2025 Annual Report: From Genesis to Global Deployments

TL;RD

• Mainnet Launch and Consensus: Ratio1 launched in May of 2025, bringing online its genesis node and inaugurating the network on Coinbase’s Base chain. The dual-consensus model - Proof-of-Availability (PoA) for uptime and Proof-of-AI (PoAI) for real AI work - successfully began minting the genesis R1 tokens through actual usage of the genesis cluster instead of any ICO.

• Node Network Growth: The public Node Deed (ND) license sale opened in June, onboarding the first wave of decentralized node operators. By year’s end, over 100 licensed edge nodes were running globally, collectively contributing hundreds of CPU cores and tens of terabytes of memory and storage to the network. These community-run nodes earned R1 rewards via PoA for staying online and via PoAI for executing jobs - validating Ratio1’s "AI supercomputer for everyone" vision.

• Cloud Services & Orchestration: The Deeploy platform went live (v1 in August, v2 by Q4), giving Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) a user-friendly experience and APIs to deploy containerized applications across the Ratio1 network. CSPs - essentially franchise-like node operators who underwent KYB/KYC and licensing - could launch projects, manage jobs, and utilize on-chain escrow payments. Deeploy introduced features like one-click container orchestration, automated job scheduling, live job editing, and a trustless escrow system holding payments in stablecoins until AI tasks complete. These advances made decentralized deployment as seamless as a traditional cloud, bridging Web2 simplicity with Web3 infrastructure.

• Real-World Deployments: 2025 saw multiple real applications migrate to or build on Ratio1’s decentralized cloud. In July, Build21 - a blockchain-driven real estate platform - was successfully migrated from AWS to Ratio1, proving that enterprise web apps can run securely on distributed nodes with significant cost savings. By Q3/Q4, partners launched new services natively on Ratio1: for example, KeySoft’s KeyTrial platform for clinical trial management and SmartClover’s CerviGuard AI tool for cervical cancer screening. These deployments leveraged Ratio1’s encrypted storage, on-demand compute, and global node network to achieve high reliability and privacy standards not easily attainable on centralized clouds.

• Developer Tools & Frameworks: A rich ecosystem of developer tools blossomed throughout the year. The open-source RedMesh framework was introduced in August, enabling decentralized continuous monitoring penetration testing jobs to run across many nodes in parallel - a first-of-its-kind capability for continuous security scanning. The Worker App Runner plugin arrived in September, letting developers deploy code from a Git repository directly to edge nodes without pre-built images, greatly simplifying CI/CD. J33VES, an open agent framework, allowed building custom AI assistants on Ratio1’s infrastructure (KeySoft used it to generate databases and chatbots from natural language). Additionally, the AI-for-Everyone Creation Toolkit (a low-code app builder) and LabelCraft (a crowdsourced data labeling dApp) entered beta, lowering barriers for non-specialists to utilize AI on the platform. Ratio1 also rolled out official SDKs for TypeScript and Go, plus integrations for Node.js - expanding access for developers in multiple language communities.

• Security and Privacy Enhancements: Ratio1’s architecture matured with a strong security focus. The built-in R1FS distributed file system and CStore database provided encrypted storage and state sharing across nodes, ensuring data privacy for applications. dAuth (decentralized authentication) enabled password-free, key-based identity management for users and services. The network’s new RedMesh tool reinforced cybersecurity by allowing continuous, trustless monitoring/pentesting from different geographic nodes, with results recorded on-chain. Overall, every job and node action on Ratio1 was cryptographically signed and verified via blockchain, yielding a highly trustless yet secure cloud environment with clear permissioned safeguards for sovereign application deployment and data storage.

• Token Mechanics and Sustainability: The R1 token economy operated entirely through network participation in 2025. Master Node Deeds (MNDs) - reserved for core contributors - began their vesting schedule after genesis, while public Node Deeds continually sold in tiered batches (starting at the initial $500 tier) to decentralize ownership. Importantly, 0% of tokens were released via public sale; all R1 in circulation was earned by running nodes or performing AI jobs. The protocol’s economic design proved effective: Node Operators received ongoing PoA rewards (each ND entitles ~1,575 R1 over 36 months of uptime) and PoAI fees for useful work, while the system automatically burned portions of tokens (e.g. 20% of each ND purchase and a cut of each job fee) to prevent inflation. This utilitarian token model tied the token supply to real usage, aligning incentives for long-term network growth rather than speculation.

• Partnerships and Community: In tandem with technical milestones, Ratio1 expanded its community and strategic reach. The team engaged in industry events (such as Lugano’s Plan₿ Forum) to showcase the platform’s capabilities in AI and blockchain. By Q4, Ratio1 had joined forces with over a dozen organizations across 15+ countries - from universities to enterprises - in consortium bids for EU innovation programs. These partnerships aim to apply Ratio1’s decentralized AI tech in large-scale cybersecurity and healthcare initiatives, underlining broad interest in the platform. Meanwhile, community growth was spurred by educational content: weekly "Ratio1 Talks" sessions, TikTok micro-tutorials, and the launch of Ratio1 Courses helped onboard new developers and node runners.

Protocol Launch and Technical Evolution

We had a great launch year, beginning with the mainnet activation in late May. This genesis event bootstrapped the protocol on the Base Layer-2 blockchain and set in motion Ratio1’s core consensus mechanisms. Throughout the year, the protocol rapidly evolved from a functional prototype into a production-ready decentralized cloud OS. Key blockchain-based components reached maturity: the on-chain orchestration engine (called ChainDist with its Deeploy UX) reliably scheduled workloads across heterogeneous nodes, and the escrow smart contracts underpinning Proof-of-AI were battle-tested with real jobs. By August, the PoAI system was fully live - meaning whenever a Cloud Service Provider submitted an AI workload, the payment would be locked in a smart contract, nodes would process the job, and R1 mining rewards (along with protocol burn mechanics) would execute automatically once results were verified. This trustless loop of "submit -> compute -> verify -> pay" became the backbone of Ratio1’s cloud, proving that complex multi-step transactions (like distributed computing tasks) can be handled with transparent, on-chain guarantees.

The Ratio1 protocol also saw continuous low-level improvements. Its security architecture was hardened at every layer: for example, the node software enforced signature checks on all task assignments, preventing unauthorized code execution, and the blockchain consensus recorded every node’s availability each epoch to ensure honest reporting for PoA. Core subsystems like R1FS (Ratio1 File System) and CStore (ChainStore decentralized distributed in-memory database) reached stable releases. R1FS gave applications a decentralized, encrypted storage layer (akin to an IPFS-like drive spread across nodes), while CStore provided a global in-memory data cache for sharing state between containers - both crucial for building cloud-native apps on Ratio1. By integrating these services, any app deployed on Ratio1 automatically benefited from persistent storage, data encryption, and cross-container coordination without extra effort from developers. In essence, by the end of 2025 the Ratio1 protocol had morphed into a full-fledged "AI operating system" on blockchain: it could schedule containers, manage data, secure identities, and compensate resources - all via smart contracts and a decentralized network of nodes.

Node Operators and Network Growth

From the start, Ratio1.ai  has emphasized broad participation in its network, and 2025 achieved exactly that. The year kicked off late with the introduction of Node Deeds (NDs) as the entry mechanism for anyone to run an Edge Node. In late June, the team launched the public ND sale, offering the first tranche of licenses at an accessible price and gradually increasing tiers thereafter. Each ND is a one-time NFT license that, once linked to a running node, entitles the operator to mine R1 over a three-year period and to earn fees for workloads. The sale was met with good community interest - by the fall, the first hundred+ Node Deeds had been acquired by individual enthusiasts and small businesses around the world. Many operators took advantage of Ratio1’s one-click installers and the Multi-Node Launcher (r1setup) CLI tool to easily spin up nodes on their own PCs or cloud instances. Thanks to a focus on user-friendly onboarding (no complex blockchain interactions or manual key management), setting up a Ratio1 node became a straightforward process even for non-engineers. This paid off in network growth: by the end of 2025, over 100 independent nodes were online across various regions, collectively forming a decentralized compute grid. The network proved robust - nodes maintained high uptime (in many cases achieving >99% availability each epoch), which translated into steady PoA earnings for operators and reliable service for applications.

Crucially, Ratio1’s incentive model for node operators functioned as designed. The protocol’s PoA consensus rewarded nodes simply for being available and meeting performance standards, which encouraged operators to keep their hardware running and updated. Simultaneously, the PoAI mechanism provided additional rewards when nodes executed actual workloads (AI model inferences, training tasks, etc.), paid out from the job fees. This dual incentive ensured a baseline decentralization (nodes are compensated for providing capacity even during idle times) while focusing the majority of token issuance on useful computation. Throughout 2025, thousands of AI jobs - from simple image analyses to complex multi-container services - were processed by the community nodes. Every such job not only yielded token rewards to the node operators but also demonstrated the scalability of Ratio1’s "compute mining" concept: instead of expending energy on wasteful hashes, the network issues tokens in exchange for AI services delivered. The token mechanics around NDs/MNDs further kept growth sustainable. For example, when a new ND was purchased, a portion of the R1 paid was automatically burned and another portion allocated to project treasury, reducing circulating supply while funding development. Likewise, as PoAI payouts occurred, a protocol fee was burned from the escrow - meaning the more the network was used, the more deflationary the token became. By aligning node operator rewards with platform usage (and implementing controlled token sinks), Ratio1 managed to grow its network without inflationary pressures. At the end of the year, the R1 token supply remained well within projected emission curves, and every token in circulation corresponded to either proven uptime or completed AI work - a strong testament to the efficacy of Ratio1’s "earn it, don’t buy it" ethos for network participation.

