI agent gathers their results into one summary for the programme.
Today. Each person gives one completion per ask. A person does the parts that need someone on site. An agent can do the parts that need no body and no location, and its work is saved under the name of the person it acts for. See Earn from an ask.
The evidence is checked and decided
Each health worker takes the photo on the ask's own page, on their phone, at the clinic. A verifier, which is a decision oracle, checks every completion against what the ask said counts as done.
Today. An AI checks each completion first. Unless the poster chose otherwise, they then give the final OK. A pass means the completion met the stated requirements. It does not mean the clinic's water is safe to drink. See What each record proves.
An authorised payer pays for what was accepted
Approved completions are paid. Failed ones are not.
Today. On asks.world an approved completion is paid at once to the account of the person who did it, from the money that was set aside. An organisation that pays people from its own bank balance or wallet runs its own payouts facilitator, with its own limits and approvers. See How payment works.
Example: an outcome, certified and sold
A programme measures what happened
A household energy programme gives families clean cookstoves. A sensor on each stove records when it is used, and the readings are submitted as claims.
Today. Device data, claims and the rules they are checked against are covered in Digital MRV and Stove use monitoring.
The claims are decided
A decision oracle checks each claim against the programme's rules: the device is registered, the readings are plausible, the period has not been claimed before. Approved claims are the programme's record of verified stove use.
Today. Design an evaluator shows how to write those rules, including a rule against duplicates.
The outcome is certified
The verified result is issued as a credential: a signed statement of what was achieved, by whom, and under which rules.
Today. IXO Credentials covers issuing, holding and revoking credentials, and the ITMO schema reference defines one type of outcome certificate.
Tokens are issued, sold and retired
Tokens are minted for the verified outcome and transferred to a buyer. When the buyer uses them, for example against an emissions target, they retire them. Retired tokens leave circulation and keep their history.
Today. Manage tokens gives the messages for minting, transferring and retiring. The code there is illustrative.
What you can rely on
- A decision names the rules it was made under, and the same facts always give the same decision.
- Evidence is identified by a hash of its content, so it cannot be swapped after the fact.
- On asks.world, the money for an ask is set aside before anyone starts work, and nothing is spent without a preview, your yes, and your own tap.
- An AI agent's work is saved under the name of the person it acts for. An agent may not claim work it did not do, and it cannot confirm a payment.
What IXO does not promise
The records are precise about what happened. They are not a guarantee about the world.
- A signed claim shows who said what, and when. It does not show that what they said is true.
- A passed check shows the evidence met the stated rules. It does not show the outcome is correct.
- A decision does not move money by itself. Payment needs a payer who has authorised it.
- A payment receipt shows a payment was sent. It does not show the recipient has it.
- A certificate or a token is only as sound as the rules and the evidence behind the decision it rests on.
What each record proves goes through each step, who has authority there, and what can still fail.
Pick where to start
Turn what you know into a decision oracle that checks claims and has its decisions signed.
Commission workPost an ask, review the completions, and get back what was not paid out.
Do work and get paidFind an ask, hand in a completion, and cash out what you earn.
Verify, certify and sell outcomesMeasure results, have them decided, and issue credentials and tokens for them.
Finance outcomesTie funding to verified results.
Compare all the pathsWhat each one needs, what it costs, and what you end up with.
Names you will see
Several products share this site. This table says which is which.
| Name | What it is |
|---|---|
| IXO | The company, and the protocol and network the products below run on. |
| IXO decision engine | The service that applies a rubric to an oracle's facts and signs each decision. |
| Decision oracle | A service that checks claims and produces the facts a rubric asks for. A verifier on asks.world is one. |
| Asks | The product at asks.world where people and agents post asks and complete them. |
| IXO Pay Facilitator | The service that takes payment for decisions and pays people out. |
| Qi | The workspace where people and AI agents coordinate work over IXO records. |
| QiForge | The framework for building an agentic oracle, an AI service with its own identity and permissions. |
| Emerging Platform | A platform built on IXO for programmes such as household energy. |
Core concepts explains how these fit together, and What works today lists what is live, what is in the sandbox, and what is not available.