Introduction
In a move poised to reshape the fragmented artificial intelligence landscape, ZetaChain has launched ZetaChain 2.0 alongside its first consumer application, Anuma—a privacy-first AI interface. Developed by Ankur Nandwani, co-creator of the Basic Attention Token (BAT) that powers the Brave browser, the platform applies a ‘privacy by default’ philosophy to AI, aiming to unify access to multiple models while keeping user memory encrypted and user-controlled. This initiative directly tackles the industry’s twin challenges of consumer lock-in and developer infrastructure fragmentation.
Key Points
- Anuma applies Brave's 'privacy by default' model to AI, offering encrypted user memory and multi-model access without lock-in.
- ZetaChain 2.0 introduces an AI Portal for cross-model routing and a Private Memory Layer to keep user context secure and portable.
- The platform includes a developer SDK that bundles privacy, interoperability, and monetization tools, aiming to reduce infrastructure overhead for AI app builders.
From Web3 Unification to AI Interoperability
ZetaChain’s core thesis has been unification. Originally built to address fragmentation in Web3 by enabling “universal apps” that can natively access assets like BTC across multiple blockchains, the network has already scaled significantly. In 2025 alone, it processed more than 225 million transactions for over 11.5 million users. With ZetaChain 2.0, the San Francisco-based company is extending this unification principle from blockchains to artificial intelligence. The goal is to create a foundational layer where applications can operate seamlessly across both chains and AI models, with built-in permissions and private user context.
The timing is strategic. AI adoption is accelerating at internet scale, with OpenAI reporting 800 million weekly active users by late 2025 and ChatGPT famously reaching 100 million users in just two months. Yet, as noted by McKinsey, this rapid growth has led to a deeply fragmented ecosystem. The press release highlights a critical data point: only 9% of consumers pay for more than one AI subscription across major assistants. This creates model-layer lock-in for users and forces developers to repeatedly rebuild the same complex infrastructure for integration, routing, state management, and billing, all while user privacy is routinely compromised as data is shared across applications and model providers.
The Architecture of ZetaChain 2.0: Portal and Private Memory
ZetaChain 2.0 is architected as an AI interoperability layer composed of two core components designed to solve these problems. The first is the AI Portal, a unified routing and execution layer. It allows applications to access multiple AI model providers—such as OpenAI and others—without vendor lock-in. The portal includes built-in support for availability, fallback mechanisms, and cost-performance optimization, abstracting away the complexity for developers.
The second, and perhaps more revolutionary, component is the Private Memory Layer. This is a protocol-level system designed to keep user context—the memory and history of interactions—encrypted and permissioned. It enables persistent, continuous experiences across different AI sessions and applications while ensuring the user retains ultimate control over what specific applications or AI agents can access. This directly addresses the pervasive privacy concerns in today’s AI ecosystem, applying the principle that helped Brave browser gain over 100 million monthly active users: user control by default.
To empower developers, ZetaChain is releasing a comprehensive Software Development Kit (SDK). This toolkit packages the private persistent memory, cross-model interoperability, and monetization primitives into a single suite. The objective is to drastically simplify the process of building privacy-first AI apps and agents. Developers can create applications that maintain user continuity, connect to multiple model backends, and integrate global monetization rails—from onchain crypto settlement to traditional payment processors—without needing to construct this bespoke infrastructure from scratch.
Anuma: The First Consumer Showcase and Strategic Vision
Anuma serves as the inaugural consumer-facing proof-of-concept for ZetaChain 2.0. This AI interface provides users with a single portal to access multiple leading AI models, the ability to switch between them without losing conversational context, and the assurance that their memory remains private and user-owned. A public waitlist for early access is now open, marking the beta launch of the product.
The strategic vision is championed by Ankur Nandwani, a Core Contributor at ZetaChain. “Brave and BAT proved that privacy-first defaults can win at consumer scale,” Nandwani stated, drawing a direct line from his previous success. “We’ve already unified the blockchain experience at scale… ZetaChain 2.0 extends that same approach to AI, enabling the next generation of apps and agents that run across models and chains with private, permissioned memory and global monetization by default.” This vision is backed by substantial venture capital, including a $27 million funding round in 2023 with participation from Blockchain.com, Human Capital, VY Capital, Jane Street Capital, and others.
By positioning itself as the universal layer for both AI and Web3, ZetaChain is betting that the next evolution of digital experiences will require seamless interoperability not just across blockchains, but across intelligence models, all underpinned by uncompromising user privacy. The launch of Anuma and the ZetaChain 2.0 developer platform represents a concerted effort to build that foundation, challenging the current walled-garden model of AI development and offering a new paradigm centered on user ownership and control.
📎 Related coverage from: cryptopotato.com
