Introduction
In the recent sluggish market, a project combining blockchain and artificial intelligence has been quietly cultivating and is about to officially launch its mainnet, which is the focus of this article—Lightchain AI. It introduces a unique "Intelligent Proof of Interest," integrating the dynamic adaptability of AI into the decentralized network of blockchain, and handles related costs and incentives through the governance token $LCAI. This article will help you understand the highlights of Lightchain AI and discuss the concerns existing in the online community, analyzing whether it is a cross-generational product or just a rehash of old ideas.
Introduction to Lightchain AI
Lightchain AI is an emerging platform that combines AI technology with blockchain technology. In addition to the existing blockchain mechanism, three additional innovative blockchain technologies have been added, aiming to create a high-speed blockchain that adjusts dynamically through AI.
Core Technology:
AI-Optimized Sharding
Lightchain will hand over sharding technology to the AI Virtual Machine (AIVM) to continuously analyze blockchain load, thereby increasing or decreasing the number of blockchain shards to enhance efficiency and save costs. The official claims that AI-optimized sharding will aim to process 100,000 transactions per second, which is relatively fast compared to most existing blockchains.
Smart Contracts 2.0
Lightchain describes its AI version of smart contracts as smart contracts 2.0. The difference from traditional smart contracts is that smart contracts 2.0 embeds lightweight AI models within the smart contracts, allowing AI to automatically assess the fairest interest rates based on predictions, risk assessments, and other modules, which will be a major innovation for DeFi.
Proof of Intelligence (PoI)
POI Intelligent Proof, proposed by Lightchain, is a new type of technology. POI does not rely on token holdings (PoS) to verify transactions; instead, it maintains the security and operation of the network by rewarding nodes for executing valuable AI activities. These activities include training language models, reasoning, and optimization, aiming to convert the computational resources of the blockchain into contributions beneficial for AI technology development.
The Origin and Vision of Lightchain AI
Lightchain AI officially debuted in 2024. Although the team members have not been publicly disclosed, it is speculated that the core of the team consists of technical talents from the blockchain industry. The reason for creating Lightchain is due to observations of the high gas fees of Ethereum and the occasional network congestion of Solana, leading to the decision to develop Lightchain utilizing AI technology to improve these issues.
Future Vision
The team aims to create a "smart decentralized network" by combining the transparency and security of blockchain with the computational power of artificial intelligence, making blockchain not limited to the financial sector but able to expand into many industries for better utilization. The white paper clearly states: "We do not intend to simply replace existing public chains but hope to provide a smart and scalable platform for the next generation of applications." This is specifically reflected in the following three major aspects:
Improving Blockchain Efficiency: Lightchain aims to improve issues such as blockchain network congestion and high costs.
Promoting Decentralized AI: Currently, AI technology is mainly dominated by large tech companies. It is hoped that through the decentralized nature of blockchain, the training process of AI can become more transparent.
Cross-industry Applications: The project is not limited to the DeFi sector but also aims to expand into industries such as healthcare (AI data analysis) and supply chains (AI real-time optimization).
Lightchain AI Roadmap
The official Lightchain website clearly outlines the development stages. From the author's perspective, the project has remained on track, so we can expect to see Lightchain officially launch its mainnet within the next 2 to 3 months. Below is a roadmap of past, present, and future developments, which may serve as a reference for those wanting to learn more about the project.
2024-2025 Q1: Project Debuts and Testnet Launches
The project officially debuted, presenting new technologies such as Intelligent Proof of Interest (PoI), Artificial Intelligence Virtual Machine (AIVM), and AI-optimized sharding to the market, while launching the Lightchain testnet. In addition to providing user experiences, it also allows the project to observe any usage issues.
The governance token $LCAI opened its pre-sale phase shortly after the project debut, with the current pre-sale price at 0.007125 USDT/$LCAI. However, the author does not recommend participating in the pre-sale hastily, and the reasons will be explained later along with the controversies.
2025 Q2 (Current Stage): Testing completed, preparing for mainnet launch
As of the time of writing, the official claim is that the testnet has completed 90% of its deployment and is planned to be opened to all users in April. The main purpose is to showcase the high throughput that Lightchain is proud of and to demonstrate the first batch of decentralized applications (DApps). The mainnet is expected to launch in mid-April, at which point the official website will be launched, and the governance token $LCAI will be opened for staking.
2025 Q3-Q4: Ecosystem Expansion and Community Feedback
After the mainnet launch, various DApps will be gradually listed, covering applications in DeFi, data storage, and AI model trading for users to choose from. The Lightchain official roadmap claims that it will continuously optimize PoI and AVIM without affecting current performance, while also listening to community feedback for frequent updates.
Future Challenges of Lightchain AI
As a project combining blockchain and artificial intelligence, Lightchain AI presents very novel ideas but still faces many challenges both before and after the mainnet launch.
Anonymous Team
Even if the testnet performs well, many users still question why Lightchain has not publicly disclosed its team members. Once the project opts for anonymous development, if there are technical failures, fund management issues, or delays in progress, users will not be able to seek effective assistance, which may lead to a loss of confidence in the project.
Technical Challenges
The new technologies claimed by Lightchain (PoI, AIVM) seem quite ideal, but such new technologies still require market validation to determine whether issues like network congestion and smart contract vulnerabilities will occur. The currently claimed 100,000 TPS has not yet been confirmed as real efficiency. If there is a gap between the launch of the mainnet and the claims, it may shake investor willingness.
