Crypto AI Sector Comprehensive Guide: An Overview of AI Business Categories and Notable Crypto Projects
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Crypto AI Sector Comprehensive Guide: An Overview of AI Business Categories and Notable Crypto Projects
May every crypto enthusiast reap the rewards of their understanding in the wave of AI.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: TechFlow
Crypto X AI is the central theme running through this year's crypto market.
As breakthroughs in AI continue within the tech sector, a large number of projects related to AI concepts have rapidly emerged in the crypto space. While one project after another achieves astonishing gains, you may easily get lost among the sea of projects:
With so many AI projects, what exactly do they do? Which category do they belong to? And how should we analyze their value?
AI consists of just two letters, but when combined with blockchain, the scope of business it can cover goes far beyond those simple characters.
Therefore, understanding the overall landscape and细分 categories of Crypto X AI helps us quickly identify whether a project possesses narrative value and assess the magnitude of its potential value.
In this article, we aim to categorize and organize the businesses formed by combining Crypto and AI, and highlight notable companies and projects within each category, providing a navigational map for capturing value amid the AI wave.
The Fundamental Logic of Crypto X AI
First, it’s important to clarify that AI is essentially a form of productivity. To harness this productivity, three fundamental elements are still required:
Computing power, algorithms (models), and data.
On the other hand, Crypto or blockchain serves more as a production relationship, offering an improved environment to promote AI development.
So how can this environment influence the three aforementioned AI elements? Different answers guide crypto projects toward different directions:
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Optimizing computing power: Providing decentralized and efficient computing resources, reducing single-point failure risks, and improving overall computational efficiency.
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Optimizing algorithms: Promoting open-source sharing and innovation of algorithms or models.
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Optimizing data: Decentralized storage, contribution, usage, and security management of data.
Based on these three optimization points, we can broadly divide the entire AI sector into six directions below (since computing power, algorithms, and data influence each other, the checkmarks in the table indicate primary focus areas, not exclusivity):
Below, we will introduce each direction’s business content along with representative companies and projects.
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Decentralized Computing and AI Inference Platforms
Decentralized computing and AI inference platforms refer to distributed computing networks built using blockchain technology. Through such platforms, idle computing resources can be shared and utilized globally to perform training and inference tasks for AI models.
By distributing computational tasks across multiple nodes in the network, these platforms improve computational efficiency while reducing the risk of single-point failures.
Within this framework, computing power becomes the core optimized element, as decentralized computing platforms directly provide broader and more economical computing resources.
Typical projects in this category include:
Ritual
Aims to create an incentive network powering distributed computing devices and serving machine learning inference workloads. Users can build and host ML models, deploying them onto Infernet nodes within Ritual.
On November 8, 2023, Ritual raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Archetype, with participation from Accomplice and Robot Ventures.
Website: https://ritual.net/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ritualnet
Akash Network
A decentralized peer-to-peer marketplace for cloud computing, providing a secure platform where users can exchange data and develop applications.
Through integration with Cosmos, Akash Network benefits from interoperability and scalability of the larger network, enabling seamless communication with other blockchain platforms, allowing developers and organizations to access affordable decentralized cloud computing resources.
Website: https://akash.network/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/akashnet_
Render Network
A well-known provider of decentralized GPU rendering solutions, aiming to connect users who want to run rendering jobs with individuals possessing idle GPUs capable of handling render workloads. Owners can link their GPUs to the Render Network, receive and complete rendering jobs, while RNDR rewards are sent to those performing the rendering work.
Website: https://rendertoken.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rendertoken
Bittensor
An open-source protocol whose token TAO has repeatedly hit new highs.
In the Bittensor network, cryptocurrency incentive mechanisms encourage participants to share their computing resources, data, and AI models, enabling global machine learning models and algorithms to learn from and enhance each other.
Recommended Reading: "Understanding Bittensor (TAO): The Ambitious AI Lego Making Algorithms Composable"
Website: https://bittensor.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bittensor_
io.net
A decentralized computing network supporting the development, execution, and scaling of ML (machine learning) applications on the Solana blockchain, leveraging one of the world’s largest GPU clusters to allow machine learning engineers to access distributed cloud compute power at a fraction of the cost of centralized services.
Website: https://io.net/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ionet_official
Hyperbolic
Aims to build a computing platform anyone can participate in, where people can share and access computing resources.
