Inventory of ten AI+Web3 projects worth paying attention to recently

Original author: Wang Xiaolou

In the wave of digital currency, the combination of AI and Web3 is gradually showing its strong potential and becoming the strongest narrative in the currency circle. The intelligence of AI and the decentralized nature of Web3 have jointly spawned a new ecosystem, which not only drives market sentiment, but also leads to a wave of wealth creation.

As a relatively new crypto business category in this round, AI has benefited from the explosive development speed and continuous hot spots in the external business world, and it is still likely to bring a good increase in attention to AI track projects in the crypto world.

In 2023, breakthroughs in AI technology, especially the exponential improvement of large language models, have brought revolutionary changes to multiple industries. When AI technology is combined with the decentralized nature of Web3, we can not only foresee an efficient and intelligent future, but also gain insight into the formation of a new business model and market opportunities.

In 2024, AI is definitely the fastest growing and largest track this year, especially in the field of infrastructure. AI = computing power + algorithm + data. The market value of Nvidia, a representative of computing power, has exceeded 3 trillion US dollars, becoming the second largest company in the world by market value; the valuation of OpenAI, a representative of large model algorithms, has reached 80 billion US dollars.

Web3: A new arena for AI development

Web3, with its decentralization, transparency, privacy protection and other characteristics, provides an ideal development platform for AI technology. The combination of AI and Web3 can not only solve the challenges of randomness, resource intensity and human-machine indistinguishability in AI development, but also promote the effective allocation of resources and the rapid matching of market supply and demand through mechanisms such as token incentives and smart contracts.

Leading the wealth creation effect

As AI is increasingly used in Web3 projects, some innovative business models and revenue models have emerged. For example, liquidity mining optimized by AI algorithms and derivatives trading based on AI predictions have provided investors with new ways to make profits.

In the 21st century technology field, artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3 are leading a paradigm shift. They are not just independent technological advances, but a double helix structure that promotes and evolves together. This shift has the following characteristics:

• Fundamental changes: They redefine the way we work and our worldview;

• Cross-border applications: spanning different industries to promote comprehensive innovation;

• Productivity leap: bringing unprecedented production efficiency to society.

I’m excited about these transformative advances, which go beyond short-term trends in popular culture, such as viral social media apps. While AI and cryptocurrency are currently developing independently, their convergence portends a more profound transformation. This convergence is based on their complementary nature:

• AI: provides data intelligence, computing power, and autonomous decision-making;

• Cryptocurrencies: secure digital ownership, facilitate economic coordination, resist censorship.

Before we delve into the future narrative of the integration of AI and Web3, let’s first review the main narrative of AI in the current crypto space. According to market capitalization, the main projects with a market value of more than $1 billion currently include:

• Computing power providers: Render Network (RNDR, market value of approximately US$3.85 billion), Akash (market value of approximately US$1.2 billion), IO.NET (the latest round of valuation is approximately US$1 billion);

• Algorithmic network: Bittensor (TAO, market value of approximately US$2.97 billion);

• AI Agent: Fetchai (FET, market cap ~$2.1 billion pre-merger).

These projects not only represent the application of AI in the field of cryptocurrency, but also indicate the huge potential of the combination of AI and Web3. With the continuous development of technology, we can foresee that the integration of AI and Web3 will give birth to more innovative business models. It will also bring more wealth-creating effects.

A review of several noteworthy Web3 projects

IO.NET : Distributed AI computing platform

The IO.NET project has attracted much attention for its innovative distributed AI computing power platform. The project aims to provide AI engineers with efficient and low-cost model training and reasoning services by integrating GPU resources around the world. The supply side is the computing power of chips (mainly GPUs, but also CPUs and Apples iGPU, etc.) distributed around the world, and the demand side is artificial intelligence engineers who want to complete AI model training or reasoning tasks.

IO.NET s business model and token economic model not only provides a free market for both the supply and demand sides of AI computing power, but also promotes the formation of network effects through token incentive mechanisms.

The first airdrop made a lot of people rich, and even drove up the price of Apple M series computers. Shenzhen Huaqiangbei was out of stock.

