Network3: Decentralized AI Layer2 Infrastructure

What is Network3

Friend, imagine many of the smart services we use today, like AI assistants that help you write emails or intelligent programs that analyze data, all require powerful “brains” to operate. These “brains” are usually concentrated in the hands of a few large companies, like a giant central computing factory. The Network3 (N3 for short) project aims to break up this “central factory” into countless small “micro-factories” distributed around the world, allowing everyone to contribute their idle computing resources—such as unused computing power from your phone or computer, or even your home’s unused bandwidth—to jointly build a decentralized AI infrastructure.

Simply put, Network3 is a blockchain project focused on decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, dedicated to building an “AI Layer2” and “edge AI infrastructure.” Its goal is to make AI training and operation more secure, more anonymous, more reliable, and to enable more people to participate, share resources, and jointly drive AI development.

Core Scenarios:

• Shared Computing Power: Just like renting out your unused room at home, Network3 lets you contribute your idle computing power (such as your computer’s CPU/GPU) to help train AI models.
• Shared Bandwidth: If you don’t fully use your home’s network bandwidth, you can also share it to support data transmission.
• Decentralized AI Training: Developers can train AI models on this network without relying on a few large cloud service providers, reducing costs and improving efficiency and privacy.

Typical Usage Flow:

Suppose you are an AI developer and you have an AI model that requires massive computing resources for training. On Network3, you can publish your training task. Then, users around the world with idle computing resources (like you and me) can run a Network3 node (think of it as a small piece of software) to contribute their computing power or bandwidth. Network3 coordinates these distributed resources to complete your AI training task together. As a contributor, you will receive N3 tokens as a reward.

Project Vision and Value Proposition

Network3’s vision is to build a fairer, more efficient, and more democratic AI ecosystem. They aim to solve several core issues currently facing the AI industry:

• Monopoly by Giants: The AI industry is currently dominated by a few tech giants who control vast amounts of data, top talent, and computing resources, limiting innovation and competition. Network3 hopes to break this monopoly through decentralization, allowing more small and medium-sized enterprises and individual developers to participate in AI development.
• High Costs: Training large AI models requires astronomical computing resources and expenses, making many innovative ideas hard to realize. Network3 aims to lower the cost of AI computing by pooling idle resources worldwide, making AI technology more accessible.
• Data Privacy and User Rights: In traditional AI services, users often have to sacrifice personal data for services, but data ownership and benefits are unrelated to the users. Network3 emphasizes privacy and security, and has designed incentive mechanisms so that users who contribute resources can be rewarded, thus achieving fair distribution and effective utilization of data and computing resources.

Differences from Similar Projects:

Network3’s uniqueness lies in its deep integration of decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) technology with AI. It not only provides computing resources but also pays special attention to the anonymity, authentication, and reliability of data transmission, as well as data correctness verification mechanisms, which are important features in the decentralized AI field.

Technical Features

Technically, Network3 is like a sophisticated “distributed brain network,” with several key “neurons” to ensure the smooth and secure operation of the entire network:

• Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN): This is an emerging blockchain concept. You can think of it as using blockchain technology to coordinate and incentivize physical devices worldwide (such as your computer, phone, router, etc.) to provide services like computing, storage, or bandwidth. Network3 uses DePIN technology to allow anyone to contribute their device resources to train small AI models.
• Efficient Anonymous Certificate-Less Signature Cryptography (CLSC) Algorithm: This sounds very technical, but you can think of it as an “encrypted anonymous envelope.” It enables both encryption and digital signatures, ensuring data confidentiality (only the recipient can read it), integrity (data is not tampered with), and authenticity (sender’s identity is verifiable) during transmission, while also protecting the sender’s anonymity without traditional digital certificates.
• Data Correctness Verification Mechanism: To prevent malicious uploads of incorrect or harmful data, Network3 has designed a “data review system.” It uses participant ratings and cryptographic technologies (such as homomorphic encryption, secret sharing, etc.) to verify data accuracy, ensuring the data used for AI model training is reliable.
• IP Anti-Tracking Measures and Anonymous Communication: Like putting an “invisibility cloak” on your network activity, Network3 uses IP anti-tracking technology to ensure user communications on the network are completely anonymous, protecting user privacy.
• Decentralized Federated Learning (FL) Framework: Federated learning is an AI training method that allows AI models to be trained without directly accessing raw data. Network3 decentralizes this, meaning AI models can be trained on distributed devices, and users’ raw data (such as your personal photos, voice, etc.) does not need to leave your device, greatly enhancing privacy protection.
• AI Model Optimization and Compression, Edge Computing, Confidential Computing: These technologies are like “slimming down” and “putting protective gear” on AI models, enabling them to run efficiently on smaller devices (edge computing) and protecting data privacy during computation (confidential computing).

Tokenomics

The core of the Network3 project is its native token N3, which acts as the “fuel” and “currency” of this decentralized AI ecosystem.

• Token Symbol: N3
• Issuance Chains: N3 tokens are deployed on multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, IoTeX, and Solana.
• Total Supply and Circulation: The total supply of N3 tokens is 1,000,000,000. The current circulating supply is about 763,571,757.56 N3.
• Issuance Mechanism and Inflation/Burn: The materials do not specify detailed inflation or burn mechanisms, but mention that participants are rewarded through a “proof of contribution” consensus incentive mechanism.
• Token Utility:
  • Incentivizing Contributors: Just like earning points for contributing to a community, N3 tokens are used to reward participants who contribute computing resources, bandwidth, and data.
  • Governance: N3 token holders can participate in network governance decisions, such as voting on protocol upgrades and reward policy adjustments. This ensures the network’s democracy and transparency.
  • Payments: Developers may need to use N3 tokens to pay when using Network3’s AI services.
• Token Allocation and Unlocking Information:
  • Airdrop: 5% of tokens are used for airdrops, totaling 50,000,000 N3, aimed at expanding the user base.
  • Ecosystem: 10% of tokens are used for ecosystem development.
  • Community Rewards: 50% of tokens are used for community rewards.

