Blockchain-based artificial intelligence development network Mira today announced that it has raised $9 million in seed funding to build a decentralized AI infrastructure platform to expand access to advanced AI capabilities.

The round was led by Bitkraft Ventures and Framework Ventures, a notable crypto venture capital firm, and also attracted investments from Accel, Crucible, Folius Ventures, Mechanism Capital and SALT Fund.

Mira offers a user-friendly suite of software development kits for developers to connect to AI infrastructure and build on and consume open-source AI resources. The company said that through the combination of models, data and compute, developers will be able to build and publish what the company calls Mira Flows, a new type of AI primitive for other users to build with.

Other users can take these Flows and redistribute them for a fee using the Mira blockchain to implement AI applications that use AI infrastructure and implement AI capabilities into applications. Flow creators and resource contributors will be granted a fee for their contribution so they can make money from their work, paid for by users that implement Flows in their applications.

“Mira is set to offer hundreds of actionable AI workflows that save developers time and effort in creating and maintaining complex AI products,” said co-founder Karan Sirdesai. “Mira also allows AI contributors to maintain sovereign ownership of their models, data, and their use while being able to monetize these resources via our marketplace. Crypto incentives play a key role in aligning our community to consistently maintain, evaluate, and advance our ecosystem, fueling its growth and capabilities.”

The startup said it has already brought on board more than a dozen projects across Web 2.0 and Web3, with several already set to launch AI apps in the upcoming months. One of the first projects to use Mira named Klock is a crypto AI copilot chatbot currently in closed beta test mode.

“As Mira expands, it will unlock access to a whole new area of AI development and use cases which are primed to advance the technology sector,” said Sirdesai.

By employing the blockchain attribution and incentive-led method for AI building flows, Mira hopes that the ecosystem will lead its developer community to continuously improve and handle updates for customers. As a result, components will always be high-quality, easily accessible, open-source and remain decentralized.

“With the AI sector’s continued growth, the industry faces a considerable risk of monopolization by major tech corporations, who have a significant advantage over open-source communities because of their abundant resources,” said Framework Ventures Partner Roy Learner. “We think Mira can tackle this challenge by helping open-source developers monetize their work, ensuring compensation for their contributions, and reducing the loss of talent from the open-source community.”

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