Is Ritual live today?

Yes, Ritual’s first phase, a decentralized oracle network (DON) optimized for AI, Infernet, is live. Frenrug was built using Infernet.

Is Ritual an oracle network?

Yes, the first phase of Ritual is a DON. This is live today. You can use & deploy Infernet on any EVM compatible chain. Non-EVM compatible chains is a WIP.

Is Ritual a chain?

The second phase of Ritual will be its own sovereign chain. We’ll have another post on this soon; we have many exciting things we’ve been working on to share. For now, our product page is the latest. Our chain will have its own custom VM and function as a coprocessor.

Can I use Ritual for payments?

Ritual believes in the ability for various actors in our network (i.e. compute providers, model creators, proof providers, …) to be incentivized. So, yes, soon ™.

How is Ritual an oracle network and a chain?

Infernet is an oracle network that can be deployed to any chain. This allows existing protocols and apps to integrate without friction. Ritual is also building a separate, sovereign chain to service more advanced AI-native applications that will live natively on our chain.

Is Ritual “doing” ZKML?

Ritual supports all types of proof systems. For Infernet, we cater to the preferences of our users on their willingness and necessity to pay for verifiability. On Ritual’s sovereign chain, ZK will be a critical component for scalability and we have been collaborating with folks from the community on this which we’ll announce soon.

Is Ritual “doing” OPML?

Ritual supports all types of proof systems. For Infernet, we cater to the preferences of our users on their willingness and necessity to pay for verifiability.

Is Ritual “doing” proof of provenance?

Provenance of data is critical to the crypto × AI ecosystem, as I mention here. Ritual will allow for other protocols building on-chain and off-chain provenance mechanisms to plug in to both Infernet and Ritual chain.

Is Ritual only for web3 people?

No, many of our users only care about certain properties (remote compute access, minimal verifiability, micropayments, …) that Ritual provides without having to interface with smart contracts or blockchains.

How can I use Ritual as someone who doesn’t know anything about web3?

In the ideal state, the same way you would hit OpenAI endpoints. We want to make life as simple as possible for web2 users.

What does Ritual think about TEEs?

TEEs will be supported in Infernet and in Ritual chain—they’re a great way to quickly iterate with users.

How does Infernet relate to Ritual?

Infernet is Ritual’s first phase, a live decentralized oracle network (DON). Our under-development sovereign chain with its custom VM is our second phase. Both Infernet and our sovereign chain have different use cases and will co-exist.

How do I participate in Ritual?

Today, you can participate by running an Infernet node, or as a user of any app or protocol that leverages Infernet. Other ways to participate will be announced as we continue to open-source more.

Should I care about verifiability? Does Ritual?

My personal views on verifiability are here and here. Ritual is proof system agnostic for verifiability and optimizes for aligning user preferences and requirements for trust to the type of proof system used. Ritual will also be introducing weaker (and cheaper!) systems for verifiability.

What do I need to know to participate in Ritual? Do I need a GPU?

No, you do not need a GPU. The resources for running an Infernet node are minimal and our quickstart takes less than 10 minutes to get started.

Can my web2 app leverage Infernet without my users complaining about performance?

Infernet, our primary product for web2 users, is modular enough to allow for latency sensitive applications, as the computationally expensive parts related to web3 can happen asynchronously. So, yes!

Is Ritual doing inference only?

No, we support a host of other AI operations, but are starting with inference since it is closest to the end user and where we are seeing demand today.

Will Ritual architect its own cryptographic schemes or enable others to plug in theirs?

Both! My thoughts on this are here and here. We are also collaborating with folks in the space to architect special purpose cryptographic schemes for various classes of models.

How can I connect with the Ritual team?

You can reach most of the team via Twitter DMs (profiles linked on our team page) or via our emails (firstname@ritual.net). Our team will also be around in-person at ETHDenver and other conferences this year. Follow our Twitter for more details.