Website: https://www.hyperbolic.xyz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hyperbolic_labs
Gensyn
Gensyn’s vision is to interconnect the computing power of idle, machine-learning-capable devices worldwide—such as consumer-grade GPUs, custom ASICs, and SoCs capable of training neural networks—into a global supercluster, significantly increasing available computing capacity for machine learning.
On June 11, 2023, Gensyn completed a $43 million Series A round led by a16z, with participation from CoinFund, Canonical Crypto, Protocol Labs, Jsquare, Eden Block, and other angel investors.
Website: https://www.gensyn.ai/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gensynai
Prime Intellect
A decentralized AI platform that commoditizes computation and intelligence, providing developers with more affordable distributed computing and a sustainable business model for open-source models.
Website: https://www.primeintellect.ai/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrimeIntellect
Inference Labs
A trustless execution layer for artificial intelligence focused on interoperable AI inference on blockchains. The project views this as a critical step toward building AI accessible to anyone without counterparty risk.
Website: https://inferencelabs.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/inference_labs
Nosana
A decentralized GPU grid specifically developed and customized for AI inference workloads.
Costs up to 85% lower than traditional public clouds, offering new solutions for organizations and individuals seeking massive computing power without high expenses. Users can directly access GPU nodes that scale on demand; consumers, miners, and enterprises can monetize idle hardware by becoming Nosana nodes.
Website: https://nosana.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nosana_ci
Lilypad
Lilypad is a verifiable, trustless, and decentralized computing network designed to facilitate mainstream adoption of web3 applications. By expanding access to unrestricted global computing power, Lilypad strategically partners with decentralized infrastructure networks like Filecoin to establish a transparent, efficient, and accessible computing ecosystem.
Website: https://lilypad.tech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lilypad_Tech
Prodia
Prodia is an AI inference API whose vision is to make AI accessible to everyone, offering a fast and easy-to-use API for image generation.
Website: https://prodia.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/prodialabs
Hyperspace
Hyperspace is a new type of supercomputer powered entirely by a browser-based blockchain.
Website: https://www.hyperspace.computer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HyperspaceAI
Vanna Labs
Vanna is a blockchain network compatible with EVM that supports running on-chain AI/ML inference. Vanna also supports native, zkML-secure inference, directly computing, protecting, and verifying on-chain; designed seamlessly so utilizing AI/ML in dApps is as simple as a function call.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/0xVannaLabs
Website: https://www.vannalabs.ai/
Arbius
Arbius is a decentralized open-source network for machine learning. By participating in the network and contributing GPU computing power, users generate new tokens, providing model creators with a way to earn revenue.
Website: https://arbius.ai/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/arbius_ai
CUDOS
CUDOS combines cloud and blockchain technologies to support enterprises in fields such as AI, Metaverse, HPC, Web3 nodes, and startups, helping them unlock new possibilities in the digital realm.
Currently, Cudos has established its own L1 aimed at providing high-performance, trustless, permissionless decentralized cloud computing for all. The Cudos network operates on a delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus model, where validators verify transactions and provide computing cycles for DApps.
Website: https://www.cudos.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CUDOS_
Flux
A decentralized cloud computing platform helping build decentralized applications with greater flexibility, scalability, and censorship resistance. It also provides computing resources for AI inference and operations.
Any hardened Dockerized application can run on Flux’s fully decentralized computing network. Flux services offer a fully decentralized alternative to other service providers while maintaining competitive pricing.
Website: https://runonflux.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RunOnFlux
AIOZ Network
A comprehensive infrastructure solution for web3 storage, decentralized AI computing, live streaming, and video-on-demand (VOD).
Website: https://aioz.network/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AIOZNetwork
Aethir
Aethir is a cloud computing infrastructure platform revolutionizing ownership, allocation, and usage patterns of enterprise-grade graphics processing units (GPUs). Moving away from traditional centralized models, Aethir deploys a scalable and competitive framework for sharing distributed computing resources, meeting diverse industry and regional demands for enterprise applications and customers.
Website: https://www.aethir.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AethirCloud
Fulence
Fluence is a blockchain economics-driven decentralized serverless platform and computing marketplace.
Using Fluence, developers can build applications and deploy them onto a network of computing providers ranging from professional data centers to home computers. Providers compete on price and performance and are rewarded accordingly.
Website: https://fluence.network/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/fluence_project
iExec
iExec connects cloud resource sellers with buyers, encouraging the creation of a decentralized, autonomous, privacy-preserving application ecosystem. The network aims to provide companies with scalable, secure, and easy access to needed services, datasets, and computing resources.
