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It’s early days in AIFi or DeFAI – so early in fact that the portmanteau to describe the sector hasn’t even been settled. But this much is already clear: the convergence of web3 and artificial intelligence is happening at scale and it’s going to change everything – both onchain and off.
From DePIN supplying the backbone for startups to access GPU compute to protocols tokenizing AI assets, the scope and diversity of innovation is breathtaking to behold. It’s also becoming extremely hard to keep pace with. To simplify matters, the following blockchain projects meet the criteria that denotes they’re not just using the right buzzwords – they’re also walking the walk.
From Singularity Finance to OpenLedger, the following five are tackling the AIFi economy from different angles, but with the same broad goal: ensuring onchain AI achieves its full potential through unlocking new monetization opportunities. Here’s how they’re going about it.
Singularity Finance: Tokenizing the AI Value Chain
There’s a lot of buzz building around Singularity Finance, the EVM Layer 2 optimized for tokenizing key components of the AI ecosystem. Singularity addresses challenges such as liquidity and compliance, transforming AI compute, applications, and services into yield-bearing tokenized assets seamlessly integrated with DeFi.
Singularity Finance is intent on accelerating development of new asset classes, such as AI compute tokens, empowering individuals and businesses to invest in AI infrastructure. The result is a dynamic marketplace for AI resources that enhances accessibility and fosters innovation within the sector. Currently on testnet, where devs can put Singularity Finance’s tech to the test, expectations are high for its mainnet launch and what this means for mainstreaming access to AiFI.
VIRTUALS Protocol: Co-Ownership of AI Agents
VIRTUALS Protocol is pioneering the use of AI agents in gaming and entertainment. It provides a decentralized co-ownership layer for AI agents, treating these autonomous, revenue-generating entities as productive assets. The agents are multimodal, capable of operating across diverse platforms like Roblox, TikTok, and Telegram games, with memory and functionality that persist across applications.
AI agents created using VIRTUAL can plan, interact with environments, and manage onchain wallets. The use of vaults, meanwhile, ensures contributors to AI development are compensated fairly, with their work’s provenance recorded onchain. VIRTUALS also facilitates tokenized co-ownership of AI agents, making them accessible to a broader audience. Its plug-and-play approach simplifies the integration of AI agents into consumer applications, enabling businesses to harness the full potential of AI with minimal technical overhead.
OpenLedger: Attributable AI Data.
There are many blockchains for AI, but OpenLedger is adroitly targeted at where the greatest value add can be found: data, supplying the lifeblood for AI models and agents to flourish. OpenLedger unlocks the true potential of AI by leveraging blockchain’s ability to efficiently divert revenue streams, ensuring that data and IP owners are fairly remunerated. This way, developers can still access the models they need to train AIs, but without the copyright issues that have plagued centralized AI to date.
OpenLedger is also particularly focused on AI agents, offering payable AI models that can support an array of agents for all kinds of use cases, from trading to gaming. The ability to create a custom agent using a model of your choice opens the door to all kinds of possibilities, with full data provenance providing proof that everything has been correctly attributed.
NEAR Protocol: User-Owned AI
NEAR Protocol may not have launched as an AI-centric chain, but since embracing the technology it’s demonstrated that it’s not just cashing in on the latest craze. There’s some real substance to be found and original ideas that position NEAR as one of the leading “pre-AI” chains that’s best suited to hosting this fast-growing onchain vertical.
NEAR enables developers to build scalable AI applications while ensuring users maintain control over their data and AI interactions. It’s funding advancements in data collection, compute access, and monetization for AI applications and has established NEAR.AI R&D Lab, a dedicated research arm focused on creating AI tools for developing web3 applications directly from user intent. From a technical perspective, NEAR is also well equipped for the task at hand, its scalable architecture supporting the massive computational demands of AI. For example, TurboChain, the first AI-generated memecoin blockchain, was deployed on the Aurora Network, which is a prominent layer 2 on the NEAR protocol. The TURBO ecosystem began as a memecoin that was created from the ChatGPT prompt: “Create the next great meme coin, starting with a budget of just $69.”
Injective: AI-Driven Blockchain Interactions With iAgent
Injective is another general-purpose blockchain ecosystem whose architecture and business model makes it a natural fit for hosting AI applications. It’s recently launched iAgent, an AI-powered SDK that simplifies onchain interactions. Leveraging large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, iAgent allows users to execute tasks such as trading, checking balances, and sending payments through natural language commands.
With a particular focus on crypto use cases for AI, iAgent continuously monitors markets, providing insights for informed decision-making, while its SDK uses machine learning to anticipate trends and enable strategic actions. Everyday language inputs make advanced functionalities accessible to non-technical users, enabling them to automate tasks like placing trades or transferring funds with speed and precision. With iAgent, Injective is democratizing blockchain usage by combining the power of AI with intuitive, user-friendly tools, opening new possibilities for both casual users and advanced traders.
The Race to Monetize Onchain AI
Tokenizing AI components allows individuals to invest in and benefit from the growing AI economy. In other words, everyone can capture the upside to the most transformative tech since the internet itself. For some individuals, that will mean acquiring tokens representing AI compute or stocks in AI companies. For others, it’ll mean leveraging the technology itself through creating agents to do their bidding.
While there are hundreds of protocols now operating at the intersection of web3 and AI, the five profiled here have successfully combined superior tech with a sound business model. They’re not just riding the wave in other words: they are the wave, pushing the capabilities of onchain AI further up the beach with every innovation they launch. From tokenizing AI infrastructure to enabling decentralized ownership of AI agents, these projects are redefining how artificial intelligence operates in the web3 era.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice
