Author: Zen, PANews
As one of this year's most anticipated AI-native public chain projects, Sahara AI has captured significant market attention since its launch. From securing investment from top-tier funds and achieving an 8.7x oversubscription on BuidlPad, to its immediate listing on multiple leading exchanges—particularly its strong debut on Korea's Upbit, where trading volume briefly surged to second place, trailing only BTC and XRP—the market's high expectations for Sahara are clear.
Sahara is not just a key player in the AI × Web3 space; it's emerging as a critical anchor point in the narrative around next-generation infrastructure. In this exclusive interview, we invited Tyler, Co-Founder of Sahara AI, to address the community's most pressing questions.
AI × Web3 Must Be Built on Real Needs
PANews: Many recognize Sahara as a decentralized AI project with a world-class team, having raised $43 million from backers like Polychain, Binance Labs, and Pantera Capital. The recent token launch also secured support from top global exchanges including Binance, OKX, and Upbit. What do you think is the core reason behind Sahara's broad recognition?
Tyler: I believe Sahara's success so far isn't about hype or capital—it's because we've been anchored in a genuine, structural need from day one.
We've always asked ourselves: If AI is the future, what should its infrastructure look like? Who builds it? And who gets to participate? Today, most AI projects focus on the application layer—bringing AI to Web3. Sahara tackles a more fundamental question: Can Web3 serve as both the gateway for participation and the mechanism for value distribution in the AI era?
Our answer is clear: Not only can we do it—we must be the ones to do it.
AI's value distribution can't remain concentrated in the hands of a few large model platforms forever. If AI becomes as foundational as the internet, we need a more open, fair, and sustainable architecture. That's Sahara's mission: to solve a structural problem we believe will inevitably demand a solution.
We're not just "adding AI to Web3." We're building a comprehensive, system-level operational platform from the ground up, purpose-built for AI. Using a chain-native architecture, we enable on-chain provenance, invocation, and revenue sharing for AI—transforming a closed, centralized system into an open network where everyone can participate, build, and share value.
That's why we're currently the only AI Layer-1 project to launch simultaneously on OKX, Binance, Upbit, and Bithumb. It's not because we're riding a trend—it's because, at the infrastructure level, we're tackling a genuinely hard and fundamentally important problem.
PANews: The market is full of AI-related projects. How does Sahara's positioning and strategy differ? What do you see as Sahara's biggest highlight or core strategic advantage in the Web3 AI space?
Tyler: Many projects treat Web3 as just a fundraising channel and AI as a marketing buzzword—but that was never our approach. We care about this: As AI becomes a new technological paradigm, what role can Web3 play?
On how Web3 supports AI—I'd argue it's actually AI that empowers Web3 to become what it was always meant to be.
We've spent considerable time studying how AI works: how models are trained, how data is used, and how value flows back to contributors. Connecting these dots reveals a reality: today's Web3 still lacks a true underlying system capable of supporting AI collaboration at scale.
So we started from scratch—designing a complete asset lifecycle system covering "Data → Model → Agent → Revenue." Every stage enables provenance, invocation, traceability, and revenue sharing, with all value flows tracked and incentivized through on-chain logic.
Think of it as a "universal operating system" for high-frequency collaboration among AI developers, contributors, and users. And this system isn't theoretical—it's natively embedded into our L1 blockchain from the start, built specifically for high-throughput, complex AI interactions.
To draw an analogy: Ethereum enabled us to build a financial system on-chain—wallets, DEXs, governance protocols. Sahara does the same, but for the entire AI supply chain. Our strategic position is clear: to become the Web3 infrastructure for the AI era. That's Sahara's positioning—and our core strategic advantage.
Daily Active Users Top 1.4 Million—AI Collaboration in Action
PANews: The SIWA testnet has delivered impressive results: over 3.2 million accounts, along with notable improvements in data labeling, task completion rates, and accuracy. How do you assess the value of these milestones for Sahara's decentralized AI infrastructure?
Tyler: For us, SIWA is more than a "testnet"—it's a systemic validation: Does the on-chain AI collaboration model we designed actually work? The answer is yes, and it's exceeded our expectations.
SIWA now hosts over 3.2 million wallets and 1.4 million daily active users. What excites us most is that these users are actively contributing—not just observing. Over 200,000 community data contributors are completing labeling, verification, and interaction tasks directly on-chain, with millions more awaiting whitelisting. This reveals the early shape of a fully functional AI resource collaboration network.