Website: https://iex.ec/developers/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/iEx_ec
NetMind.AI
NetMind.AI offers two products: NetMind.Power (a distributed computing platform) and NetMind.Chat (a customizable chatbot suitable for personal and enterprise use).
Among them, NetMind.Power provides massive computing resources to solve complex problems in fields such as AI and data science. With NetMind.Power, individuals and enterprises can easily access powerful computing resources to train or execute complex AI models effortlessly.
Website: https://netmind.ai/home
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NetmindAi
OpSec
As a decentralized physical infrastructure network provider, OpSec leverages cutting-edge AI technology to build, maintain, and operate blockchain infrastructure, ensuring security and privacy for blockchain applications.
OpSec enhances cloud computing with AI, providing blockchain applications with a scalable, flexible, and cost-effective platform.
Website: https://opsec.software/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpSecCloud
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AI Data and Model Provenance
Primarily focuses on managing and verifying the provenance of data and AI models in a decentralized manner.
Specifically, this category emphasizes ensuring authenticity, transparency, and traceability of data during AI development, as well as fairness and verifiability in model training. Within this framework, data becomes the key optimized element, as high-quality, trustworthy data is a prerequisite for training effective AI models.
Blockchain plays a role here by recording data and model provenance information via immutable distributed ledgers, providing a transparent and secure environment where data providers, model developers, and users can verify the authenticity and integrity of data and models.
Moreover, through smart contracts, blockchain can automatically enforce licensing agreements for data usage and model training, ensuring compliance with original owners’ intentions while promoting legal data sharing and utilization.
Typical projects in this category include:
Rainfall
A privacy-preserving intelligent platform using Edge-AI and Web3 technologies to unlock economic value from user data while protecting data privacy, reshaping data monetization.
At the same time, the project generates real-time social intelligence from millions of data events as they occur, providing data references for companies, organizations, and governments to better serve customers.
Website: https://rainfall.one/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rainfall_one
Numbers
Numbers is an open and decentralized network ensuring definitive provenance for all digital media created by humans and AI. It protects digital media origins through a decentralized ecosystem and blockchain technology, similar to version control systems like Git.
Website: https://www.numbersprotocol.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/numbersprotocol
Grass
Flagship product of Wynd Network, offering a suite of applications that perform background data contribution tasks on mobile phones or computers, enabling AI labs to directly obtain web data to train their AI models and receive datasets directly.
Website: https://www.getgrass.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/getgrass_io
Koii Network
A decentralized cloud computing platform where anyone with a computer can become a node and earn passive income on Koli. Training models using community-supported data works better for everyone and costs less to maintain.
Thus, Koii’s tools support federated learning, training data access, and crowdsourced GPUs.
Website: https://www.koii.network/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KoiiNetwork
Flock
A unique platform integrating on-chain decentralized machine learning, providing secure and efficient solutions for fine-tuning and inference of AI models.
Flock features a co-creation platform for AI where individuals are rewarded for providing and validating data. It uses blockchain’s transparent and secure structure to track data usage and validity for determining rewards.
Website: https://www.flock.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/flock_io
Hyperspace
This project aims to build a world with millions of community-owned large language models freely usable daily by billions of people.
Website: https://www.hyperspace.computer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HyperspaceAI
Ocean Protocol
A privacy-preserving, data-sharing protocol for AI and the new data economy. Enables people to buy and sell private data while protecting privacy, facilitating data sharing in scientific or technical environments.
Website: https://oceanprotocol.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/oceanprotocol
Syntropy
The Syntropy Data Layer Protocol was created to provide and access blockchain data, allowing anyone to become a provider in a Web3 open data market. Token holders determine reliable providers based on data quality and overall performance, thus deciding who deserves rewards.
Website: https://www.syntropynet.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Syntropynet
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Token-Incentivized AI Applications
A model that uses cryptocurrency tokens as incentives to encourage users, developers, and other participants to jointly contribute to and engage with AI projects and platforms.
Token rewards stimulate active community participation, including providing data, developing algorithms, supplying computing resources, or training and optimizing AI models. Tokens not only serve as rewards but also act as a medium of exchange within the platform for purchasing data, computing power, or specialized AI services.