• X: https://x.com/ionet

• Official website: https://io.net/

Power Ledger: Decentralizing Energy Trading

As a representative project in the energy sector, Power Ledger has achieved decentralization of energy transactions through blockchain technology and promoted the widespread application of renewable energy. The market value of its token Powr has reached 170 million US dollars, showing its deep potential in the energy sector.

Power Ledger was established in 2017. It is an integrated energy platform based on blockchain technology. It aims to decentralize energy transactions, promote direct electricity transactions between individuals and communities, support the widespread application of renewable energy, and ensure the transparency and efficiency of transactions through smart contracts. Initially, Power Ledger operated on a consortium chain based on Ethereum. In the second half of 2023, Power Ledger updated its white paper and launched its own integrated public chain, which was transformed from Solanas technical framework to facilitate the processing of high-frequency micro-transactions in the distributed energy market.

• X: https://x.com/PowerLedger_io

• Official website: https://www.powerledger.io/

Streamr: A decentralized real-time data network

Streamr builds a decentralized real-time data network that allows users to freely trade and share data.

Streamrs value proposition is to build a decentralized real-time data network that allows users to freely trade and share data while maintaining full control over their own data. Through its data marketplace, Streamr hopes to enable data producers to sell data streams directly to interested consumers without the need for intermediaries, thereby reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

In an actual cooperation case, Streamr cooperated with another Web3 in-vehicle hardware project DIMO to collect temperature, air pressure and other data through DIMO hardware sensors installed on vehicles, forming a weather data stream for transmission to agencies in need.

• X: https://x.com/streamr

• Official website: https://streamr.network/

Covalent: Blockchain data indexing service

The blockchain data indexing service provided by Covalent provides B-side users with the ability to quickly obtain blockchain information through efficient query databases. Its token CQT has a circulation market value of US$150 million, reflecting its value in the field of data services.

Covalent provides blockchain data. The Covalent network reads data from blockchain nodes via RPC, and then processes and organizes the data to create an efficient query database. In this way, Covalent users can quickly retrieve the information they need without having to perform complex queries directly from blockchain nodes. This type of service is also called blockchain data indexing.

In June, Covalent completed a $5 million financing. Covalent mainly targets B-side users, such as various DApps and many centralized encryption companies. If it can take the first-mover advantage, it still has a chance to come out.

• X: https://x.com/Covalent_HQ

• Official website: https://www.covalenthq.com/

Nim Network

NIM Network is the first RollApps to be live on the dymension mainnet. NIM aims to be the ultimate environment for crypto-native and fun AI games. To achieve this goal, the project is focused on developing AI gaming agents. AI gaming agents are virtual players that mimic human control. The main purpose of these agents is to enhance the immersion of the gaming experience for human players. Through NIM, anyone can use, develop or deploy AI agents without permission, and later other network participants can leverage and improve these agents in their applications. Eventually, these agents will be monetized and their owners will collect the revenue generated. With the exponential growth of Web3 games, AI agents may play a decisive role in making these games as entertaining as traditional games such as Fortnite, FIFA, etc.

• X: https://x.com/nim_network

• Official website: https://nim.network/

REVOX: A modular on-chain AI network

REVOX is a platform that revolutionizes decentralized application development by leveraging AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to create intelligent, agent-based applications. It provides developers with component APIs and diverse data sources to build customized AI agents while maintaining decentralization and flexibility. REVOX also supports scalable on-chain AI reasoning, dynamic Web3 integration, customizable workflows, and incentives for agent developers and computation providers.

REVOX supports developers, organizations, and individuals by providing a suite of component APIs and diverse data sources. The solution includes scalable on-chain AI reasoning in smart contracts, Web3 integration in the form of AI agents, customized workflows to connect agents for complex use cases, and incentives for agent developers and compute providers.

