Gensyn, a decentralized AI infrastructure network backed by a16z crypto and others, has launched its flagship product, Delphi, an AI-settled information markets platform aimed at opening a new category of niche, creator-owned markets.

"These are not prediction markets, they are information markets," Gensyn said Wednesday. "Once a market is live, no single centralized entity controls it — outcomes are settled by AI, with revenue distributed to the creator automatically via USDC."

Gensyn argues that existing prediction market platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi are limited by some centralized control, as they decide which markets get listed, how outcomes are resolved, and who can participate. It also said creators who build audiences around niche topics are not compensated, despite contributing specialized knowledge that can increase market value.

"Delphi isn't directly competing with Polymarket and Kalshi for the same markets," Gensyn co-founder and CEO Ben Fielding told The Block. "The strategy is to open up an entirely new category of niche, creator-owned markets that those platforms would never build. The long tail is the point."

Fielding said the model could also expand access to AI development by making information publicly available for training, similar to how the internet democratized publishing.

"Long term, information markets like Delphi will be the driver for autonomous machine learning, with models training over decentralized resources (GPU compute, data, information) and improving against a clear objective of real-world value accrual from information trading," he said.

AI-settled information markets 

Delphi is built on Gensyn's decentralized AI infrastructure network, which operates as a Layer 2 network on Ethereum using the OP Stack. The platform settles markets using AI and what Gensyn describes as "verifiable intelligent oracles, not insiders."

Rather than a human or company deciding outcomes, the market creator selects an AI model upfront before the market is created, Fielding explained. The model's weights are fixed at that point, so they cannot be changed later, he said. Anyone can rerun the model's reasoning to verify results using Gensyn's proprietary "reproducible execution environment" technology, which ensures identical outputs across different hardware setups, including GPUs, CPUs, and data centers, Fielding noted.

"Using REE, machine learning decisions can be fully audited and verified," he said.

Gensyn said Delphi has already recorded "millions" in trading volume during its testnet phase, which began last December. The platform is now launching with an invite-only model for market creators, while trading will be open to all users. The creator whitelist will expand over time until the platform becomes fully open and automated, Fielding said, adding that a mainnet launch is expected in the coming weeks.

The AI token

Gensyn's economic model is built around its native yet-to-be-launched AI token, which serves as the core token across its ecosystem, including Delphi. The protocol charges a 0.5% fee on all volume, which will be used to buy the AI token and burn a portion of it, creating a mechanism for value accrual across the network, Fielding said.

"As machine learning scales across the network and trades information, this fee will continue to scale with it, creating a flywheel of network value accrual based on open source and permissionless AI progress," he added.

As for creator income, Fielding said creators earn a 1.5% fee on total trading volume if the market settles successfully. "This is equivalent to their payment for posing a valuable and interesting question that aggregated genuine information (i.e., trading signals)," he said.

Meanwhile, participants receive a multiple on their trade if their information is correct and lose their stake if their information is incorrect, Fielding said. He declined to comment on the AI token launch timeline.

Delphi vs. Polymarket and Kalshi

Polymarket and Kalshi are already huge players with billions of dollars in monthly trading volume. When asked how Delphi plans to attract users and liquidity, Fielding said the 1.5% fee paid to creators in USDC is "a genuine revenue stream, not just an engagement tool."

On liquidity, he said the initial market structure is designed to be self-balancing without external market makers. For more complex markets, Delphi is in discussions with liquidity providers, he added.

Gensyn is backed by notable investors, including a16z crypto, Galaxy Digital, and CoinFund, and has raised over $78 million in total funding since its founding in 2020. Most recently, the Gensyn Foundation raised $16.14 million in commitments and $11.7 million in proceeds after refunds through an AI token sale in December, Fielding said. Earlier, in October, Gensyn raised $16.7 million in a venture round led by a16z crypto, valuing the network at $1 billion fully diluted, he added. In 2023, Gensyn raised $43 million in a Series A round led by a16z crypto and previously raised over $7 million in seed and pre-seed rounds.

"Here's the future we'd like to see: AI models buy information from humans to get smarter, and humans get better predictions because AI contributes too. It becomes a self-reinforcing open ecosystem. It's more of a public utility, than a private entity," Gensyn said.