Sahara AI: Building a "Decentralized Ethereum" in the AI Field

1. Project Introduction

1. Project Basic Information

Sahara AI is positioned as a full-stack, AI-native decentralized blockchain platform. Its core vision is to break the current artificial intelligence landscape dominated by a few large technology companies and to 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 space," providing secure and trusted 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, initially envisioned to create exclusive "knowledge agents" for experts in different fields. The direction was later adjusted to focus on the core element of "data," 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 Polychain Capital.

2024: Collaborate with large companies such as Microsoft and Amazon to obtain relevant orders.

August 2024: Secured $43 million Series A funding led by Pantera, Binance Labs, and Polychain Capital.

Since early 2025: Continuing to promote the implementation of the platform's product matrix. On June 26, the official announcement stated that its AI Agent Builder and AI Marketplace have officially entered the public testing phase.

3. Core Issues and Solutions

Sahara AI has proposed a systematic solution based on blockchain to address the key pain points currently faced by the centralized AI industry, such as data silos, unclear model ownership, high innovation costs, and unfair value distribution.

• By establishing a decentralized market, allowing anyone to register and trade AI assets on-chain.
• Utilize the immutability of blockchain to record every contribution.
• Provide standardized development tools including a no-code AI Agent Builder to lower the development threshold.

4. Core Team Background

• Sean Ren (CEO): Professor at the University of Southern California, MIT TR35 Innovator
• Tyler Zhou (COO): Former Director of Investment at a certain trading platform's lab.
• Technical team: Members from Google Brain, Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol, with 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:

• 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: AI Asset Trading Platform
• Secure Execution Environment: Ensure safe execution of AI tasks

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 the "Knowledge Airdrop" program and testnet incentive activities.
• Brand and market strategy: Launch on multiple first-tier exchanges and appear on high-exposure channels.
• Ecological incubation strategy: Establish dedicated incubators to support AI startup projects developed based on its ecosystem.

4. $SAHARA Token Economic Model

Total Supply: 10 billion coins

Token Allocation:

• Community and Ecosystem Development (64.25%)
• Core Contributors (15%)
• Early supporters (19.75%)
• Liquidity and Market Stability (1%)

The token successfully launched on multiple mainstream exchanges in June 2025.

3. Project Outlook

1. Industry Analysis

The decentralized artificial intelligence market is expected to experience explosive growth, from approximately $2.5 billion in 2024 to over $80 billion by 2030, with a projected compound annual growth rate of over 60%.

2. Competitive Landscape Analysis

The main competitors include Bittensor (TAO), Olas (OLAS), and Ritual. Sahara AI's full-stack solution constitutes its core competitive advantage.

3. Development Plan

Short-term (1-2 years):

• Optimize core technology architecture
• Promote the official launch and improvement of AI AgentBuilder and AI Marketplace
• Improve the incentive mechanism of SAHARA token

Medium term (3-5 years):

• Achieve breakthroughs in cross-chain technology
• Build a globally leading Decentralization AI ecosystem
• Increase market promotion efforts and expand overseas markets

Long-term (more than 5 years):

• Become a leader in the Decentralization AI field
• Build a highly prosperous and diverse ecosystem
• Promote the democratization of AI development to foster social equity and progress.

4. Summary

1. Core Conclusion

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

2. Valuation and Investment Recommendations

$SAHARA is listed with a fully diluted valuation of approximately $6 billion, positioned at a high level in the DeAI sector.

Investment advice: cautiously optimistic, buy on dips.

3. Outlook

If Sahara AI successfully executes its roadmap, it could potentially become the underlying operating system for the future decentralized intelligent economy. In the long run, its success will accelerate the popularization and democratization of AI technology, giving rise to entirely new business models and application scenarios.