Today, we’re excited to welcome Polychain as a new investor in Ritual. This new investment marks both a significant step forward in our mission to decentralize AI and the continuation of an old friendship.
AI x Crypto represents one of the most exciting new areas for crypto technologists, with a near infinite design space for AI-enabled protocols to be built on top. Ritual is building a sovereign chain for AI, allowing developers to seamlessly build dApps that connect to AI models, thanks to a custom-built VM for AI operations, alongside friendly onchain semantics with proofs and incentives. Dozens of developers are already building with our first phase, Infernet, a decentralized oracle network (DON) that allows smart contracts to natively access AI models for a variety of on-chain use cases and tasks.
Old Friends, New Horizons
This announcement is not just any old investment announcement; it’s a reunion. Many members of the Ritual team have had the privilege of working alongside the brilliant minds at Polychain in the past. This long-dated history has created a strong friendship and mutual respect between our teams, making this partnership a natural progression of our relationship.
Our strong bond allows us to seamlessly align our goals and work collaboratively towards our shared vision. Our familiarity with Polychain’s values, approach, and expertise ensures a synergy that will undoubtedly propel us forward in our mission. We are excited to continue this journey with a partner who feels like family and shares our commitment to decentralizing AI.
We’re thrilled to be able to partner with Polychain again and work closely with the team on initiatives across research, strategy, ecosystem, and more.
From Thesis to Synthesis
Polychain’s track record of backing groundbreaking projects in the crypto space makes them an ideal partner for us. They’ve been early to many new technological trends in the crypto space, including AI.
We have a shared vision for accelerating the adoption of cryptocurrency, particularly focusing on new technologies and their emergent use cases. Many of our early ecosystem partners, including EigenLayer, Celestia, and more to be announced, are also Polychain portfolio companies. These factors made partnering with them a no-brainer. Their expertise and network will be invaluable as we continue to grow and refine Ritual.
What This Means for Our Community
This partnership is more than just a financial milestone; it’s a vote of confidence in our technology, our team, and our community. Here’s what you can expect moving forward:
Enhanced Product Development: We’ll be working with Polychain’s in-house and in-network researchers and engineers alike to accelerate product development efforts and bring new features around cryptographic primitives, mechanism design, and protocol design to the Ritual network.
Expansion: Both Ritual and Polychain have been globally distributed from day one. We’ll be working with the Polychain team to continue to bring Ritual into new markets around the globe and use their network to significantly expand the team
Community Growth: We’re committed to growing our community and fostering an ecosystem where AI can be community-owned and operated. We plan to work with Polychain and draw on their past experience building communities for other blue-chip protocols to significantly increase our footprint globally, with best-in-class events, hackathons, and meetups all around the world.
Conclusion
We want to extend our deepest gratitude to our partners, developers, investors, and community who have supported us on this journey thus far. Your belief in our vision has been the driving force behind our progress. We also want to express our appreciation to the Polychain team for their trust and support.
As we embark on this new chapter, we’re filled with excitement for the possibilities that lie ahead. We’re more committed than ever to our mission and to delivering value to our community. Stay tuned for updates as we continue to build and grow.
At Ritual, our mission to decentralize AI is expanding, and we’re just getting started. We pride ourselves on technical excellence and innovation at the intersection of crypto and AI to push the industry forward. We’re actively hiring for new Ritualists to join the team across a variety of roles, and contribute to the development of our sovereign chain for AI. If you’re drawn to our mission, learn more here.
Follow us on Twitter or join the community on Discord to stay up to date with our progress and updates. To learn how to develop an application or run a node on Ritual, check out our documentation here.
Disclaimer
This post is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment and should not be used in the evaluation of the merits of making any investment decision. It should not be relied upon for accounting, legal or tax advice or investment recommendations. The information in this post should not be construed as a promise or guarantee in connection with the release or development of any future products, services or digital assets. This post reflects the current opinions of the authors and is not made on behalf of Ritual or its affiliates and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Ritual, its affiliates or individuals associated with Ritual. All information in this post is provided without any representation or warranty of any kind. The opinions reflected herein are subject to change without being updated.