EigenLayer And Ritual Partner To Build AI-Based Decentralized Apps

EigenLayer, Ethereum's largest restaking protocol (photo: x @eigenlayer)

JAKARTA - EigenLayer, Ethereum's largest restaking protocol based on total locked value (TVL), has partnered with a network of artificial intelligence (AI) owned by the community, Ritual, to build decentralized applications (DApps) supported by artificial intelligence.

The partnership aims to introduce Ethereum level restaking security on the Ritual network and bring artificial intelligence capabilities to DApps, including smart agents, decentralized financial apps (DeFI) supported by artificial intelligence, and automatic media generation.

According to Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer, crypto-economy, artificial intelligence-based coprocessors can introduce powerful new functionality to blockchain networks while encouraging economic incentives.

The ritual is building a coprocessor of the first crypto-economic artificial intelligence to open a new generation of smart DApps activated by artificial intelligence. We are excited to partner with this innovative team to bring Ethereum staking security to this new space and allow stakeholders and EigenLayer operators to help drive a more decentralized and transparent artificial intelligence ecosystem," Kannan said.

This partnership comes during an increased interest in artificial intelligence crypto solutions following X's post on February 18 by Vitalik Buterin detailing the excitement of Ethereum founders towards smart contract checks backed by artificial intelligence, which could fix problematic codes. Buterin identified the bug as the "largest technical risk" of the Ethereum network.

According to Ritual, its first product, Infernet, will be the first to enable smart contracts to efficiently access artificial intelligence models in cost and naturally. This integration will develop a new Actively Validated Service (AVS) to drive the Ritual infrastructure and enable EigenLayer stakeholders capable of using graphical processing units (GPUs) to serve their inference, tuning, and decentralized proof in the on-chain economy.

Founded in 2023, Ritual includes a network of computing devices for hosting, inference, and tuning artificial intelligence models, as well as an application programming interface layer, or API, for accessibility of artificial intelligence models and security mechanisms to ensure computational integrity.

According to Niraj Pant, co-founder of the Ritual, this new integration could enable more efficient DApps and powered by artificial intelligence.

This integration extends EigenLayer's power to artificial intelligence computing, a new capability of interest to crypto developers. We are excited to partner with the team as EigenLayer's first AVS artificial intelligence, leveraging Ethereum's original security and capital to enable smarter DApps and powered by artificial intelligence in the Ritual network," Pant said.

The AI-crypto sector experienced a significant spike after the fourth quarter 2023 revenue report of GPU producer Nvidia, which showed an increase in revenue by 265% year-on-year, saw Nvidia shift Tesla as the most traded stock on Wall Street in the last 30 trading sessions towards February 22.

Following revenue, AI token market cap increased 11.2% in 24 hours towards 13:30 Central European Time on February 22, to 25.4 billion US dollars (Rp397.3 trillion), according to CoinMarketCap. AI-based crypto tokens have doubled in market cap over the past month.