Sahara AI: Build the "Decentralized Ethereum" in the AI field

1. Project Introduction

1. Project Basic Information

Sahara AI is a full-stack, AI-native decentralized blockchain platform. Its core vision is to break the current AI landscape dominated by a few large tech companies and build an open AI collaborative economy driven by a global community, where contributions can be accurately traced and profits can be fairly distributed.

The fundamental mission of the project is to provide transparent attribution, complete ownership control, and efficient on-chain monetization channels for AI assets (including datasets, models, and agents) through blockchain technology. Essentially, Sahara AI is committed to becoming the "Ethereum of the AI field," providing a secure and reliable underlying infrastructure for the next generation of decentralized AI applications, ultimately returning the ownership and value of data and AI innovations to every creator and contributor.

2. Project Development History

Early 2023: The project officially launched, with the initial idea of creating exclusive "knowledge agents" for experts in different fields. However, the direction was adjusted to focus on "data" as the core element, utilizing Web3 incentive mechanisms to start building an ecosystem composed of data contributors, model developers, node validators, application developers, and downstream users.

Mid-2023: Completed a $6 million seed round financing led by a certain capital.

2024: Sahara AI has made significant progress in technology research and development as well as ecosystem construction. After its platform was launched, it quickly gained market recognition, established partnerships with several large companies, and received related orders.

August 2024: Official announcement of securing $43 million in Series A funding led by several well-known investment institutions.

From the beginning of 2025 to now: Continuously promoting the implementation of the platform's product matrix. On June 26, 2025, the official announcement stated that its AI Agent Builder and AI Marketplace officially entered the public testing phase.

3. Core Issues and Solutions

The current centralized AI industry generally faces key pain points such as data silos, unclear model ownership, high innovation costs, and unfair value distribution. Sahara AI has proposed a systematic solution based on blockchain to address these challenges.

• Data and model monopoly: Establish a decentralized market that allows anyone to register and trade AI assets on the chain.
• Contributions cannot be traced: Utilizing the immutability of blockchain, each contribution is recorded.
• High collaboration threshold: Provides standardized development tools including a no-code AI Agent Builder.

4. Core Team Background

• Sean Ren (CEO): Professor at the University of Southern California, MIT TR35 Innovator, leading AI collaboration projects for multiple companies.
• Tyler Zhou (COO): Former investment director of a certain laboratory, led a $43 million Series A financing.
• Technical Team: Members come from several well-known technology companies and hold multiple patents in distributed machine learning.

2. Business Model

1. Platform Architecture and Core Technology

Sahara AI adopts a hybrid blockchain architecture optimized for AI application scenarios, balancing decentralization, security, and efficiency.

• Technical Architecture: Four-layer structure, including application layer, transaction layer, data layer, and execution layer.
• Hybrid mode: Key metadata is recorded on-chain, while large datasets and AI models are stored off-chain.
• Core Main Chain: Developing its own Layer 1 blockchain Sahara Chain, which is EVM compatible and optimized for AI-related computations.
• Security Certification: Passed SOC2 enterprise-level security and privacy certification.

2. Product Ecosystem

• Data Service Platform (DSP): Crowdsourced data annotation platform.
• Sahara Studio: One-stop development kit.
• AI Exchange: An important bridge connecting data contributors, model developers, and users.
• Secure Execution Environment: Ensures the security of sensitive data.

Currently, the platform has attracted over 200,000 global AI trainers, completing more than 3 million data annotation tasks.

3. Market Entry and Growth Strategy

• User acquisition strategy: Launch "knowledge airdrop" program and testnet incentive activities.
• Brand and Market Strategy: Launch on multiple top-tier exchanges and make an appearance through high-exposure channels.
• Ecological incubation strategy: Establish dedicated incubators to support and accelerate AI startup projects developed based on its ecosystem.

4. $SAHARA Token Economic Model

• Total supply: 10 billion coins
• Core use: as a payment method for platform services, staking to participate in network security, exercising network governance voting rights, etc.
• Token Allocation:
  • Community and Ecosystem Development (64.25%)
  • Core Contributors (15%)
  • Early supporters (19.75%)
  • Liquidity and Market Stability (1%)

The tokens will be listed on multiple major exchanges in June 2025.

3. Project Prospects

1. Industry Analysis

The decentralized artificial intelligence (Decentralized AI) sector that Sahara AI is in is one of the most promising cross-disciplinary fields today. Market demand is mainly driven by factors such as the awakening of data sovereignty awareness, the demand for AI transparency and fairness, and the rise of long-tail AI needs.

The global decentralized AI market is expected to grow from approximately $2.5 billion in 2024 to over $80 billion by 2030, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 60%.

2. Competitive Landscape Analysis

The competition in the decentralized AI track is fierce, with Sahara AI's main competitors including Bittensor (TAO), Olas (OLAS), and Ritual. Sahara AI has differentiated itself from its competitors in terms of technical path, ecological layout, and business model.

3. Development Plan

Short-term planning (1-2 years):

• Technical Development: Optimize the core technology architecture, strengthen the security execution environment, and improve the SaharaStudio development kit.
• Ecological construction: Promote the official launch and improvement of AI AgentBuilder and AI Marketplace.
• Token Economy: Improve the incentive mechanism of the SAHARA token to enhance token activity and usage rate.

Medium-term plan (3-5 years):

• Achieve breakthroughs in cross-chain technology to expand the coverage of the ecosystem.
• Build a globally leading Decentralization AI ecosystem.
• Increase market promotion efforts to enhance global market visibility.

Long-term planning (more than 5 years):

• Become a leader in the field of Decentralization AI, promoting the popularization and democratization of AI technology.
• Build a highly prosperous and diversified ecosystem.
• Promote social equity and progress by advancing the democratization of AI.

4. Summary

1. Core Conclusion

• Accurate positioning, grand vision
• Full-stack solutions constitute a core barrier
• The team has strong capital strength.
• The design of the token economic model is reasonable.

2. Valuation and Investment Recommendations

$SAHARA is listed with a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of approximately $6 billion, which is at a high level. Considering the potential and risks of the project, an investment suggestion of "cautiously optimistic, buy on dips" is given.

3. Outlook

Sahara AI has the potential to become the underlying operating system for the future decentralized intelligent economy. Its success will validate the feasibility of restructuring AI production relations through Web3, accelerate the popularization and democratization of AI technology, and give rise to entirely new business models and application scenarios. The development of Sahara AI deserves the close attention of the entire technology and cryptocurrency industry.