​
Why Decentralization Matters

While AI Agents are already changing industries, their reliance on centralized infrastructure presents challenges. Many AI systems today:

Depend on corporate-controlled servers, limiting transparency and control. Operate as black boxes, making it difficult to verify decision-making processes. Are vulnerable to single points of failure, where outages or system failures disrupt operations.

Decentralization addresses these challenges by removing intermediaries and ensuring transparency. When AI Agents are integrated with blockchain networks, their decisions can be:

  1. Verifiable – Every action is recorded on-chain, ensuring auditability.
  2. Resilient – Agents operate across distributed networks, reducing reliance on single entities.
  3. Trustless – AI Agents can execute smart contracts and transactions autonomously.

This is particularly relevant for applications in finance, governance, and automation, where verifiability is critical. A decentralized AI Agent in DeFi, for instance, can monitor liquidity pools, optimize trading strategies, and adjust risk exposure—all while maintaining full transparency.

However, for AI Agents to function effectively in decentralized environments, they need robust, scalable infrastructure —this is where NEAR AI comes in.