Business of Businesses

In 2025, Ratio1.ai firmly established a "business-of-businesses" model: rather than the core team running a cloud service, independent CSPs, developers and creators built their own offerings on the protocol with total independence and zero lock-in.

The CSPs

While individual node operators form the backbone of Ratio1, the platform’s reach is amplified by its Cloud Service Providers. CSPs are organizations or power users who operate one or more "oracle" nodes and act as service hubs, deploying applications for end-clients on the Ratio1 network. To enable this, the flagship Deeploy application was launched in August as the gateway for CSPs. Deeploy is essentially a cloud management console for decentralized infrastructure - it provides a web UI and APIs where CSPs can configure projects, launch jobs, monitor performance, and handle billing, all on top of the Ratio1 network. The initial Deeploy v1 release made it possible to deploy containerized apps with just a few clicks, abstracting away the blockchain complexity. By September, Deeploy v2 introduced advanced orchestration capabilities: CSPs gained the ability to schedule jobs at specific times, adjust resources on the fly, and even edit running jobs (for example, change environment variables or scale out replicas without redeploying from scratch). These features mirrored the flexibility of conventional CNCF cloud platforms, but with a decentralized twist - behind the scenes, every action was coordinated by smart contracts and consensus rather than a single centralized company’s software.

Becoming a Ratio1 CSP was designed to be permissioned but straightforward. Interested operators underwent a KYC/KYB verification and secured a Master Node Deed (MND) or ND tied to an "oracle" role. Once approved, the CSP could deploy its own CSP smart contract via the Deeploy app. This on-chain contract serves as the CSP’s business logic and escrow wallet: it receives client payments (in USDC stablecoin) and automatically disburses funds to node operators and burns tokens according to protocol rules. Throughout 2025, multiple organizations embraced this model. They effectively franchised Ratio1’s technology to create new services. For instance, KeySoft, having run Ratio1 nodes from early on, formalized themselves as a CSP to roll out applications for their customers in fintech and healthcare. Similarly, a few startup-style CSPs emerged, targeting niche markets - one focused on AI solutions for medical clinics, another on secure enterprise data processing. Deeploy empowered all these providers with a common toolset, ensuring that even complex deployments (multi-container apps, databases, web frontends, etc.) could be managed through a single pane of glass. By year’s end, CSPs on Ratio1 were running services that rival a small cloud vendor: they could host web apps accessible via custom domains, spin up GPU-enabled AI jobs, and offer uptime SLAs, all backed by the decentralized network of nodes. This CSP ecosystem growth validated Ratio1’s strategy of scaling via partnerships - each new CSP brought their own clients and use-cases onto the platform, expanding the reach of decentralized computing beyond what the core team could achieve alone.

One notable advancement for CSPs was the integration of the Worker App Runner into the Deeploy system. Launched in Q3 as a new job type, the Worker App Runner, a simplified and git-only version of the existing Container App Runner,  removed friction from the deployment process by allowing CSPs and developers to deploy straight from source code repositories. Traditionally, to run an app on Ratio1 (or any cloud), you would first containerize it into a Docker image. The Worker App Runner skips that step: a CSP can point Deeploy to a GitHub repo and the platform will automatically fetch the code, build it inside a container on an edge node, and then run the app. This innovation, essentially an on-demand CI/CD pipeline on the decentralized network, was a huge quality-of-life improvement. It meant faster iteration for developers (no more managing container registries for quick tests) and reinforced Ratio1’s philosophy of "Your app, your data" - you hold your code in your own repo and simply tell the network to run it, without handing it to a third-party service. By the end of 2025, the Worker App Runner had been adopted by early users to deploy everything from simple Python scripts to full web services on Ratio1, demonstrating the potential of truly seamless edge deployment.

