On September 16, Sun Yuchen, founder of TRON, officially announced the establishment of the "Sun Yuchen Prize." This is the world's first zero-trust, decentralized academic bounty mechanism based on a "problem list," awarding prizes solely for major breakthroughs in fundamental disciplines and machine formal verification, with a maximum individual prize of up to $1 million. The establishment of this prize not only fills the historical gap of the Nobel Prize, which has never awarded a prize in mathematics for over a century, but also seeks to redefine the logic and boundaries of scientific recognition in the AI era, promoting the accelerated advancement of fundamental scientific research through collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence.
Sun Yuchen also announced the inaugural list of "Sun Yuchen Prize" winners, recognizing achievements in solving 66 mathematical problems and their formal proofs. The top prize of $1 million was awarded to the OpenAI research team for their solution and formal proof of the "existence and smoothness problem for the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations." According to OpenAI's announcement, the proof was generated by its internal system, with formalization completed by GPT-6 Astra and verified using Lean.
This issue concerns the Navier–Stokes equations, commonly abbreviated as N–S equations, which describe fluid motion. Developed in the 19th century by French physicist Claude-Louis Navier, Irish-British mathematician George Gabriel Stokes, and others, these equations have been around for approximately two hundred years. In 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute listed the "existence and smoothness problem for the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations" as one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems, offering a $1 million reward for its solution.
The award-winning achievements also involve the Sundoff conjecture, the Erdős distinct subsets and problem, and the Dinitz–Garg–Goemans cost-preserving conjecture. According to the rules of the Sun Yuchen Prize, awardees listed in the published roster must proactively apply to claim their prizes.
Sun Yuchen stated that mathematics is the foundational language and framework of all basic sciences. What truly expands the boundaries of human understanding has never been solitary inquiry alone, but rather the transformation of insights into formalized results that can be strictly verified by machines and reproduced by all of humanity. The Sun Yuchen Prize was created for this very purpose—it does not rely on traditional nominations or eligibility criteria, nor does it follow a four-year cycle or honor lifetime achievements; instead, it directly links the prize money to unsolved mathematical problems and machine-verifiable formal proofs. Any contributor—whether a professional researcher, an independent enthusiast, or an individual or team combining human and AI collaboration—who achieves a breakthrough first is eligible for the reward.
In the AI era, the time required to solve a conjecture is being compressed from years to months—or even days. Traditional reward systems centered on “lifetime achievement” or fixed cycles can no longer keep pace with this accelerated scientific rhythm. The vision of the Sun Yuchen Prize is to become the “Nobel Prize of the AI era,” responding to the profound transformation in scientific research and incentive structures through a more decentralized, formalized, and machine-driven approach. It will continuously maintain and publicly update a repository of mathematical problems and formalized code; once a problem is posted, it is permanently locked, with additions only and no removals. Prizes are redeemable but non-refundable, forming a “price-tagged blueprint for construction.”
The Sun Yuchen Prize award will be granted solely to the first person to complete the challenge; if multiple individuals contribute jointly, the prize will be distributed according to their respective contributions. The solver of the problem will receive 70% of the total prize, while the individual who completes the formal verification will receive 30%; if one person completes both the solution and the formal verification, they will receive the full prize. Awards will also be granted if an artificial intelligence system completes the challenge, provided that a natural person, legal entity, or their duly authorized representative acts as the applicant and designated recipient. The prize covers mathematical advances achieved on or after January 1, 2026; if a problem was solved prior to that date but formal verification was completed afterward, the verifier will be eligible for the award. The current list of challenges includes formal verification of the Poincaré Conjecture, the Riemann Hypothesis, the Goldbach Conjecture, and numerous unsolved problems posed by the late mathematician and Wolf Prize laureate Paul Erdős.
Sun Yuchen revealed that, in addition to the cash prize, winners will also receive a certificate and a medal. The front of the medal features Sun Yuchen’s portrait and the text “Sun Yuchen Award” in both Chinese and English, while the back displays an engraving symbolizing humanity’s exploration of the universe, with the Latin inscription “Quod probatur, solvitur,” meaning “What is proven is solved.” The main body of the medal is made of copper, plated with 6 grams of pure gold.
The Sun Yuchen Prize upholds three core principles: openness, philanthropy, and open source. It is open to all eligible contributors, regardless of nationality, organization, or identity, and makes no distinction between humans and AI. Funds are used exclusively for award distribution and open initiatives, with no profit motive. The issue list, eligibility criteria, supporting documentation, and verification materials are all publicly available on GitHub; award disbursement records are stored on-chain for permanent, tamper-proof traceability.
Sun Yuchen pointed out that the current effort to convert human mathematical proofs into machine-verifiable formal proofs still largely relies on the spontaneous enthusiasm of formalization communities such as Lean, with a long-term absence of systematic economic incentives. “Formalizers never lack enthusiasm—they lack a construction map with clear pricing.” The “Sun Yuchen Prize” is the first to provide a public, reward-backed checklist for this critical step, aiming to fundamentally transform this landscape.
He further stated, “A prize named after a person is the least political thing in the world. More importantly, it gives me a sense of closure—my wealth originates from mathematics; it comes from mathematics and returns to mathematics.” According to public records, over the past several years, Sun Yuchen has donated nearly $45 million (approximately RMB 300 million) to fields such as technology, environmental protection, and disaster relief. Moving forward, his philanthropic focus will fully shift to the “Sun Yuchen Prize,” continuously promoting accelerated breakthroughs in fundamental science through transparent and verifiable means.
“I’m not a mathematician; I’m an observer, and I pay. The rest is left to proof,” said Sun Yuchen. The official establishment of the “Sun Yuchen Prize” has initiated a new scientific incentive paradigm centered on machine verification, driven by human-machine collaboration, and powered by decentralized rewards.