0G CEO: How to build a high-performance, AI, programmable modular blockchain

Source: PANews

With the increasing prominence of Layer 2 networks and decentralized artificial intelligence platforms, data availability has become more critical. Data availability (DA) refers to the need for block producers to publish all transaction data of a block to the network so that validators can download it. With this comes the problem of data availability, which has two key points: security and cost. One is to ensure that the verification mechanism is carried out safely, and the other is to reduce the cost of publishing data.

In the process of data availability being gradually separated from the main network, another larger long-term trend can also be found, which is the modularization of blockchain. Modular blockchain decomposes various tasks or functions of the blockchain into different layers or modules. This separation allows for improved performance, scalability, and customization. Current competitors in the field of modular blockchain include AltLayer, Avail, Celestia, EigenLayer, Fuel, dYmension, and so on.

Now, what wonderful effects will be produced if artificial intelligence is integrated with modular blockchain? 0G, also known as Zero Gravity, is the first modular AI blockchain born in this context. On March 26, 0G announced that it had raised $35 million in the Pre-Seed round, with investors including Hack VC, Alliance, Animoca Brands, Delphi Digital, Stanford Builders Fund, Symbolic Capital, OKX Ventures and more than 40 other institutions.

Michael Heinrich, CEO and co-founder of 0G, recently introduced the project concept, current development progress and future roadmap, as well as more details behind the establishment of the project.

0G's innovation: high performance, AI focus, programmability

From the official introduction, 0G is the first data availability system with a built-in universal storage layer with super scalability and decentralization. 0G’s scalability relies on the idea of ​​splitting the workflow of data availability into a data publishing lane and a data storage lane. The bulk of the data transfer occurs on the data storage lane, which is backed by the storage layer, and horizontal scalability is achieved through well-designed partitions, while the data publishing lane guarantees data availability properties through consensus of data availability sampling, which only requires tiny data to be transmitted through the consensus protocol to avoid bottlenecks in transaction broadcasting.

In more layman’s terms, Michael said that 0G has three characteristics: “We help high-performance DApps get started on the network through the fastest data availability layer on the market. The key innovations are three-fold: 1) high performance, 2) a focus on AI, and 3) programmability of the data availability platform.”

From a performance perspective, 0G has found a way to scale nodes horizontally in the consensus layer, and also found a way to scale the consensus layer itself. "This means that we can provide unlimited data availability throughput. At each consensus layer, we can provide about 50GB of data availability capacity, which is 50,000 times faster than danksharding or other methods, and the cost is about 100 times cheaper. Therefore, we can really achieve the cost and performance of imitating Web2." According to him, 0G's modular AI blockchain will support a series of DApps, including AI, games, high-frequency trading DeFi, DePIN applications, etc., which is a major breakthrough for the field. "We can also cover more technical innovations in it. Then, focusing on AI is part of the infrastructure, including distributed storage networks. People can use it to store AI models and use DA properties to provide distributed inference traces and opML cases. This realizes a full-scale solution for data infrastructure, especially for AI. Over time, we will have more and more innovations in this field." In addition to the above two features, 0G is also programmable. Blockchains and developers can save their entire state through smart contracts and then load the state later. "When they do that, they can completely customize how long they store, where they store it, what type of data they use, the security attributes, and how much data backup they want. So it's completely programmable to your needs. These three key innovations differentiate us from other data availability layers in the encryption space."

Investment institutions are eager to help, 20 times oversubscribed

As a startup, 0G's initial financing was just a basic goal, $5 million, to develop core technology. But when 0G chose Hack VC as the lead investor, the door opened immediately and 0G received 20 times oversubscription. Attracting more than $100 million in investment interest, 0G eventually worked with investors they believed could help the most.

"I think the reasons behind this include: the ability of the team; the field and the potential it brings; the quality of the investors who entered in the early stage, they opened the door and made other investors want to participate. Hack VC was the first letter of intent we received, and once they invested, many others quickly followed up."

Michael said that the investment funds received by 0G will be mainly used for marketing and engineering development. These are the two main uses. The funds will be roughly divided equally between these two aspects.

Speaking of the reason why the project was originally established, Michael said that he first met Thomas Yao from Stanford University. The two were classmates and became good friends over time. "So I've known Yao for 10 years now. He knew I wanted to build something in the field of Web 3 and AI. So he called me at the end of 2022 and said, 'Hey, I invested in a company called Conflux a few years ago. Ming Wu and Fan Long are both very good. They want to start some projects around the world. I think the four of us can form a very strong team.' So we got together and I spent about 6 months meeting frequently with the co-founders." Michael said.

Mainnet is expected to be released in Q3

0G was founded last year, about 9 months ago. Now, rather than facing some development challenges, what the 0G technical team is doing right now is focusing on optimization. For them, the challenge is more about how to really optimize each part of the system. For example, the team looked at different erasure coding schemes and then found an implementation that we modified to make it three times faster than any other scheme we have seen.

"It's less about challenges and more about optimizing infrastructure. We are building it in a very systematic way. We started with the decentralized storage network, and then we added the erasure coding component, added the consensus layer component, added KZG commits, and then added data availability sampling as part of the consensus network."

Each of these components requires a lot of optimization. This is where 0G is currently spending a lot of time in development. Another place that takes a lot of time is optimizing the consensus to make it efficient.

So initially, 0G will only use the off-the-shelf consensus, but the second phase of the mainnet will use the changed Conflux consensus mechanism. So this will take a lot of time.

There are about 30 people in 0G now, more than half of whom are engineers. Michael said that 0G's team lineup is very strong, "We have many Olympic gold medals and informatics competition medals. This is the best engineering team I have ever worked with. Therefore, I am really proud of our team."

At present, 0G has not disclosed the valuation and token issuance time. The 0G mainnet will be released in the third quarter of this year. "We are trying to get it done as early as possible in the third quarter. We are working very hard to make this possible."

Michael said that this will be the first stage of the mainnet. "We will have multiple stages, and the features that will be included in each stage will be announced in the future."

In terms of partnerships, 0G is currently working with some outstanding Layer2 in the encryption field, such as Polygon. There will also be some collaborations with artificial intelligence projects, game projects and some DeFi projects. In addition, Michael revealed that 0G will also cooperate with some rollups-as-a-service providers.