  For the specific unlocking schedule and more detailed allocation information, please refer to the tokenomics whitepaper.

Team, Governance, and Funding

• Core Members: Network3 was founded by Rock Zhang, an experienced entrepreneur and technology visionary with deep expertise in internet and AI infrastructure. He has held key positions at Boostinsider, iHealth Labs, and Qihoo 360.
• Team Features: The team focuses on combining advanced AI and blockchain technologies to address the challenges of AI computing.
• Governance Mechanism: Network3 adopts a decentralized governance model. N3 token holders can participate in network governance decisions through a weighted voting mechanism, including protocol upgrades and reward policy adjustments. The amount of tokens held determines voting weight, encouraging long-term holding and active participation.
• Funding: The Network3 project has successfully raised $5.5 million, with investors including SNZ Holding, Waterdrip Capital, Escape Velocity (EV3), IoTeX, Bing Ventures, and Borderless Capital.

Roadmap

Since its launch, the Network3 project has made some important progress and has clear plans for the future:

• January 2025: Network3 project officially launched.
• January 14, 2025: N3 token airdrop event ended, with a total of 50,000,000 N3 tokens (5% of total supply) distributed to community members.
• January 22, 2025: N3 token officially launched and deployed on multiple chains including Ethereum, IoTeX, and Solana.
• Existing Products: Network3 already has a mature VPN product with millions of users and plans to build a bandwidth sharing network and distributed computing power sharing platform based on this.
• Future Plans: The project aims to help global AI developers quickly, conveniently, and efficiently perform model inference, training, and validation through technologies such as AI model optimization and compression, federated learning, edge computing, and confidential computing.

Common Risk Reminders

Any emerging blockchain project comes with certain risks, and Network3 is no exception. When participating in or learning about this project, please pay attention to the following points:

• Technical and Security Risks:
  • Technical Complexity: Network3 integrates multiple cutting-edge technologies such as AI, blockchain, edge computing, and federated learning. The technical implementation is highly challenging and may have unknown technical challenges or vulnerabilities.
  • Smart Contract Risks: Smart contracts are the core of blockchain projects. If there are bugs in the code, it may lead to asset loss or system instability.
  • Degree of Decentralization: Although the project emphasizes decentralization, the actual degree of decentralization, node distribution, and censorship resistance need continuous observation.
• Economic Risks:
  • Token Price Volatility: The price of N3 tokens is affected by market supply and demand, project progress, macroeconomics, and other factors. Volatility may be high, and there is a risk of investment loss.
  • Effectiveness of Incentive Mechanisms: Whether the project’s economic model and incentive mechanisms can effectively attract and retain contributors in the long term is key to its sustainable development.
  • Competition Risk: The decentralized AI and DePIN fields are highly competitive. Network3 needs to continuously innovate to maintain competitiveness.
• Compliance and Operational Risks:
  • Regulatory Uncertainty: Global blockchain and cryptocurrency regulatory policies are still evolving and may impact the project’s operations and development.
  • User Adoption: The project’s success largely depends on whether it can attract enough AI developers and resource contributors.

Please remember, the above information does not constitute any investment advice. The blockchain and cryptocurrency markets are high-risk; be sure to conduct thorough independent research and risk assessment.

Verification Checklist

To gain a deeper understanding of the Network3 project, you can verify and research through the following channels:

• Block Explorer Contract Address: Look up the N3 token’s contract address on Ethereum, IoTeX, or Solana (for example, the Ethereum contract address found on RootData is 0x9b79...5b9f), and use a block explorer to view token holder distribution, transaction records, and other information.
• GitHub Activity: Visit the project’s GitHub repository to check code update frequency and developer community activity, which reflects the project’s development progress and transparency.
• Official Website and Whitepaper: Carefully read Network3’s official website (network3.ai) and whitepaper (or tokenomics whitepaper, Litepaper) for the most authoritative and detailed project information.
• Community and Social Media: Follow the project’s Twitter and other social media platforms, join the official community (such as Discord, Telegram), and keep up with community discussions and the latest developments.
• Audit Reports: Check whether the project has third-party security audit reports to assess the security of its smart contracts.

Project Summary

Network3 (N3) is an ambitious blockchain project that seeks to address core challenges in current AI development—such as computing power monopoly, high costs, and privacy protection—through decentralization. It leverages the concept of decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), encouraging global users to contribute idle computing resources and bandwidth to jointly build an open, efficient, and privacy-secure AI infrastructure.

Technically, the project integrates advanced technologies such as anonymous encryption, data verification, and federated learning, aiming to provide AI developers with a more cost-effective and privacy-protecting environment for training and deployment. Its N3 token serves as an incentive and governance tool for the ecosystem, promoting community participation and resource sharing. The team’s background and secured funding also demonstrate a certain level of strength and market recognition.

However, as an emerging project, Network3 also faces challenges in technical implementation, market competition, and user adoption. Its success will depend on whether its technology can operate stably, whether its economic model can continuously incentivize participants, and whether it can stand out in the fiercely competitive decentralized AI track. For anyone interested in Network3, it is strongly recommended to conduct in-depth research and fully understand the potential risks. This is not investment advice; please make decisions with caution.