How rollups are secretly fueling the biggest Crypto x AI boom?

Artificial intelligence and its profound systems like GenAI, deep learning, and genetic algorithms have brought radical transformation to each industry domain that exists today. According to Statistica’s report, the AI market size is set to reach US$184.00bn by the end of 2024. 

The same level of AI disruption can be seen in the Web3 space, where Layer2 rollups are currently the hot topic. Plenty of crypto AI rollups are being built with innovative concepts and next-level features to blur the gap between AI and Web3 while also eliminating various challenges associated with centralized ecosystems. 

In this article, we will learn about some of the prominent projects that are building their crypto AI rollups. Also, we will understand how they are leveraging rollups to optimize their features and address legacy challenges. Note that these projects are based on unique concepts and have been picked based on their funding and their adoption. Let’s dive in. 

Also read: How zkRollups and FHE Rollups Tackle Privacy Challenges Differently?

Computing/storage/bandwidth 

Swanchain:  Swanchain is a DePIN infrastructure built as a Layer2 rollup chain using the OP Stack framework. The project has aggregated $3M in funding, and it has over 10M user addresses and 1M+ daily transactions as of Q1 2024.

Swanchain offers a complete package of DePIN services that AI applications can leverage for computing, storage, payments, and bandwidth– all in a purely decentralized way.  Having an OP Stack rollup provides Swanchain next-level capabilities, including:

• Cut down the computation cost by 70%.

• Zero-knowledge proof-based decentralized AI marketplaces for training and storage.’

• Scalability capacity to support AT computing resources for 100+ locations across the globe.

Intent creation:

• Op Stack allows Optopia to enhance its efficiency, security, and throughput by moving computationally intensive tasks off-chain. This also helps in reducing gas cost significantly. 

• OP Stack enables integration of Ethereum’s EIP-4844 in Optopia, allowing it to introduce “Blob” data for lowering down the costs and boosting overall network efficiency.

• Optopia also integrated with Arweave’s decentralized storage to maintain long-term data persistence and accessibility.

Optopia: Another cutting-edge crypto AI rollup is Optopia, which has raised $630K in a recent funding round despite being a new project. Optopia is a Layer2 rollup built with OP Stack to allow seamless intent creation and implementation for their specific use cases. Here are few important highlights: 

• AGI-artificial general intelligence 

Heurist-  Heurist is a Layer2 built with ZK Stack for AI hosting & interference. The network is expanding with 7,000+ registered miners and 200M image generation requests processed to date. On top of that, Heurist has raised over $2.07B funding. 

As a network dedicated to hosting & interference, Heurist offers complete server-less access to open-source AI models hosted through a decentralized network of computing resources. 

With its Ethereum-aligned nature and ZK Stack-backed features, Heurist ensures extensive accessibility and unbiased innovation while empowering users to build their scalable AI solution on its Layer2. Further, the Elastic chain concept of ZK Stack allows Heurist to offer a highly efficient smart contract execution environment optimized for ultra-low feed and top-notch privacy. 

• Infrastructure

Modulus Labs– Modulus Labs has built their sovereign ZK Specialized chain to bring the unparalleled power of AI and ML to the blockchain ecosystem. Modulus Completes $6.3 Million Funding to Integrate Cryptographic Security Into AI, building an on-chain AI System. 

By leveraging zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs, Modulus Labs makes the computation more powerful and meanwhile ensures 100% authenticity of the results. Additionally, Modulus Labs includes specialized ZK provers in their network, which makes it 1000X more capable than the legacy infrastructure. 

• Marketplace

Spectral– Spectral Labs is a decentralized zkML-based marketplace that allows users to trade AI agents instantly that are created and offered by top creators. Plus, it offers automated intelligence tools that empower everyone to build and use AI-powered secure agents for their use case-specific purposes. 

Speaking about the zkML concept, Spectral Labs uses ML to carry out various kinds of institutional decision-making. Whereas it allows the platform to mathematically verify all the information without the need to relieve the sensitive information. Together, Spectral is offering a future-proof crypto AI platform. 

• Data scraping: 

Grass layer2- Grass claims to be the first Layer2 sovereign rollup designed for AI training with structured databases. Grass has raised a $4.5M fund (latest round in Sep, 2024) and it has a rapidly growing user base of 2M+ who are benefitting from data monetization.

The core idea of Grass building a data rollup is to verify the data provenance and perform scraping operations at an extremely high throughput that can be achieved easily via rollups. The ZK processor in Grass’ sovereign rollup creates batches of metadata and processes them off-chain so that there should be a persistent lineage for each dataset produced on the network.

Other benefits Grass mentions are about combatting data poisoning, supporting open-source AI, and enabling transparency across various data models.

• Data verification & ownership:

Space and Time (SxT) is a blockchain-native AI data warehouse building a Zksync Elastic chain. The project has recently raised $20M funding, which makes a total funding of $50M as of Q3, 2024.

Space and Time introduced a decentralized alternative to indexing service, simplifying the process with a novel sub-second ZK SQL processor. Building a Hyperchain allows Space and Time to offer extremely fast and low-cost transaction processing while tapping into the below main benefits:

• Integrate SQL capabilities natively into their smart contract platform.

• Making indexed, verifiably data available to its community.

• Bring sub-second zero-knowledge proof into zkSync smart contracts.

