Introduction

Artificial Intelligence is the next phase of technological advancement, as we have seen humanity transition from heavy machinery to the digital age of computers and the Internet. Throughout these shifts, power and control have largely remained in the hands of governments and major corporations, shaping technology to align with their objectives.

A similar pattern is emerging with AI, where major tech companies and governments are operating a closed-source environment for research and development. Blockchain technology presents decentralization as an alternative, shifting control and decision-making from centralized entities to a broader network of participants.

Companies like Tensorplex Labs are pioneering Decentralized AI, an approach driven by shared knowledge and collective progress rather than corporate interests.

What is Tensorplex Labs?

Source: Tensorplex

Tensorplex Labs is a decentralized AI infrastructure company developing tools and applications for AI development using decentralized networks. Founded in 2023, the company integrates decentralized finance (DeFi) principles and proof-of-stake mechanisms to support open-source AI innovation.

Its suite of products includes Dojo, a liquid staking solution for $TAO. It is also a platform for gathering high-quality human-generated data to accelerate AI training and ongoing research into open-source large language model (LLM) training.

Tensorplex Team

Darwin Liew

Darwin co-founded Tensorplex Labs and was previously a founding partner at PetRock Capital. He graduated from Nanyang Technological University.

CK Cheung

Cheung co-founded Tensorplex Labs and worked at Brevan Howard Digital, DeFiance Capital, and Goldman Sachs. He graduated from Cornell University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Calvin Choo

Calvin Choo is the Lead Software Engineer at Tensorplex Labs and was formerly part of an Engineering team at a centralized exchange. He graduated from Nanyang Technological University with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering.

Funding

Source: Tensorplex

In March 2024, Tensorplex Labs secured $3 million in seed funding from investors led by Canonical Crypto and Collab+Currency, with participation from Digital Currency Group, Quantstamp, and Amber Group. YZi Labs will also join its list of investors in March 2025.

Overview of Bittensor Blockchain

Bittensor is a decentralized blockchain network that serves as a platform for producing and trading digital commodities, including AI inference, training, and infrastructure.

It is a peer-to-peer marketplace where participants contribute computational resources and machine learning models in exchange for rewards. The network uses the TAO token, incentivizing miners (data providers) and validators to improve the system’s intelligence.

The Bittensor blockchain is built on Polkadot’s Substrate SDK and functions as a decentralized record system. It runs on its own custom consensus mechanism, the Yuma Consensus, which enforces the agreement among validators and miners across the network’s subnets.

The Yuma Consensus is designed to be agnostic about measurement and can establish agreements on approximate truths rather than rigid binary outcomes.

Bittensor and its Subnets

In Bittensor, a subnet is a specialized network segment dedicated to producing a specific type of digital commodity related to artificial intelligence. For example, one subnet might focus on natural language processing tasks, while another concentrates on computer vision applications. Each subnet operates as an autonomous marketplace comprising two primary participant groups:

• Miners: These are entities or individuals that generate AI-related outputs, such as machine learning models or data processing services.
• Validators: These participants evaluate the quality and utility of the miners’ contributions, ensuring that the outputs meet certain standards.

The interaction between miners and validators within a subnet is governed by incentive mechanisms that reward high-quality contributions.

You can read more on Bittensor in this Gate Learn article.

Tensorplex Products

Dojo Subnet

Source: Dojo

The Dojo Network is an open platform for anyone to contribute to AI training through Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). By crowdsourcing human-generated datasets, it executes machine learning in a decentralized environment.

Participants from diverse technical backgrounds contribute their human intelligence to machine learning models and AI agent operations, which would be deployed on-chain and in real-world applications.

Features

Synthetic Task Generation: Dojo uses advanced large language models (LLMs) to generate tasks that solicit human feedback. The system learns from this feedback, continuously improving AI training.

Synthetic Ground Truth Validation: It uses simulated or synthetic data to create a benchmark for evaluating the performance of AI models. This process allows for the assessment of the quality of participants’ responses, ensuring that the collected data meets the required standards.

Backprop Finance

Source: Backprop Finance

Backprop Finance is a decentralized exchange (DEX) developed by Tensorplex Labs for trading Dynamic TAO (dTAO) tokens, a unique token for each subnet within the Bittensor network.

