Decentralized AI platform Ritual lands $25M in seed funding

The Ritual platform is set to launch in early 2024

article-image

Thongden Studio/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Decentralized AI platform Ritual came out of stealth after securing $25 million in a seed funding round led by Archetype. 

Accomplice and Robot Ventures also participated in the funding round. 

Ritual is the brainchild of Web3 investor Niraj Pant, who funded projects like EigenLayer and Solana, and Akilesh Potti, quant and then builder at data analytics company Palantir. 

Over the past year, AI companies have witnessed significant growth that offers new experiences, products and a new source of revenue, Pant said. Although this may be the case, there are also significant problems taking place.

“Models are owned and run on centralized APIs hosted by a few corporations, who are bad at transparency, proving computational integrity and providing data privacy,” he said. “Decentralized AI is a response to this increasing centralization of AI.”

Read more: Bit Digital to capitalize on AI as secondary revenue source

Cryptographic advances can guarantee user integrity, improve privacy and minimize censorship resistance in AI, Pant explains. 

Decentralization brings the best of Web3 principles — transparency, open-source, privacy and integrity —  to AI, ensuring a more open, universally accessible future of this critical technology,” he said. 

Ritual will enable Web3 companies to offer computational, on-chain proof of interactions with AI models. In Web2, the platform can enable companies in healthcare, for example, to use AI to handle sensitive financial and health information of their customers. 

Pant notes that Ritual will be able to achieve this by using zero-knowledge (zk) proof technology and Optimistic Machine Learning (OPML), which can ensure that computational integrity is upheld. It will also offer more access options around graphics processing units (GPUs) used for image processing.

“By using Ritual’s platform of GPUs, computational integrity verification, and data privacy layer — a healthcare website can create an open ledger of transparency for their AI use,” he said.

Ritual’s platform plans to launch in early 2024, and is currently looking for developers across enterprise and Web3 to join its team.

Updated Nov. 9, 2023 at 9:55 am ET: Clarified that OPML refers to Optimistic Machine Learning rather than Outline Processor Markup Language.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template Presentation.jpg

Research

The Solana validator landscape has changed drastically over the past year. The chain now has 1,332 active validators with 380.9 million SOL staked (63.9% of supply) as of February 2025. Validator revenue had diversified beyond inflationary rewards (still making up 55%) to include Jito tips (30%), priority fees (24%), and base fees (<1%), in January, especially with the increased activity on Solana. Since then, issuance has become dominant again (76%), while Jito tips (14%), priority fees (9%), and base fees (less than 1%) have reduced in share of February 2025. There has been a strong shift towards non-inflationary revenue sources, which have become more central to validator economics as priority fees and off-chain blockspace auctions gain traction. Client diversity has also improved drastically, with implementations such as Agave, Jito-Solana, and Frankendancer already in use, and upcoming clients like Firedancer and Sig expected to further strengthen resilience and reduce reliance on a single codebase.

article-image

BWR analyst Carlos Gonzalez Campo explains the consequences of SOL inflation and transfers lost to “leaky buckets”

article-image

Empire co-host Santiago Santos makes the case that memecoins have actually helped push infra forward…just not in the way you think

article-image

A16z Crypto lists seven buckets for tokens and recommendations for how to regulate them, in a filing submitted to the SEC

article-image

New model aims to resolve trading inefficiencies with a single execution layer and market maker changes

article-image

Investors navigating BTC face short-term unpredictability, influence from other markets

article-image

The GENIUS Act aims to establish regulatory guidelines for stablecoins