This outcome validates a core insight: AI collaboration isn't theoretical—it's a real, existing need that has lacked proper infrastructure. Web3's greatest value lies in its ability to establish new order for multi-role, multi-round, high-frequency collaboration.
If SIWA marks our first step in validating on-chain collaboration, the next critical phase is fully "closing the loop" across the entire AI value cycle. In late June, we launched public betas for both the AI Agent Builder and the AI Marketplace—one lets anyone create and publish AI Agents, and the other allows those Agents to be invoked, authorized, and monetized.
Think of it as the early-stage App Store and economic engine for decentralized AI. The foundation is Sahara's full-stack, chain-native architecture. Looking ahead, we'll integrate features like revenue-sharing, on-chain task execution, and composable trading—ensuring the entire system operates sustainably.
For us, these milestones are more than just successes; they're the first concrete proof that decentralized AI is viable. Our goal is to empower everyone to participate in AI, contribute to it, and capture real value from it. Sahara is making that vision a reality.
PANews: Sahara offers a richer product suite and stronger product-market fit than many other public blockchains. Its three-layer architecture is often called a novel "AI-native chain" paradigm. Can you explain how this design supports the platform's evolution in performance, governance, and ecosystem growth? And if AI agents or applications see mass adoption, where will Sahara's scalability shine?
Tyler: AI is inherently collaborative and composition-driven. You can't just deploy it like a smart contract and expect it to run. It involves a complex workflow—data upload, model training, inference calls, revenue tracking—each step requiring provenance, privacy, and multi-party collaboration. This places exceptional demands on the underlying blockchain's performance, composability, and verifiability.
That's why we built a three-layer architecture: the foundational Infrastructure Layer, the middle Application Layer, and the top Ecosystem Coordination Layer.
The Infrastructure Layer is our mainnet, enhanced with TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) and on-chain smart contracts. It registers data, models, and Agents, establishing provenance while ensuring privacy and security during execution. Think of it as a "trusted registry and operational engine" that answers core questions: Who owns AI assets? How are they used? How is revenue shared?
The Application Layer is where we've moved fastest. It hosts the AI Agent Builder, Data Service Platform (DSP), and AI Marketplace. Here, developers can upload data, build and train models, compose third-party components for new functions—then trade, use, and monetize them directly. Our approach is practical: let developers go from zero to a working AI Agent quickly, without wrestling with fragmented tools.
The Ecosystem Coordination Layer is the most forward-looking and the source of our network effects. It's not just tech; it's a connective tissue. Web3 protocols, Web2 apps, compute providers, and AI creators can all plug into Sahara via standard interfaces. Each plays a distinct role and shares in the rewards, creating a self-sustaining AI collaboration economy. In short, this layer lays the groundwork for the entire ecosystem.
To answer your question on scalability: we believe that whether AI apps come from Web2 or Web3, their underlying assets will eventually need a blockchain for registration, tracking, and settlement. The more apps deployed and the more complex their compositions, the more valuable Sahara becomes. We didn't build this system for one app; we built it to power an entire AI network. Think of us as the "operating system" for the AI world: anyone can build, compose, and run models—and share in the value created. Once such a system gains traction, it grows organically: the more it's used, the stronger it gets. We're just starting, but the early signs are there: a growing number of AI developers, model platforms, and even enterprise data teams are building on-chain AI products through Sahara, creating real compounding effects.
What we're seeing isn't just short-term user growth; it's the beginning of a long-term, decade-spanning dependency the entire AI industry will develop on blockchains. Our mission is to build that foundation.
Next Step: Building a Truly "Usable AI Collaboration Network"
PANews: Over the next 3–6 months, many are watching to see what new products or partnerships Sahara will unveil, demonstrating tangible progress in decentralized AI. Can you preview some key highlights?
Tyler: Our roadmap for the coming months is clear: product launches, strategic partnerships, and mainnet release. We're bringing this system to life step-by-step to establish a truly "usable AI collaboration network."
Let me highlight two core modules we launched by the end of June: the AI Agent Builder and the AI Marketplace. They let users build, deploy, and launch AI Agents without coding—just drag-and-drop components, invoke models, and go live, all fully on-chain. There's no need to go to GitHub or Hugging Face to download datasets or models; we've modularized and integrated them directly. In short, anyone can start building an AI app the moment they open Sahara.
