Introduction
In a move that could reshape how artificial intelligence interacts with user data, ZetaChain has launched Anuma, a privacy-first AI interface built on its new ZetaChain 2.0 platform. This development extends the company’s blockchain unification thesis to the fragmented AI landscape, introducing private, user-controlled memory and cross-model interoperability as default features. With leadership from Basic Attention Token (BAT) co-creator Ankur Nandwani and backing from a $27 million funding round, ZetaChain aims to apply the privacy-by-default principles that succeeded with the Brave browser to the next major consumer interface: AI.
Key Points
- ZetaChain 2.0 introduces an AI interoperability layer with Private Memory Layer protocol that encrypts and permission user context across sessions
- The platform addresses AI ecosystem fragmentation where only 9% of consumers use multiple paid AI services, reducing developer lock-in and infrastructure duplication
- Anuma serves as the first consumer showcase, providing multi-model AI access with persistent private memory, applying Brave browser's privacy-by-default approach to AI interfaces
Addressing AI Fragmentation with a Unified Layer
The AI adoption curve is steep—McKinsey notes ChatGPT reached 100 million users in two months, and OpenAI reported 800 million weekly active users by late 2025. Yet this rapid growth has created a deeply fragmented ecosystem. According to the announcement, only 9% of consumers pay for more than one AI subscription across major assistants. This fragmentation creates lock-in at the model layer, forcing developers to repeatedly rebuild integration, routing, state, and billing infrastructure while user privacy and data are routinely shared across applications, agents, and model providers.
ZetaChain, which scaled to more than 11.5 million users and processed over 225 million transactions in 2025 by addressing fragmentation in Web3, is now applying its ‘unification thesis’ to AI. ZetaChain 2.0 is positioned as an AI interoperability layer designed to let developers build applications and agents that work across AI models, preserve private user context, and monetize globally without bespoke backend infrastructure. This represents a strategic expansion from its core competency of enabling universal applications that natively access assets like BTC and execute across multiple blockchains.
The Architecture: AI Portal and Private Memory Layer
ZetaChain 2.0 is architecturally composed of two core components designed to solve interoperability and privacy challenges. The first is the AI Portal, a unified routing and execution layer that allows applications to access multiple AI model providers without lock-in. It includes built-in support for availability, fallback, and cost-performance optimization, effectively abstracting the complexity of managing multiple AI backends.
The second, and perhaps more groundbreaking component, is the Private Memory Layer. This is a protocol-level memory system designed to keep user context encrypted and permissioned. It enables persistent experiences across AI sessions and applications while maintaining user control over what specific applications and agents can access. This directly addresses the pervasive privacy concerns in an ecosystem where user data and context are typically shared across platforms.
Alongside these protocol components, ZetaChain is releasing a developer SDK that packages private persistent memory, cross-model interoperability, and monetization primitives into a single toolkit. The goal is to lower the barrier for building privacy-first apps that maintain continuity across sessions, connect to multiple model providers, and support global monetization—from onchain settlement to traditional payment processors.
Anuma: The First Consumer Showcase and the Privacy Legacy
Anuma serves as the inaugural consumer AI interface built on ZetaChain 2.0. The product provides a single experience for accessing multiple leading AI models, supports switching between them without losing context, and is designed so that a user’s memory remains private and user-controlled. A public waitlist for early access has been announced.
The privacy-first philosophy is no accident. The initiative is led by Ankur Nandwani, a Core Contributor at ZetaChain who previously co-created the Basic Attention Token (BAT), which powers the Brave browser ecosystem with over 100 million monthly active users. “Brave and BAT proved that privacy-first defaults can win at consumer scale,” Nandwani stated. “We’ve already unified the blockchain experience at scale… ZetaChain 2.0 extends that same approach to AI.”
This launch is backed by significant venture capital, following a $27 million funding round in 2023 with participation from Blockchain.com, Human Capital, VY Capital, Sky9 Capital, Jane Street Capital, and others. The company, based in San Francisco, USA, is betting that the combination of its proven blockchain infrastructure, a privacy-centric ethos borrowed from Brave’s success, and a timely solution to AI fragmentation will catalyze the next generation of apps, agents, and experiences that run across both models and chains.
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