• Match TradFi-level speed and capability.

• Offer a ZK Stack Hyperchain to work as a settlement layer and the hub for TVL. 

• Autonomous agent

Clique– STP Network is launching Clique; a Layer3 designed to enhance on-chain AI gaming. Clique is designed as an optimistic rollup chain building with OP Stack on Base. This unique concept has already attracted top investors, leading to funding of over 8 Million. 

STP has already created 2000+ creations on Base due to its unique form of digital identity system called AWNS which is powered by ERC-6551. This success has encouraged STP Network to launch a L3 on Base that will offer lower gas fees and it will work with custom parameters for optimizing the demands of today’s AI gaming use cases.

• Gaming AI Agent

AgentLayer- AgentLayer is an innovative agent-oriented crypto AI public chain created to enable seamless collaboration services and fair incentive interactions across various AI agents. Despite being a new project, AgentLayer has secured 1.5 million in funding. Agent Layer uses OP Stack for its leading-edge rollup technology while integrating EigenDA to pioneer a network that can scale endlessly and offer a robust ecosystem for multi-agent interaction. 

Morpheus- Lumerin has built its decentralized AI project, Morpheus, to avoid the challenges of centralized AI and introduce a powerful computer model with its innovative “smart agents” concept. Cryptocurrencies. The chain is live on Arbitrum, allowing users to engage with decentralized AI apps similar to ChatGPT. Built on Arbitrum, the project benefits from fast, low-cost transactions while leveraging modularity. 

• Utility-based AI agent: 

Giza: Giza is a hybrid; AI and crypto platform that allows for development and unprecedented scaling of AI and ML solutions powered by web3 and rollup technology. The project has recently secured 3M+ funding and is acquiring users really fast.

As required, Giza can be utilized to build AI-powered smart contracts, AI gaming agents, MI inference, and other innovative use cases. The Giza platform is deployed and managed on top of StarkNet ZK-rollup solution and hence it is capable of handling increasing traffic load, ensuring high availability with zero downtime, performance, fault tolerance, and instant application deployment.  Further, Giza will soon implement L3 to achieve next-level hyperscaling, robustness, and privacy.

• Identity verification

Worldcoin’s World chain – Worldcoin; the super innovative and widely crypto AI project with a whopping $240M funding, is now building Layer2 called World Chain designed to be human-centric. World chain is open for everyone and is home to more than 5 Million verified holders of World ID.

The L2 chain will serve as a network that offers human-focused identity verification and privacy-preserving systems. Additionally, its focus on proof of personhood” makes a range of potential AI use cases possible with AI proliferation.

World chain is built with OP Stack, and it’s aligned with Etereum and the Superchain ecosystem to sync up with thousands of projects built on them. Further, OP stack optimizes the World chain for faster processing, massive scalability, and cheaper fees/gasless transactions.

Humanity Protocol– Finally, there’s Humanity Protocol, a zkEVM Layer2 that has raised around $1 billion funding and it has a massive user base. The network blends AI with the power of blockchain to tackle human-centric identity challenges. 

More specifically, Humanity Protocol offers an AI-powered palm recognition technology that replaces the traditional biometric system with a privacy-preserving option. Zero-knowledge rollups allow Humanity Protocol to bolster user privacy and secure identity verification, while Polygon CDK enables enhanced scalability and efficiency to ensure the network performs & scales as required.

• Security: 

Zircuit L2- Zircuit is a fully EVM-compatible security-focused rollup Layer2 built using OP Stack and zero knowledge tech. This allows Zircuit to leverage modularity and maturity of the stack from OP Stack while offering fast finality and security through zero knowledge. Integrated with AI-enabled security, Zircuit leverages the latest rollup technology to offer a highly secure, cost-optimized, and fast transactions offering infrastructure. 

Within just six months of launch, Zircuit Layer2 successfully attracted $3.4B on its protocol from prominent investors like LayerZero, Etherfi, Renzo, Pendle, Parallel, Axelar, and F2Pool. To date, Zircuit has over 72 projects building on it, including from top-categories like DeFi, Social, Infrastructure, tooling, wallet, and more. 

MyShell Layer2– MyShell is an AI consumer layer designed to connect users, creators, and diverse open-source AI models on a decentralized, highly-scalable network powered by OP Stack. The project has successfully raised &16.6M funds and is excited to launch its testnet soon. Tapping into OP Stack’s modular rollup stack, MyShell is offering extremely low-cost, high-throughput, and Ethereum-inherited security for all the dApps and AI protocols built with it. 

Note: Information related to project’s funding are validated from prominent platforms like Crunchbase and Tracxn.

Based on our discussion and navigation into various projects, it’s clear that crypto AI rollups are growing very fast. Hence, we expect a two-fold cryptoXAI boom in the next few years across all domains. If you are planning to build a crypto AI project or you want to migrate your existing AI project to web3, Zeeve is ready to assist. Our RaaS stack is optimized for all types of leading rollups and their frameworks like OP Stack, Arbitrum Orbit, ZK Stack, and Polygon CDK. Additionally, you can set up a mainnet-ready testnet on the Zeeve RaaS platform. 

For more information, Zeeve RaaS or our blockchain-related services, connect with our experts. You can either send an email or schedule a one-to-one call for a detailed discussion.