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The AI industry is evolving from a focus on training competition to the implementation of inference. While chips, HBM, and advanced packaging continue to be major bottlenecks, the fastest-growing areas are now inference infrastructure, data centers, power supply, cooling, and high-speed interconnects. Based on recent publicly available information, this article examines the most important AI infrastructure trends to follow in the next 2–3 years.

Zano is a Layer 1 public blockchain focused on default privacy. Its anonymous transaction system leverages ring signatures, stealth addresses, Pedersen Commitments, Bulletproofs+, Zarcanum, and confidential asset mechanisms to obscure the sender, receiver, amount, and even the asset type. As a result, on-chain observers can usually only verify that a transaction took place, but cannot directly access any transaction details.

Confidential Assets is the confidential asset standard for the Zano public blockchain. Its primary feature is that, throughout asset issuance, transfers, and trades, it hides the sender, receiver, amount, and asset type. As a result, on-chain observers can typically verify that trading activity has taken place on the network, but are unable to directly identify the specific assets held or transferred by users.

Akash Network’s GPU leasing process connects GPU providers with developers seeking hash power through an open marketplace. Once developers submit their computing requirements, network providers bid competitively. The system then creates a lease, deploys GPU resources, and settles payments in AKT.

Zano (ZANO) is a Layer 1 public blockchain built with default privacy as a fundamental feature, specializing in hiding transaction amounts, sender and receiver addresses, and asset types. It unifies privacy payments, private asset issuance, confidential trading, and private staking within a single on-chain protocol layer. Unlike conventional privacy coins that concentrate solely on anonymous transfers, Zano seeks to solve the problem of privacy financial infrastructure, empowering users to not only make anonymous transfers but also create, trade, and use confidential assets.

Ripple’s core operations rely on its underlying decentralized ledger, the XRP Ledger (XRPL)—an open-source blockchain architecture specifically designed for financial settlement. Unlike Bitcoin’s PoW or Ethereum’s PoS, XRPL utilizes the unique Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm (RPCA). Through a selected set of validator nodes, the network reaches agreement on transaction ordering within seconds, achieving ultra-fast settlement speeds and minimal energy consumption.

Sahara AI facilitates collaboration and value allocation among AI data, models, inference services, and AI Agents by combining on-chain rights confirmation with off-chain AI execution mechanisms. Its architecture leverages blockchain transparency and AI computational power to support open AI infrastructure. The Sahara AI technology framework consists of modules including Layer1 blockchain, AI Marketplace, data service layer, AI Agent Economy, and Attribution System, with the goal of building decentralized infrastructure for AI collaboration and AI asset management.

Sahara AI (SAHARA) is an AI-native blockchain platform designed for AI collaboration and asset confirmation. Leveraging blockchain technology, it enables the sharing, approval, and return distribution of AI data, models, hash rate, and AI Agents. Its primary goal is to establish an open, transparent, and incentivized decentralized AI economy.

Dolphin (POD) is a Web3 AI infrastructure project focused on decentralized AI inference and distributed GPU collaboration. The core offering, Dolphin Network, allows GPU holders globally to share unused Hashrate, delivering distributed inference services for AI models. Participants in the network earn POD token rewards for handling inference requests, and Developers gain access to AI capabilities in a more open and cost-efficient way.

Dolphin Network’s core mechanism distributes AI model inference tasks across global GPU nodes for collaborative processing. Developers can access AI inference services via the network, while GPU holders contribute idle hash power to execute tasks and earn DPHN token rewards. Through task scheduling, random validation, encryption, and economic incentive mechanisms, Dolphin Network coordinates AI inference requests, GPU nodes, and result verification, establishing a decentralized AI inference infrastructure.

Dolphin and Render are both DePIN projects leveraging distributed GPU resources to build infrastructure, but their core focuses differ. Render is primarily oriented toward GPU rendering and digital content generation, whereas Dolphin is more focused on decentralized AI inference and AI infrastructure networks.

Akash Network is a decentralized cloud computing network built for AI and Web3 applications. It connects idle GPU providers with developers who need computing power through an open marketplace. Unlike traditional cloud services such as AWS and Google Cloud, Akash uses a blockchain driven bidding mechanism, allowing users to access GPU and server resources at lower cost.

Akash Network and AWS can both provide GPU and cloud computing resources, but they differ sharply in their underlying architecture and resource marketplace mechanisms. AWS uses centralized data centers and platform based pricing, while Akash connects global GPU providers with developers through an open marketplace powered by blockchain. Traditional cloud platforms usually offer more mature enterprise services and stability, while decentralized cloud places greater emphasis on open markets, efficient resource utilization, and censorship resistance.

GAS (NeoGas) is the native fuel token of the Neo network. It is mainly used to pay for on-chain transactions, smart contract execution, and network resource consumption. Unlike many single-token public blockchains, Neo uses a dual-token structure consisting of NEO and GAS. NEO is responsible for governance, while GAS serves as the payment asset for network operations and resource usage.

UNUS SED LEO（LEO） is a platform ecosystem token launched by iFinex, the parent company of Bitfinex. One of its distinctive features is that it does not exist on only one blockchain network. Instead, it was issued on both Omni Layer and Ethereum. This “dual chain structure” is uncommon among platform tokens and made LEO one of the earlier exchange platform tokens to adopt a cross chain asset model.