Unlimit founder commits $45M to launch Phase, a blockchain for AI agents
What's the deal? Phase, a new Layer 1 blockchain that lets smartphone owners earn tokens by validating transactions and sharing internet connections with AI agents, launched its mainnet on Thursday with a $45 million commitment from Kirill EvesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, founder of payments company UnlimitDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
What's the endgame? Phase wants to build infrastructure for an AI agent economy, letting agents browse the web and process transactions through everyday consumer devices rather than data centers. Alongside the mainnet, it launched Phase Proxy, a service that routes agents' web requests through connections that smartphone owners choose to share.
The pitch targets a real pain point for agents. "Websites routinely block or rate-limit automated traffic originating from data centers, even when an agent is acting on a legitimate user request," Eves said. Phase plans to add AI computing and model-routing services in November.
Why now? AI agents increasingly act on users' behalf and need cheap, unrestricted web access at scale. Phase bets the answer lies in billions of phones. It also drops the usual barriers to running a validator — no token stake and no specialized hardware — and participants earn PHASE tokens for securing the network and handling proxy traffic.
About the backer: Eves founded Unlimit in 2009 and built it into a global payments company serving more than 50,000 businesses across over 180 countries. Unlimit has highlighted stablecoin services as a growth area, making its founder's interest in blockchain rails less of a departure than it might seem.
What could go wrong? The $45 million is a commitment from a single backer, not a priced venture round — it covers two years of development plus two more of runway, but concentrates influence in one person. The core services remain promises: AI computing and model routing only arrive in November, and revenue must eventually fund token rewards to keep the model running.
The signal: Phase enters the crowded field of decentralized physical infrastructure and AI compute with sizable early backing, but its launch is still more promise than proven demand. Its significance will hinge on whether phone-based bandwidth and computing can deliver reliable services at meaningful scale.
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