AI Layer 1: A New Wave of Reshaping AI Infrastructure

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, traditional blockchain architectures can no longer meet the demands of AI applications for high-performance computing and complex data processing. This has led to the rise of Layer 1 blockchain platforms optimized specifically for AI, which exhibit diversification in terms of technical architecture, application scenarios, and business models.

This article provides an in-depth analysis of five leading AI Layer 1 projects: Bittensor, Vana, Kite AI, Nillion, and Sahara AI.

Bittensor: Building a Decentralized AI Network Infrastructure

Bittensor, as a pioneer in the blockchain AI field, is committed to building an open decentralized artificial intelligence collaboration network. Its goal is to break down the centralized barriers in traditional AI development, allowing more participants to contribute and share profits together.

Bittensor adopts a dual-layer architecture design:

• Root Network (Mainnet): Responsible for the coordination, verification, and token management of the entire system.
• Subnet Ecosystem: Developing specialized solutions for specific AI application scenarios

This design allows Bittensor to balance the overall stability of the network with the specialization in various fields, providing a flexible infrastructure for the development of decentralized AI.

Ecological Development Progress

• The number of subnets has been expanded to over 64, covering various AI application scenarios such as text generation, trading signals, and data labeling.
• The number of active users has reached 140,000, doubling compared to the same period last year.
• The total market valuation of the subnet exceeds 100 million USD, with a daily trading volume maintained at around 45 million USD.
• Institutional participation has significantly increased

The recent dTAO (dynamic TAO) system upgrade completed by Bittensor is an important innovation in its economic model. This upgrade optimizes the distribution mechanism of the TAO token, shifting from reliance on validators' subjective judgments to a more market-oriented distribution mechanism, allowing resources to flow more precisely to subnetworks that truly possess competitiveness.

The most active subnets currently include:

• Subnet 4 Targon: Focused on AI inference services for text generation
• Subnet 64 Chutes: Provides API interfaces for various LLMs
• Subnet 8 PTN: Focused on the financial sector, generating trading signals
• Subnet 52 Dojo: Focused on Data Annotation

Vana: Reconstructing Personal Data Sovereignty and Value

The Vana project focuses on addressing core issues in today's digital economy: ownership of personal data and value distribution. It establishes an ecosystem where users truly own and control their own data while being able to derive economic benefits from it.

As an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain network, Vana's technical architecture consists of five core components:

1. Data Liquidity Layer: Achieves the incentive, aggregation, and verification of data assets through the data liquidity pool.
2. Data Portability Layer: Ensure that user data can be easily transferred between different applications and AI models.
3. Universal Connection Group: Tracking real-time data flow within the entire ecosystem
4. Non-custodial data storage: Users choose the storage location themselves, ensuring complete control over their data.
5. Application Ecosystem: Developers can utilize the accumulated data to build innovative applications, and data contributors receive dividend rewards.

Latest Development Trends

• In February 2025, YZi Labs secured strategic investment, and Binance founder CZ joined as an advisor.
• Ecological construction encompasses data projects in multiple fields, including Finquarium, GPT Data DAO, Reddit Data DAO, and so on.
• Recently organized a hackathon during Eth Denver to encourage developers to build DataDAO and AI applications based on Vana data.

Kite AI: Technical Breakthrough of AI-Native Public Chain

Kite AI is a native Layer 1 blockchain project focused on the AI field, built on the Avalanche framework. It proposes four core technological innovations:

1. PoAI Consensus Mechanism: A system of on-chain verifiable contribution records that accurately tracks the value contributions of data, models, and AI agents.
2. Composable AI Subnet: Supports developers to build industry-specific AI collaboration ecosystems on demand.
3. AI Native Execution Layer: Specifically designed to handle AI computing tasks such as inference, embedding, and fine-tuning/training.
4. Decentralized Data Engine: Ensuring that data creators receive fair rewards in the AI workflow.

Development Status

• Launch of the incentive testnet on February 6, 2025, the first AI-native Layer 1 sovereign blockchain testnet.
• Less than 70 hours after the test went online, the number of connected wallets exceeded 100,000.
• The project is built by an experienced Silicon Valley team, with core members from top tech companies and universities.
• Secured investments from top institutions such as General Catalyst, Hashed, Hashkey, and Samsung Next.
• Establish technical cooperation with Eigenlayer, Sui, Avalanche, AWS, etc.

Nillion: Pioneering Exploration in Privacy Computing

Nillion redefines the way sensitive data is processed through its unique "blind computation" technology. Its core advantage lies in the integration of various cutting-edge privacy protection technologies:

• Multi-party computation ( MPC )
• Fully Homomorphic Encryption ( FHE )
• Zero-Knowledge Proof ( ZKP )
• Nada Language: A domain-specific language designed for creating secure MPC programs.

The network architecture of Nillion consists of three main layers: the processing layer, the coordination layer, and the connection layer.

Latest development progress

• The mainnet is scheduled to launch in March 2025
• Completed $25 million financing in October 2024, with a total financing amount reaching $45 million.
• Establish integrated relationships with multiple mainstream public chains such as NEAR Protocol, Aptos, Arbitrum, Mantle, and Sei.
• In terms of the AI ecosystem, establish partnerships with projects like Ritual, Crush AI, Skillful AI, Virtuals Protocol, etc.

Sahara AI: A platform for building a new economy of AI assets

Sahara AI aims to build a "human-AI collaboration network" that allows ordinary users, developers, and enterprises to participate in the creation, deployment, and monetization of AI assets. The project has secured $43 million in funding led by Binance Labs, Polychain Capital, and Pantera Capital.

The platform's technical architecture consists of three key components:

1. Sahara Blockchain
2. AI Infrastructure
3. Sahara AI Marketplace

latest development process

• The Beta version of the first phase data service platform will be launched in December 2024 for testing.
• Launch of the second phase of the testnet in February 2025
• The public testnet named "SIWA" will be launched on March 10, 2025.
• Launch of the incubator program on March 1, 2025, supporting AI x Web3 innovative projects

Sahara AI has announced its roadmap for 2024-2025, which includes key milestones such as the data service platform, AI Marketplace, Sahara Studio toolkit, and Sahara Chain mainnet.

Summary

AI Layer 1 is currently in a critical stage of rapid evolution, reconstructing the underlying architecture of AI technology through decentralized infrastructure. These platforms are breaking through the limitations of traditional centralized AI systems, building a more open, transparent, and efficient technological ecosystem. In the future, this sector will continue to drive technological innovation and promote the development of artificial intelligence towards a more decentralized and collaborative direction.