The operator of the Sun Yuchen Prize said on Oct. 4 that the 14-day public notice period for candidate winners tied to questions No. 305, 371, 381, 526, 866, and 1001 has formally ended. No unresolved objections were recorded during that period, the operator said, and the relevant candidates have now passed final eligibility review and moved into the written confirmation and award distribution process.
The announcement marks the first time the prize has completed a full public notice cycle since the program was established. The operator described it as the point at which the award’s zero-trust, decentralized academic bounty mechanism based on a fixed problem list begins moving into actual payout.
First confirmed recipients span six questions
Based on previously published notice information, the newly confirmed recipients cover several roles across the problem set:
- formal verification contributors for questions No. 305, 371, and 381
- mathematical solvers for questions No. 866 and 1001
- a contributor on question No. 526 who completed both the solution and the formal verification work
The operator said the relevant information had been publicly available throughout the notice period in the official GitHub candidate registration sheet. Recipients can complete written confirmation through the official email channel and submit payment and mailing details. Awards will be distributed in USDT (TRC20) or USDC (ERC20).
Public notice remains open for questions No. 239 and 327
At the same time, the operator said candidate award recipients for the solvers of question No. 239 and question No. 327 entered the public notice stage on Sept. 30. That process is still ongoing. As more claimants complete eligibility checks, additional candidates are expected to move into public notice and award confirmation.
Prize launched on Sept. 16, with $10 million already deposited on-chain
The Sun Yuchen Prize was formally launched on Sept. 16 by TRON founder Justin Sun. The stated goal is to recognize contributors behind major breakthroughs in foundational disciplines and machine-based formal verification. The maximum award for a single problem is $1 million.
On the day the prize was launched, the operator also released the first batch of recognized entries, covering 66 mathematical problems. The top award of $1 million went to an OpenAI research team for solving the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem and completing a Lean formal proof.
On Sept. 22, the operator disclosed the on-chain address for the prize pool. That address had already received $10 million. The operator also said payout records will be preserved on-chain and remain permanently traceable.
Rules award the first finisher, with a 70/30 split between solving and formal verification
Under the prize rules, only a complete mathematical solution to the original problem and a complete Lean proof are accepted. The award goes to the first finisher on the listed problem. Solvers receive 70% of the total prize, while formal verification contributors receive 30%. If one person completes both parts, that person receives the full amount.
The prize covers mathematical progress achieved from Jan. 1, 2026 onward. The full process is handled through GitHub contribution PRs (Pull Requests), claim issues, and the official email channel.
The operator also repeated a warning to claimants: it will not ask for account passwords, private keys, or seed phrases, and it will not require any transfer to any address to activate an award.
Justin Sun says the prize follows the problem, not the person
When the prize was launched, Justin Sun said: 「The prize follows the problem, not the person. No waiting for annual meetings, no waiting for nominations, no waiting for age.」
He also said eligibility is determined by whether 「the machine checks the proof from the first line to the last line, without a single mistake.」
On the reason for creating the prize, Sun said his personal wealth came from mathematics, and that wealth would return to mathematics. He said the Sun Yuchen Prize would become the main focus of his philanthropy in the future, calling it 「the single biggest contribution among the things I can do for humanity.」
He also said that as artificial intelligence develops, mathematics is entering a different era: 「People working on formalization have never lacked passion. What they lack is a priced construction blueprint.」
Problem bank now lists 1,022 questions and is open to global contributors
According to the operator, the Sun Yuchen Prize follows principles of openness, public benefit, and open source. It is open to all contributors regardless of nationality, institution, or identity, and it does not distinguish between humans and AI.
The problem bank currently contains 1,022 questions, including formal verification for the Poincare conjecture, the Riemann hypothesis, the Goldbach conjecture, and a large number of unsolved Erdos problems. The problem list, confirmation standards, proofs, and verification materials are all publicly available through GitHub.
The operator said the published problem list is permanently locked once released. It can only expand, not shrink, and prize funds are for payout only, not withdrawal.
Sun had also said earlier: 「The list is the only answer. I do not ask anyone to believe now. The Sun Yuchen Prize can wait.」 With the first batch now reaching final confirmation and payout, that approach is moving into execution. The operator said researchers worldwide, independent enthusiasts, and human-AI collaboration teams are welcome to keep following the official GitHub and website for later verification and application rounds.