It features a terminal for seamless swaps between TAO and subnet tokens while managing slippage and price impact.

Source: Backprop Finance

Beyond trading, Backprop Finance provides access to live Subnets, GitHub repositories, social links, and exclusive research reports curated by Tensorplex Labs. Users can explore professional-grade price charts, real-time holder analytics, transaction histories, and portfolio insights. A ranking system highlights top-performing Subnets and participants.

Source: Backprop Finance

Liquidity providers can contribute to pools on Backprop and earn dTAO rewards. dTAO holders have governance rights, allowing them to vote on which liquidity pools receive dTAO emissions. In return, they receive a share of the fees from the pools they support.

Tensorplex Stake

Source: Tensorplex Stake

Tensorplex Stake is a liquid staking solution for TAO tokens on the Ethereum network that introduces stTAO, an ERC-20 liquid staking derivative to simplify participation in the Bittensor ecosystem.

Users can stake their TAO tokens and receive stTAO in return through an EVM-compatible wallet without the need for a Bittensor-compatible wallet. The wallet integrates Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) for cross-chain staking across Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum, and Optimism.

Source: Tensorplex Stake

To encourage participation, Tensorplex Stake features a reward mechanism where users earn stTAO Intelligence Chips by;

• Holding stTAO on Ethereum or Base
• Providing liquidity for stTAO/ETH, stTAO/USDC pools on Uniswap v3 (Ethereum Mainnet) or Aerodome (Base Chain)
• Bridging TAO to Ethereum via Tensorplex Bridge
• Bridging TAO from the Bittensor Finney Network to Ethereum

stTAO holders can also be eligible for airdrops from Tensorplex partnerships.

To interact with Tensorplex Stake, you can purchase TAO tokens from Gate.io and withdraw them to your EVM-compatible wallet.

TPLX LLM

Source: Tensorplex

Tensorplex Labs is developing a large language model (LLM) tailored for decentralized applications within the Web3 ecosystem. Its current model; (tensorplex-labs/Sumo-T9-7B-v0.1) has outperformed notable models such as TII Falcon 7B and Meta’s Llama-2-7b-hf.

Tensorplex Stream

Source: Tensorplex

Tensorplex Stream is an AI-powered application that aggregates and summarizes relevant information to cryptocurrency investors. Currently in its beta phase, the platform curates content from key opinion leaders in the Web3 space and provides insights into the latest developments within the crypto industry.

Stream is a showcase application built by the Tensorplex team to demonstrate using existing Bittensor Subnets to power consumer Web3 platforms.

Tensorplex REP

REP is a large language model-powered community management and helpdesk chatbot that automatically answers questions, manages and moderates discussions, and handles tickets for Web3 Projects.

Impact of Tensorplex on the Bittensor Ecosystem

Ecosystem Growth

Tensorplex’s liquid staking platform holds over $8 million in total value locked as of March 2025, and recent investment from YZI Labs, sparked a 500% surge in the Dojo Subnet project within a single day, signaling strong market interest in decentralized artificial intelligence.

As Tensorplex continues to refine its products and form strategic partnerships, it is expected to gain more industry mindshare.

AI and DeFi Integration

Through platforms like Backprop Finance, Tensorplex is merging artificial intelligence (AI) with decentralized finance (DeFi); the trading of dTAO tokens tied to different Bittensor Subnets could drive the creation of new financial products and services, expanding the utility and accessibility of both sectors.

Cross-Subnet Validation & External Access

Tensorplex enables cross-subnet validation, where validators assess outputs across multiple subnets, improving AI model reliability. External entities outside the Bittensor network can tap into these subnets to access high-quality, human-generated data for AI applications.

Conclusion

Tensorplex Labs is building the required infrastructure to merge decentralized technology with artificial intelligence, setting the stage for a future where AI development is more collaborative and fair. Their innovative products, such as Dojo, make AI training more effective and invite a wider range of contributors to the table, creating an inclusive community.

Backprop Finance is another platform that would support the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) on Bittensor by creating a decentralized exchange for Bittensor subnet tokens.

With companies like Tensorplex paving the way, the next era of technology appears to be heading toward a more selfless direction.