Products incubated under REVOX, such as ReadON DAO and ShareON, will benefit from the upgrade of advanced decentralized artificial intelligence technology. At the same time, Lense will be integrated into this new architecture as a key entry point for decentralized content indexing. The average daily number of active users on the chain exceeds 2 million, and the cumulative number of users exceeds 11 million. It is currently the AI project with the largest number of users and is worthy of attention.

Modular AI network REVOX ( revox.ai ) announced the completion of a strategic round of financing of US$6 million. This round of financing was participated by a number of angel investors in the fields of AI and Web3, including SevenX Ventures, Arweave SCP Ventures and other institutions.

• X: https://x.com/ReadOnMe3

• Official website: https://www.revox.ai/

• Whitepaper: https://docs.revox.ai/

Talus

Talus is a high-performance, parallelized blockchain powered by the Move programming language, a Sui variant. It integrates a native AI stack that facilitates the creation of AI smart agents - programs designed to run autonomously, such as robots. Talus provides developers with an optimized environment so that they can easily build and deploy distributed AI services with flexibility. Within Talus, there will be a marketplace where smart agents, resources, and services can be represented, utilized, and traded in a permissionless and verifiable manner. In addition, Talus will be interconnected with other blockchains through the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol, enabling smart agents created on Talus to interact with and utilize data or assets across multiple chains.

• X: https://x.com/TalusNetwork

• Official website: https://streamr.network/

Worldcoin: A biometric-based UBI system

Worldcoin uses the hardware device Orb to generate a unique and anonymous hash value based on the human iris biometrics through ZK technology to verify identity and distinguish between people and machines.

Worldcoin attempts to provide basic income to the public through the UBI system and uses iris-based biometrics to distinguish between humans and AI. Its token WLD has a market value of $1.03 billion in the market, indicating its potential in the context of the advent of AGI.

Worldcoin was founded by Sam Altman, former president of Y Combinator. In the current AI era, he is more widely known as the founder of OpenAI.

Every time GPT releases a new feature, it will cause a surge in the price of WLD. It can also be said that the founders AI background has brought room for thought to this Web3 coin.

• X: https://x.com/worldcoin

Zero Gravity

Zero Gravity, also known as 0 G Labs, is defined as the first modular AI chain. Its goal: to take data availability to a new level. Training AI models requires a lot of data. If our goal is to truly integrate AI on-chain, high-speed and highly scalable data availability solutions become essential. ZeroGravity aims to achieve this scalability by splitting the workflow of data availability into two channels: data publishing and data storage.

ZeroGravity (abbreviated as 0 G) completed its Pre-seed round and raised $35 million. This round of financing was led by Hack VC, with participation from well-known VCs such as Alliance, Animoca Brands, and Delphi Digtal.

• X: https://x.com/0G_labs

AIOZ Network

AIOZ Network is a comprehensive infrastructure solution for Web3 storage, decentralized AI computing, live streaming, and video on demand (VOD). AIOZ Networks dCDN platform transforms file storage and distribution in Web 3.0 dApps, providing an affordable solution for file storage and media streaming. AIOZ Networks blockchain combines the robustness of Cosmos with the compatibility of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

• X: https://x.com/AIOZNetwork

• Official website: https://aioz.network/aioz-node

Summarize

To date, Web3 projects have been struggling to find mass adoption. Most of the daily needs of users are often controlled by traditional Internet giants, and there are very few Web3 projects that can gain a foothold in direct competition with them.

AI + Web3 is considered to be a direction with high potential for success. The development of AI brings about new product forms. In this process, Web3 products can grow in a differentiated way, giving full play to the characteristics of fair, transparent and trustless blockchain technology, thus building consumer products.

REVOX is moving along this path, competing head-on with traditional giants in populous countries and establishing relative advantages, proving its product operation capabilities and that the characteristics of Web3 can be transformed into competitive advantages in product functions.

According to the roadmap, REVOX will continue to emphasize the product features brought by Web3 and strengthen the combination with AI. This includes establishing a public calling method for AI models, training proofs; localized model deployment, personal agents; consumer-side AI transactions, intent-based AI contract processing, etc. It is expected to become the AI + Web3 network with the largest user accumulation and the most real utility.