Unlimit Founder Backs Phase Blockchain With $45M as Mainnet Goes Live

Phase has launched its mainnet alongside Phase Proxy after securing a $45 million funding commitment from Unlimit founder Kirill Eves ¹. The capital covers the project's initial two years of development and finances an additional two years of operational runway, according to the team ¹. The network operates without outside venture investors ¹.

The project aims to address restrictions imposed on autonomous AI agents by traditional web infrastructure ¹. Platforms such as Cloudflare frequently block or rate-limit automated data-center traffic, which restricts AI agents executing actions across web platforms ¹. To circumvent these bottlenecks, Phase Proxy routes agent requests through consumer internet connections provided by smartphones ¹. Device owners participate through a mobile application, receiving $PHASE tokens in return for validating blocks and routing proxy traffic ¹. The application dynamically adjusts network activity based on device connectivity and battery levels ¹.

Mobile AI Compute Rollout

Phase intends to broaden its network utility beyond web routing by rolling out two additional protocols in November ¹. The upcoming release includes an AI compute service enabling smartphone hardware to execute smaller, open-weight models locally, as well as a routing mechanism designed to direct queries across different AI systems ¹. Eves noted that modern flagship smartphones provide roughly 35 to 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of processing capacity, making localized inference viable ¹.

The protocol intends to expand hardware support to include servers, personal computers, and dedicated graphics processing units, while also pursuing the development of an in-house model ¹. Commercial revenue generated from these enterprise offerings will be allocated to purchase $PHASE on open markets to distribute node operator incentives ¹. At the time of writing, the broader digital asset market was largely steady, with $BTC trading around $80,025 and $ETH at $2,320.