By Alex Botte (Partner) & Rodney Yesep (Partner)

Two years ago we led the pre-seed round of Zero Gravity, or 0G, because we believed that the future of artificial intelligence belongs on open networks. Today 0G has grown from a focused storage and data availability provider into a full L1 blockchain built for decentralized AI. With testnet v3 live since April 2025 and adoption accelerating across the ecosystem, 0G is proving that AI and crypto can reinforce each other in a way that is open, fast, and verifiable.

The Problem and the Market Opportunity

The vision for decentralized AI is compelling. Users should be able to prove that a model ran as claimed. Data should be user-owned. Open communities should be able to build and improve models without gatekeepers. The practical blockers have been severe.

• Data. Foundation models and modern datasets range from gigabytes to terabytes. Storing and serving them on-chain has been either impossibly expensive or painfully slow.
• Compute demand. Training and inference require specialized hardware and careful scheduling that traditional blockchains cannot provide efficiently.
• Speed and availability. Real time agents, trading systems, games, and social apps need low latency and guaranteed data availability or the experience breaks.

Until these bottlenecks are solved, AI on public networks will lag far behind centralized systems. The market for a purpose-built stack is therefore enormous. It includes on-chain agents, decentralized chat systems, medical AI with patient-owned data, high frequency trading strategies that use models on chain, and consumer applications that blend verifiable AI with crypto incentives. The TAM spans both Web2 and Web3, from enterprises that need verifiable compute to developers who want to build AI apps without renting the future from a single cloud provider.

What is 0G

0G is a decentralized AI L1 that orchestrates hardware resources and software assets at scale. It brings together four independent services that you can mix and match.

1. 0G Storage to store large models, training data, user files, and game assets
2. 0G Compute to run inference, model training, verifiable compute, and ML pipelines on demand
3. 0G Chain to execute AI native transactions with high throughput and low fees
4. 0G Data Availability to guarantee that data required by apps and rollups is always accessible

The architecture is modular by design. Builders can use any single service without adopting the rest. EVM apps can call 0G Storage and 0G Compute from existing contracts. Non EVM builders can integrate through SDKs. Traditional developers who want decentralized storage can use 0G Storage without touching a blockchain at all. This flexibility lets 0G meet projects where they are and unlock on-chain AI step by step.

The 0G Solution

0G approaches the problem as a system. Storage, compute, execution, and data availability are separate services that interoperate through clean interfaces.

• Storage splits and distributes model weights and datasets across a global network. Redundancy and erasure coding provide durability and throughput so large models can be fetched quickly. Costs are a fraction of existing decentralized storage options, with reported savings in the 10-100x range for common workloads.
• Compute is an on-demand marketplace for GPUs and other accelerators. Developers pay only for the cycles they use. Scheduling is optimized for inference first but can support training jobs and verifiable compute. Think of it as a global ride sharing layer for AI hardware.
• Chain is an EVM layer that moves AI-aware transactions with high throughput and low fees. It is designed to coordinate agents, settle incentives, and anchor proofs while keeping the heavy lifting in the storage and compute layers.
• Data availability provides an always-on feed of the data that rollups and high frequency apps need so that systems do not stall when volume spikes.

Because each service works independently, 0G fits into the modular stack that modern crypto developers already use. It also means the team can upgrade each part as hardware and models evolve without forcing migrations across the entire system.

Why We Led the Pre-seed Round

When we first led the pre-seed, two things convinced us early.

First, the problem selection was right. From day one the team focused on the bottlenecks that make decentralized AI hard: data, compute, and availability. These are the building blocks that centralized platforms guard most closely, and they are exactly the layers that need to be opened up for a decentralized AI ecosystem to thrive.

Second, the founding team was excellent. In diligence we saw a group with both technical depth and community credibility. They had already built within the crypto ecosystem, and they combined strong research instincts with a pragmatic product mindset. That combination of vision and execution capability made us comfortable leading at the earliest stage.

We then invested again at the seed round last November largely because of traction and potential. By then, the team had grown a community in the hundreds of thousands - and what began as an AI data availability layer had evolved into a much larger vision: a full AI L1 built in a modular and accessible way. Partner projects, integrations, and a growing pipeline demonstrated how large the opportunity had become.

The progression from pre-seed to seed captures exactly what we look for as long-term partners. First, the right problem and the right people. Then, proof of traction and momentum that makes the opportunity even larger and more exciting.

Traction and Ecosystem Momentum

0G’s growth over the last year has been real and visible.

• Network usage. More than 358M testnet transactions to date with roughly 4M daily transactions and over 25M wallets. The throughput targets include a path to 10K transactions per second.
• Community and developer base. About 713K followers on X, 723K members in Discord, and 305K subscribers on Telegram.
• Ecosystem. More than 220 partner projects, over 360 integrations, and a pipeline of 580+ teams building on or with 0G services. The team hosts global hackathons, runs an accelerator with demo days, and operates an ecosystem fund program with ~$88M in capital to back early builders.
• Product expansion. In June, 0G launched a Battle of Agents platform where users place bets on AI agents to win structured debates, showcasing agent-to-agent interactions on the stack. This month, they launched AIverse. It is the marketplace for trading iNFTs (agent NFTs). Dubbed “The OpenSea for iNFTs,” AIverse enables tokenized intelligence to be minted, traded, and collected. The project also rolled out a refreshed brand and developer site that makes the system easier to understand and adopt. Additional rollouts include a refreshed brand and developer site for easier adoption, the Builder Hub (a one-stop gateway for SDKs, docs, tutorials, and tooling), .AGI domains in partnership with Unstoppable Domains as a naming standard for the "Intelligent Internet," and .0G domains with Space ID for human-AI collaboration.
• Team and alignment. More than 75 full-time and part-time contributors across research, engineering, marketing and community. Token allocation is majority to the community at 56%, with the remainder to team, advisors, backers, and contributors at 44%. The incentives are aligned with long-term network health.

For our modular thesis in crypto x AI, 0G has been a cornerstone. We originally backed the company as a data availability and storage layer purpose-built for AI. The expansion into a full AI L1 with independent services validates the broader vision and gives developers a practical path from early experiments to production at scale.

Conclusion

Decentralized AI needs a backbone that is fast, affordable, and open. 0G supplies that backbone. Storage that fits modern models. Compute that you can rent on demand. A chain that moves AI-aware transactions quickly. Data availability that keeps systems alive when volume surges. All delivered in a modular way so builders can adopt what they need today and grow into the rest tomorrow.

That is why Hack VC led the pre-seed round for Zero Gravity in 2023. We saw a team tackling the right problems with the right architecture and shipping at a pace that attracts developers. If you are building at the intersection of crypto and AI, we would love to talk. And if you want to experiment with on-chain agents, verifiable AI, or user-owned data, 0G is ready for you.

Disclaimer

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