EigenLayer and Ritual Partner to Develop Next-Generation AI-Enabled DApps

Introducing EigenLayer and Ritual: The Future of AI-Powered Decentralized Applications on Ethereum

EigenLayer, the leading restaking protocol on Ethereum with the highest total value locked (TVL), has joined forces with Ritual, a community-owned AI network, to develop AI-driven decentralized applications (DApps).

Through this partnership, the goal is to integrate Ethereum-level restaking security onto the Ritual network and integrate AI capabilities into DApps, such as smart agents, AI-powered decentralized finance (DeFI) platforms, and autonomous media generation. This collaboration was announced in a press release shared with Cointelegraph.

According to EigenLayer’s founder, Sreeram Kannan, the use of crypto-economic, AI-powered coprocessors can introduce groundbreaking features to blockchain networks while also incentivizing economic growth. Kannan stated:

“Ritual is pioneering the first-ever crypto-economic AI coprocessor to unlock a new era of AI-enabled smart DApps. We are thrilled to partner with this innovative team to bring Ethereum staking security to this emerging industry and enable EigenLayer stakers and operators to contribute to a more decentralized and transparent AI ecosystem.”

Ritual Partners with AI Crypto Solutions to Boost Smart Contract Auditing

The recent partnership between Ritual and AI crypto solutions comes at a time when there is a growing interest in utilizing AI technology in the cryptocurrency industry. This was further highlighted by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s post on February 18, where he expressed his enthusiasm for AI-powered smart contract auditing as a way to address buggy code. Buterin also identified these bugs as the “biggest technical risk” for the Ethereum network.

Ritual’s first product, Infernet, aims to be the first platform that enables smart contracts to access AI models in a cost-efficient and native manner. This integration will pave the way for the development of new Actively Validated Services (AVS) that will power Ritual’s infrastructure. It will also allow EigenLayer restakers with graphics processing unit (GPU) capabilities to provide decentralized inference, fine-tuning, and proofing within the on-chain economy.

Established in 2023, Ritual boasts a network of computing devices dedicated to hosting, inference, and fine-tuning AI models. They also have an application programming interface (API) layer that ensures secure and accessible AI model usage, along with security mechanisms that guarantee computational integrity.

According to Niraj Pant, co-founder of Ritual, this new integration has the potential to unlock more efficient and AI-enabled decentralized applications (DApps). In his words, “The possibilities are endless.”

The AI-crypto market experienced a significant surge after Nvidia’s Q4 earnings report for 2023, which showed a 265% increase in revenue compared to the previous year. This caused Nvidia to surpass Tesla as the most traded stock on Wall Street in the last 30 trading sessions leading up to Feb. 22.

As a result of the earnings, the market capitalization of AI tokens rose by 11.2% in the 24 hours leading up to 1:30 pm CET on Feb. 22, reaching $25.4 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. The market cap of AI-based crypto tokens has doubled in the past month.