Phase

Phase is a Layer 1 blockchain network designed to support an economy driven by artificial-intelligence agents. It launched its mainnet on October 29, 2026, alongside Phase Proxy, a service that routes agents’ web requests through internet connections shared by network participants. Phase’s services are intended to combine web access, AI-model routing, distributed computing, and payments.^[1]​^[2]​

History and Funding

Phase was founded by Kirill Eves, who also founded payments company Unlimit in 2009. Unlimit said in December 2025 that it served more than 50,000 businesses worldwide; it operates in more than 180 countries and handles over $40 billion in payments annually.^[1]​^[2]​

At the mainnet launch, Eves committed $45 million to Phase. The commitment was intended to fund the project’s first two years of development and provide a further two years of runway. Phase said it had no outside investors.^[1]​^[2]​

Eves said Phase was designed to let people operate infrastructure for the AI economy using devices they already own and share in the value it creates. He argued that control over AI-agent infrastructure would affect what people could accomplish and should not be concentrated in a single company.^[2]​

Network and Participation

Phase uses a decentralized network of consumer devices to help secure the blockchain and supply bandwidth and processing capacity for its AI services. Smartphones are the first supported devices.

Users can join through the Phase app and earn PHASE tokens by validating blocks; they can also contribute connectivity through Phase Proxy and, as Phase’s other services become available, computing and inference capacity.^[1]​^[2]​

The network uses reputation-based consensus to reward reliable contributors and select validators at random. It also checks the authenticity of devices and node software, a design Phase says is intended to prevent a small number of large operators from dominating participation. Unlike networks that depend on specialized servers and staked tokens, Phase allows people to participate with devices they already own, without purchasing additional equipment or committing funds upfront.^[2]​

Phase adjusts device participation according to battery level and connectivity. Eves said current flagship smartphones can deliver approximately 35–45 tera operations per second (TOPS), depending on the device, enabling them to run smaller open-weight AI models locally.^[1]​

Services

Phase Proxy

Launched with the mainnet, Phase Proxy routes AI agents’ web requests through mobile and residential internet connections contributed by network participants. Phase presents the service as a way to help agents reach websites that might otherwise block or restrict their traffic.^[1]​^[2]​

The service addresses restrictions that can affect automated traffic from data centers. Eves said websites routinely block or rate-limit such traffic, creating a barrier for agents that need to work across multiple sites. Cloudflare provides website owners with controls for AI traffic; its settings for new domains block agent and training traffic on pages displaying ads.^[1]​

Phase’s stated Proxy pricing starts at 0.5 USDT per 1,000 requests plus 1 gigabyte of traffic. The company cited Proxyway’s 2026 industry research, which it said found that entry-level mobile proxy providers typically charged more than $5 per gigabyte.^[2]​

Phase Router and Phase Compute

Phase planned to launch Phase Router and Phase Compute in November 2026. Router is intended to provide a single gateway to leading AI models and direct requests according to quality, speed, and cost. Compute is intended to pool processing capacity from devices across the network to run open-weight models and provide decentralized AI inference to agents.^[1]​^[2]​

Phase also said it planned to develop a proprietary AI model to serve as the platform’s core intelligence. The company described the model’s intended role as carrying out sophisticated reasoning, completing complex tasks independently, and managing other models. It also planned to expand device support beyond smartphones to desktops, servers, and graphics processing units.^[1]​^[2]​

Token and Payments

PHASE is Phase’s native token. Device owners can earn it for validating blocks and receive additional rewards for supplying connectivity, inference, and computing capacity. Phase says rewards are tied to uptime, participation levels, and customer demand.^[1]​^[2]​

​AI agents on Phase can make on-chain payments using stablecoins or PHASE. The services use pay-as-you-go billing and support the x402 payment standard and EVM-compatible smart contracts. Phase plans to use part of its service revenue to buy PHASE on the open market and distribute tokens to node operators in proportion to their contributions.^[2]​^[1]​