Market Competition
Ultimately, whether Lightchain can survive in the market will test its viability. Whether against mature public chains (like Ethereum, Solana) or other AI projects (like Fetch.AI), it must prove that it is competitive; otherwise, the characteristics of its anonymous team will place it at a disadvantage.
Lightchain AI Controversies
During the data collection, the author saw posts on Reddit discussing whether Lightchain is a scam project. The discussions in the post and comments generally revolve around the following three points:
Purchased $LCAI tokens but not displayed in the wallet
The pre-sale phase has lasted too long
Difficult to Trust Anonymous Team
After reviewing related articles, the author has compiled the relevant responses as follows:
Since $LCAI is a pre-sale token and has not yet been listed, it currently has no value and will not be actively displayed in wallets. Investors can check "Can’t find token in your wallet?" for instructions on how to import $LCAI.
Indeed, the project began splitting the pre-sale into multiple stages from its initial development phase, but if the funds raised on the official website are accurate, it indicates that there are still investors willing to buy in.
The anonymous team, as mentioned earlier, can make investors lack confidence in their investment. However, some internet users have indicated that many projects start from anonymity, so whether an anonymous team is trustworthy will depend on the individual.
Is Lightchain an innovation or an old theme?
Having reviewed the aforementioned advantages and controversies regarding Lightchain, this section will summarize whether Lightchain truly possesses unique advantages or if it revolves around old themes.
Innovative Ideas of Lightchain
The dual value of PoI: In addition to being used for transaction verification, PoI can also convert the computational power of nodes into tradable assets, such as selling the training data obtained during the process to others, thus creating additional economic value.
AVIM Native AI Execution: Allows smart contracts 2.0 to run lightweight AI models with risk assessment and market forecasting directly on-chain without the need for external oracles.
Low-barrier ecosystem participation: PoI and AIVM support low-computational nodes to participate in AI tasks, enabling ordinary users to earn $LCAI by providing computational power or potentially running simple AI models on their own devices and receiving rewards.
Overlap with Existing Projects
Decentralized AI: The concept of decentralized AI was proposed long ago when projects like Fetch.AI that promote artificial intelligence emerged. If Lightchain cannot deliver concrete results, it will not effectively attract investors in AI.
Cross-industry Applications: Lightchain's claim that AI can be applied across various industries is also very common in blockchain. For example, VeChain focuses on supply chains, IOST emphasizes healthcare and finance; almost every public chain claims to be cross-industry.
High TPS Expectations: High TPS is one of the most common slogans for next-generation public chains. To date, Lightchain's mainnet has not officially launched, and there is no data to indicate whether it can reach the anticipated 100,000 TPS, so it is impossible to determine whether they are merely slogans or genuinely achievable high efficiency.
Lightchain AI Pre-sale Situation
According to the latest post released by Lightchain AI on the X platform, a total of $19 million has been raised in the pre-sale so far, and it is currently in the final stage of the pre-sale. Therefore, it can be inferred that the total pre-sale revenue for the project is approximately between $19 million and $20 million.
Similar AI Projects
The nearly $20 million raised in the pre-sale shows the market's acceptance of its vision of integrating AI and blockchain. We can assess the potential price range for $LCAI at its future listing by comparing it to similar projects already on the market.
Fetch.AI ($FET): A decentralized AI platform primarily relying on data sharing to achieve AI task execution.
Render Network ($RNDR): Utilizes blockchain to provide decentralized GPU computing power primarily for AI model training.
Bittensor ($TAO): A decentralized machine learning network that incentivizes nodes to share AI models through the $TAO token.
$LCAI Valuation Comparison
The following assessment will be based on the aforementioned similar projects to estimate the possible price of $LCAI at listing (assuming an initial circulation of 40%).
Comparing the pre-purchase price of 0.007125, demanding that Lightchain's listing matches many mature projects is clearly unrealistic. However, we can refer to the initial market value of similar projects, which is around $100 to $200 million. In comparison, the price of $LCAI will likely be in the range of 0.25 to 0.5, with pre-purchase rewards reaching 3 to 7 times, which seems much more reasonable.
$LCAI Token Distribution
The total supply of $LCAI is one billion tokens, distributed as follows:
Pre-sale (40%): The pre-sale phase reserves tokens for early supporters and investors to fund platform development.
Staking Rewards (28.5%): Used to distribute rewards for staking $LCAI on the official website.
Liquidity Pool (15%): Ensures market liquidity and reduces trading slippage.
Global Marketing (5%): Aims to promote the platform and enhance the visibility of Lightchain.
Treasury (6.5%): Reserved for future development and operational expenses, ensuring the sustainability of the ecosystem.
Team (5%): Through the distribution of planned rewards to the core team and contributors, ensuring long-term growth.
Conclusion
As the anticipation of Lightchain's mainnet launch approaches, we, as users, can observe whether the innovative PoI and AIVM technologies can resolve existing blockchain bottlenecks and lead the market into a new wave of AI enthusiasm. However, for users who wish to invest or pre-purchase $LCAI, waiting may be a better choice. After all, while Lightchain has innovative ideas and technologies, the market needs to validate these before the results can be known. If you are interested in the AI blockchain sector, be sure to conduct thorough research before investing.
This report is for informational sharing only and does not constitute any form of investment advice or decision basis. The data, analysis, and opinions cited in this document are based on the author's research and public sources, which may contain uncertainties or be subject to change at any time. Readers should carefully make investment judgments based on their own circumstances and risk tolerance. For further guidance, it is recommended to seek professional advice.