In this model, algorithms and models become the core optimized elements. Through collective community effort and resource integration, AI algorithm development and iteration can be accelerated, while improving the quality and adaptability of AI models. Additionally, token incentives promote data collection and sharing, as participants can earn token rewards by providing high-quality data, thereby indirectly optimizing the data element.
Typical projects in this category include:
MyShell
MyShell is a platform for creating voice chatbots based on Web3 and AI. Users can instantly select their favorite character to begin voice chatting and quickly improve language skills through discussions on topics of interest.
Website: https://myshell.ai/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/myshell_ai
ImgnAI
A consumer-facing AI application offering model quality and user experience comparable to text-to-image products like Midjourney. Users can create stunning artworks using simple text commands. Its growth and revenue drive $imgnAI token value accumulation through buy-and-burn mechanisms, enabling token holders to benefit from the expansion of the imgnAI product suite.
Website: https://imgnai.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/imgn_ai
MyPeach
MyPeach is an AI-powered companion app allowing users to customize attributes such as race, hair color, hair length, eye color, and body type, then interact in conversation with their customized companion much like in the real world.
Website: https://www.mypeach.ai/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mypeachai
Artificial Liquid Intelligence
A decentralized protocol for creating intelligent avatars that interact with humans using AI. The platform has spawned a new NFT standard called intelligent NFTs (iNFTs), which can embed AI animation, speech synthesis, and generative AI functions into NFTs.
As early as August 2021, the project raised $16 million in funding, with participation from Multicoin.
Website: https://www.aiprotocol.info/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/real_alethea
IQ.wiki
IQ.wiki aims to build an AI assistant for blockchain knowledge, becoming a Wikipedia for the crypto world. Users can ask questions like using GPT to get answers about any crypto and blockchain-related projects, knowledge, and tokens. IQ GPT delivers reliable cryptocurrency insights from multiple sources, meeting needs for exploration, development, and trading.
Website: https://iq.wiki/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IQWIKI
CharacterX
CharacterX is a next-generation decentralized synthetic social network connecting humans and AI entities. The platform allows users to create their own AI identities and connect with others—whether human or AI—across time and space. Through advanced multimodal AI architecture supporting multi-sensory input/output, including 3D and AR experiences, and proactive AI agents tailored for social scenarios, CharacterX offers personalized, authentic, and privacy-secure enhanced social experiences.
Website: characterx.ai
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CharacterXAI
DeepSouth AI
DeepSouth AI achieves exceptional computing capability and efficiency by adopting combinations of neuromorphic computing algorithms, including spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), direct training schemes based on backpropagation, supervised temporal learning, ANN-to-SNN conversion strategies, reservoir computing, and genetic algorithms.
Currently, its available products include autonomous AI, visual AI, and conversational AI.
Website: https://deepsouth.ai/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeepSouthAI
KIP
The KIP protocol enables AI value creators to connect their expertise—whether in data production, model training, application design, or other areas—and enjoy transparent accounting and revenue sharing.
Under this system, each component is encapsulated in an ERC-3525 semi-fungible token (SFT), allowing easy, low-fee real-time transfer of economic value between components, with which users can interact.
Website: https://kip.pro/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KIPprotocol
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On-Chain AI Agents and Security
On-chain AI agents and security involve deploying AI agents on blockchains to enhance the security and trustworthiness of AI applications.
These AI agents can automatically perform tasks such as trading, data analysis, and automated decision-making. Deployment on blockchains makes their operations not only transparent and traceable but also tamper-resistant, enhancing overall system security.
In this framework, both computing power and algorithms/models are key optimized elements, as secure AI agents require reliable computing resources to execute complex algorithms and models.
Furthermore, on-chain AI agents can share and utilize data and resources across platforms while preserving privacy, since ZK-related technologies can verify data validity and integrity without revealing sensitive information.
Recommended Reading: "Rise of the AI Agent Narrative: Projects Worth Watching Early"
Typical projects in this category include:
AI Arena
AI Arena is a blockchain game integrating human x AI collaboration, where players design, train, and battle AI-driven NFTs in global competitions.
Researchers drag and drop their machine learning models onto the platform to compete against AI models from other researchers. Top-performing researchers earn rewards in AI Arena’s native token.
Website: https://aiarena.io/#/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aiarena_
Operator.io
A protocol for creating decentralized agent networks and standardizing the exchange of information and value between users, protocols, and AI agents. Users build and deploy their own true agents here, then offer them to the world.
Website: https://operator
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