This is just the beginning. In July, our priority is to "close the loop" by launching monetization features: model invocation, API licensing, revenue sharing, and License NFTs will all go live. Users will be able to leverage AI assets and earn revenue through interaction—addressing a key concern for early adopters: how models and data become tradable assets that circulate within the ecosystem.
At the same time, we'll open our Data Service Platform (DSP) from whitelist-only to a full public beta, accessible to everyone. From that point on, anyone can build on and benefit from Sahara.
This fall, our mainnet launches, formally closing the economic loop. All on-chain activities—asset registration, model invocation, revenue distribution, user interactions—will be immutably recorded. The $SAHARA token will be officially activated as the core utility token, used for invoking AI assets, paying fees, earning licensing royalties, and participating in governance.
Beyond products, we'll announce key ecosystem partnerships—like opening APIs to broader AI tooling ecosystems, integrating with developer platforms for unified entry points, enabling seamless model circulation, and onboarding enterprise partners for collaborative data and model projects. Envision Sahara not just as a tech platform, but as a continuously evolving, next-generation AI collaboration ecosystem.
We're evolving Sahara from a "blockchain + platform" into a comprehensive, large-scale system that can sustain the entire AI development ecosystem. In the future, you'll see diverse roles—developers, data annotators, model authors, platform integrators, and end-users—all finding their place. We're building both the collaborative framework and the closed-loop economic model for them.
PANews: Sahara consistently emphasizes data provenance and turning data into assets. How will the true value of on-chain data be unlocked in the future? Could this become a key commercial driver? Also, with many projects pursuing similar AI data-provenance solutions, what makes Sahara stand out?
Tyler: We believe data shouldn't be a disposable, one-time commodity, but a persistent, value-generating asset. Just as real estate can be leased or creative works licensed, data can be repeatedly invoked, composed, and used to train new models or Agents.
Our goal is to solve a deeper problem: data must not only have provenance but also be usable—and continuously monetizable. A user's uploaded dataset shouldn't be discarded after one use; it should be invoked repeatedly, contribute to training, spawn new use cases, and even be composed by other developers. When all this happens on-chain, the data's entire usage path is transparently and immutably recorded, enabling automated, fair revenue distribution. This goes beyond mere provenance; it creates a genuinely fluid "data economy."
Our Data Service Platform (DSP) is the gateway to this ecosystem. It allows you to participate in tasks and earn rewards, but more importantly, it transforms your data into a verifiable, reusable, and licensable on-chain asset. Our native blockchain, combined with invocation-layer logic, ensures the complete usage history of this data is permanently recorded.
So, what sets us apart from other data ownership projects? The key difference is focus. While others concentrate on proving "who owns the data," we prioritize "how to use it" and "how to monetize it." Their question is "Whose data is this?" Ours is "How do we unlock its value—and ensure it grows over time?"
This is where we see the greatest commercial potential. For enterprises, it means no more piecing together data from multiple platforms and tools. We offer one-stop integration, pricing, and licensing. For individuals, data shifts from being something you merely consume to becoming a source of ongoing income. As this system gains adoption, it will become the most stable growth engine for our entire ecosystem.
That's why I often say data isn't just Sahara's entry point—it's the cornerstone of our business model. It's the underlying logic that allows us to build a sustainable AI ecosystem for the long term, and a core competitive advantage that distinguishes us from other Web3 AI projects.
Sustainable Incentives: Powering Value Cycles Through Real Usage
PANews: A major market concern right now is the sustainability of incentive models after a token generation event (TGE). From your perspective, how has Sahara designed its economic system and incentives to ensure long-term viability and create a genuine win-win for both users and the project?
Tyler: This is a challenge every Web3 project must face. Early user acquisition through subsidies is unsustainable once the hype dies down. Sahara's approach is simple: we reject artificial growth and focus on "real usage." Our incentive design starts with a basic premise: if no one uses the system, it has no value. But as long as it's actively used, value must continuously flow to participants.
Therefore, incentives are tied directly to usage and contribution. Our ecosystem supports diverse roles: everyday users, data contributors, Agent builders, enterprises, and model developers. Each can find a meaningful place, not just as consumers but as earners.
For instance, regular users can participate in data labeling tasks, interact with AI Agents, or contribute community content. This isn't about farming leaderboards; it's about actions that genuinely provide data, feedback, and content to the platform. If your activity creates value, the system records it and rewards you accordingly.
