EigenLayer, the largest restaking protocol by total value locked (TVL) on Ethereum, has formed a partnership with Ritual, a community-owned artificial intelligence (AI) network, to develop decentralized applications (DApps) powered by AI.
A press release states that the partnership intends to implement Ethereum-level restaking security on the Ritual network and integrate AI capabilities into decentralized applications (DApps), such as intelligent agents, AI-powered decentralized finance (DeFI) applications, and autonomous media generation.
EigenLayer’s founder, Sreeram Kannan, asserts that coprocessors propelled by AI and crypto-economics can incentivize economic activity and introduce robust new functionalities to blockchain networks. Kannan composed:
To facilitate a new generation of AI-enabled smart DApps, Ritual is constructing the first crypto-economic AI coprocessor. Our collaboration with this forward-thinking group to introduce Ethereum staking security to this emerging industry and empower EigenLayer operators and stakers to contribute to a more decentralized and transparent AI ecosystem fills us with immense enthusiasm.
Following a February 18 X post by Vitalik Buterin in which he expressed his enthusiasm for AI-powered smart contract auditing, which could repair faulty code, the partnership coincides with a surge in interest in AI-powered crypto solutions. Howevererin identifies bugs as the “most significant technical risk” that the Ethereum network faces.
Ritual asserts that its inaugural product, Infernet, will pioneer how smart contracts can natively and economically access AI models. The graphics processing unit (GPU)-capable EigenLayer retakers will be able to perform decentralized inference, fine-tuning, and proving in Ritual’s on-chain economy with the assistance of newly developed Actively Validated Services (AVS) that will fuel the organization’s infrastructure.
Established in 2023, Ritual comprises a security framework to ensure computational integrity and an application programming interface (API) layer that facilitates access to AI models and a network of computing devices for hosting, inference, and fine-tuning.
Niraj Pant, co-founder of Ritual, asserts that the new integration may permit AI-enabled DApps to operate more efficiently. His writing was:
“This integration extends the power of EigenLayer to AI computation, an exciting new capability for crypto developers. We’re excited to partner with the team as the first EigenLayer AI AVS, harnessing Ethereum’s native security and capital to enable smarter AI-enabled dApps on the Ritual network.”
The AI-crypto sector experienced a substantial upswing after the release of GPU manufacturer Nvidia‘s fourth-quarter earnings report for 2023. The report highlighted a year-on-year revenue growth of 265%, enabling Nvidia to surpass Tesla as the most-traded stock on Wall Street in the 30 trading sessions preceding February 22.
According to CoinMarketCap, the market capitalization of AI tokens increased 11.2% in the twenty-four hours preceding 1:30 pm CET on February 22, following the earnings results, to $25.4 billion. The market valuation of AI-based cryptocurrency tokens has doubled in the last month.
