Wynd Network raises $3.5M from Polychain, Tribe and more for decentralized AI project

Wynd’s Grass app rewards users for helping it scrape the web and uses blockchain to verify AI models are being trained with unbiased data

article-image

Grass and Adobe modified by Blockworks

share

Polychain Capital and Tribe Capital led a $3.5 million seed round in the developer behind Grass, a decentralized web scraping network focused on the creation of decentralized AI models.

Bitscale, Big Brain, Advisors Anonymous, Typhon V, and Mozaik also took part in the seed round for Wynd Network. No Limit Holdings led a pre-seed round in December 2022. 

Grass, developed by Wynd Network, is a browser extension app that scrapes the web with individuals’ unused internet bandwidth and rewards users in so-called Grass Points. Wynd then sells its scraped datasets to companies in need of web data, including AI developers. 

The company’s model demonstrates one possible application of blockchain tech for AI development, with investors showing heightened interest in finding any overlaps between the two sectors. 

Read more: New LimeWire AI-powered music platform uses Polygon, Algorand

AI models are often trained with massive amounts of online data scraped or collected from websites. ChatGPT’s base model, for instance, was trained with petabytes of data collected by Common Crawl between 2016 and 2019. 

According to Chris Nguyen, Wynd Network’s chief technology officer, some web scrapers have run into issues whereby websites block data center IP addresses or falsify data to keep competitors from scraping them. 

By using browsers operated by individuals, Nguyen said Grass can bypass some of these roadblocks. Wynd does not have access to users’ data, Nguyen said. 

Users can earn Grass Points for running the extension and referring other users. This approach has fueled public speculation about a future token, a reflection of the appetite among decentralized protocol users today.

The Wynd team is also using blockchain to verify where its scraped data comes from. 

With off-chain models, special interests could theoretically pay web scrapers to bias the model in their favor, Nguyen argued. He said Wynd can verify its scraped data is legitimate without having to put much data on-chain. 

“There’s not a single blockchain in the world that could support a tiny fraction of the amount of data that is required to train an AI. But what we’re able to do is cryptographically link a data set to the request. To make the request itself, all I have to do is push a Merkle root on-chain,” Nguyen said.  

Wynd is working with two open source-focused AI companies and is in talks with companies outside of AI as well, according to Nguyen.

Potential use cases that merge AI and crypto have generated buzz as of late — as well as investor activity. Ritual raised $25 million to develop decentralized AI. VC juggernaut a16z crypto’s big ideas list for 2024 highlighted AI as well.

Those sentiments were echoed by Tekin Salimi, the founder of crypto investment fund dao5. 

“I think investor sentiment is generally very bullish around crypto and AI,” said Salimi. Salimi added that the recent performance of popular AI tokens like Render (RNDR) and Bittensor (TAO) — as well as the anticipation of AI emerging as a major force in the broader market — are driving investors towards startups that integrate AI and crypto.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

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.

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.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

Dragonfly’s Rob Hadick discussed how the firm is approaching investments in the current market

article-image

The asset surged over the past seven days to reach its highest-ever weekly close on the SOL/ETH pair

article-image

Industry watchers note that SOL ETFs have attracted a fraction of the demand for bitcoin and ether ETFs

article-image

Tariff swings impact stock market and company outlooks, with Apple and NVidia likely to be affected by China tariffs

article-image

The team says an attacker minted unclaimed tokens from ZKsync’s 2024 airdrop

article-image

The MIT research-based protocol is live in private testnet — laying the foundation for decentralized RAM