For developers, we offer a full toolchain. You can upload models, deploy them, set revenue-sharing terms, license them through our Marketplace, and earn royalties. Your uploaded content can also be reused by others, creating compound returns. At a higher level, enterprise users and compute providers—more B2B-focused participants—also find viable commercial opportunities.
Notably, individuals can wear multiple hats. You could be both a data contributor and an AI asset deployer, and even refer others to use your model. The more you engage, the more roles you can play, and the more diversified your income streams become. This "composite identity" reward structure is fundamental to our sustainable design.
Ultimately, our goal is straightforward: every genuine interaction, transaction, or collaboration should automatically trigger value redistribution. As long as the system is actively used, incentives keep flowing. This logic doesn't rely on subsidies for momentum; it's powered by internal, self-reinforcing cycles within the ecosystem. We believe this represents the most viable and healthy path forward for the convergence of Web3 and AI.
PANews: How do you see the future relationship between AI Layer 1s and traditional public blockchains in terms of ecosystem positioning? Is Sahara filling a gap, restructuring existing paradigms, or pioneering an entirely new track?
Tyler: We see AI Layer 1s and traditional public blockchains not as competitors, but as complementary systems evolving together—each serving a distinct purpose. Traditional chains excel at handling financial transactions, DeFi, NFTs, and other general-purpose assets. AI Layer 1s, however, are emerging to meet a specific, massive, and foreseeable demand: managing the provenance, incentivization, trading, and collaborative orchestration of AI assets.
AI assets and their dynamics are fundamentally different from traditional crypto assets. They include not just static assets like data, models, and Agents, but also vast amounts of runtime logs, behavioral traces, and collaborative logic. This requires a native blockchain environment built for clean architecture, verifiable execution, and sustained incentives. We're not building to compete with traditional chains, but to create a platform for organic collaboration among data contributors, model developers, Agent builders, compute providers, and end-users—precisely where existing infrastructure falls short for AI-native needs.
Of course, this system is exceptionally complex—far more so than current public chains. It must guarantee data privacy while ensuring verifiability; support intricate interaction logic while maintaining efficiency; and provide every participant with clear pathways for revenue-sharing and rights assertion. The challenges are immense, but we firmly believe this work is both worthwhile and urgently needed.
In that sense, Sahara isn't just "filling a gap" or "restructuring" existing frameworks. We're advancing a completely new systems paradigm: the AI-native blockchain. This isn't an extension of an existing track; it's foundational infrastructure for a new kind of collaborative network. We envision this network as open, co-built, cross-chain, inclusive, and perpetually self-reinforcing.
PANews: As a leading Web3 AI project, how do you view the broader AI sector's development trajectory? What do you see as the greatest opportunities and the biggest challenges ahead?
Tyler: AI is rapidly evolving from a specialized tool into an indispensable part of daily life for everyone. Just as the internet and smartphones became universal infrastructure, we firmly believe that soon, every individual will have their own personalized AI model or Agent to assist with daily tasks—an essential utility. This is the trend we are most confident about.
However, realizing this vision requires solving three critical challenges: First, empowering individuals to control and deploy their own AI. Second, safeguarding data and interaction privacy while ensuring transparency. Third, building a fair, open, and sustainable economic system.
These three points define Sahara's core mission. We're not just assembling a toolkit; we're building an operating system for the future, empowering all users, developers, researchers, and enterprises to create, use, and profit from AI. We believe the greatest opportunity in Web3 + AI is enabling a completely new mode of value creation: an open, collaborative, and universally accessible AI network.
Sahara's role can be understood through three analogies:
We are the "decentralized AI AWS," providing the foundational compute, storage, invocation, and incentive infrastructure that powers the entire Web3 AI world;
We are the "Tesla of the AI world," fundamentally changing how AI assets are created, deployed, and collaborated on—through transparent, verifiably owned, and tradable mechanisms.
We are also the "App Store for AI Agents," empowering developers to publish quickly and users to access agents freely—fostering an ecosystem with strong distribution and sustainable business models.
Yet the greatest challenge lies in this very complexity: we must ensure both stability and security while making the system intuitive and accessible. It must scale to support millions of users and applications to truly become the launchpad for AI and Web3 convergence. We believe this vision deserves long-term commitment—and Sahara is taking that first step.