Real-World Application Deployments

Perhaps the most compelling proof of Ratio1’s progress in 2025 was the variety of real world applications that went live on the network. Early in the year, Ratio1 focused on migrating an existing workload from a traditional cloud to test the platform’s readiness. The first chosen candidate was Build21, a real estate crowdfunding application with a blockchain twist. In July, in partnership with one of Ratio1’s CSPs, Build21’s entire stack was moved off AWS and onto Ratio1’s decentralized infrastructure. This process involved containerizing Build21’s web servers and databases, setting up secure Cloudflare tunnels for connectivity, and using Ratio1’s persistent storage to hold data. The migration was successful - Build21 continued to serve its users, but now via a set of distributed nodes rather than a single AWS region. The immediate outcome was promising: by leveraging spare capacity on Ratio1, Build21 significantly reduced its hosting costs and improved its resilience (no single point of failure). This landmark migration showcased how legacy or Web2 applications can "lift-and-shift" into Web3 with minimal refactoring, gaining decentralization benefits without losing performance. It also validated Ratio1’s value proposition to businesses: the platform isn’t just a theoretical blockchain experiment, but a viable alternative to conventional cloud for production systems.

Following Build21, several new applications from totally different sources and industries were migrated or built directly for Ratio1 as the year progressed. A standout example was the collaboration with KeySoft, a software company that became an early adopter of Ratio1 for building AI-driven enterprise tools. In September, KeySoft launched an internal product on Ratio1 using the J33VES framework. This application included AI "assistants" that could generate database schemas or data reports from plain English requests - essentially a natural language interface for enterprise data management. What made it notable is that it ran entirely on Ratio1’s decentralized cloud: user data was stored encrypted on R1FS, the AI models ran on edge nodes, and interactions were secured through dAuth. This enterprise deployment proved that advanced AI solutions (combining language models, databases, and user interfaces) can be delivered on a decentralized backend. Building on that experience, KeySoft then developed KeyTrial, a platform to manage clinical trials, which went live in October. KeyTrial leverages Ratio1 for hosting its complex multi-tier application and databases, ensuring that sensitive medical data stays encrypted and is processed in a distributed fashion. For the healthcare sector, this approach is compelling - it offers cloud convenience to clinical researchers while enhancing data privacy and auditability (every data processing action in KeyTrial can be logged on-chain for compliance).

Another domain where Ratio1 made inroads was medical AI imaging. Building upon a proof-of-concept called "CerviSafe" demonstrated in September (which showed how to do decentralized, privacy-preserving cervical cancer screening using federated learning), a Ratio1 CSP partner - namely SmartClover SRL - brought the idea to production. The result was CerviGuard, launched in Q4 as a service for clinics to analyze cervical scan images with AI. CerviGuard uses deep learning models to detect early signs of cancer, but unlike typical cloud AI services, it does so without centralizing patient data. Each clinic runs a local node (or a trusted nearby Ratio1 node) that does initial processing; only encrypted model updates and results traverse the network. Thanks to Ratio1’s support for GPU jobs and secure data handling, CerviGuard achieved a workflow where AI model training happens collaboratively across nodes (a form of federated learning) and only the aggregated insights are shared. This meant patient images never leave the clinic’s control in unencrypted form, addressing a huge concern in healthcare AI adoption. The success of CerviGuard’s deployment was a powerful use-case for Ratio1: it highlighted that decentralized infrastructure can unlock solutions in regulated industries by offering strong privacy guarantees out-of-the-box.

By the end of 2025, the Ratio1 ecosystem had a diverse portfolio of applications running on it. From fintech to healthcare to general web services, these early deployments underscored the platform’s versatility. Importantly, they were not just one-off demos - they were maintained by external organizations (the app owners) as ongoing services for real users. This "dogfooding" by partners meant Ratio1’s reliability and performance were constantly proven in practice. Metrics like job completion rates, failover times, and cost savings were closely monitored, often showing favorable comparisons to centralized setups. For instance, some partners reported significantly lower cloud bills by using Ratio1 nodes (especially when tapping into underutilized community hardware), and improved uptime due to geographic distribution. These tangible benefits drove growing interest, with more teams planning migrations or pilots on Ratio1 in the coming year. In summary, 2025 took Ratio1 from theoretical platform to operational cloud, with each new application deployment serving as a milestone in that journey.

Developer Tools and Ecosystem Expansion

To support the growing number of use-cases, Ratio1 invested heavily in developer tools and ecosystem improvements in 2025 continuing the toolset developed previously. A major theme was making the platform more accessible to developers of all skill levels - from blockchain novices to seasoned cloud architects. Early in the year, the focus was on documentation and tutorials: the team published step-by-step guides (for example, how to go "From Zero to Node Runner" on mainnet) and open-sourced key components on GitHub to invite community contributions. As the year progressed, more sophisticated tools were released.

One of the headline additions was Ratio1 RedMesh, introduced in late August. RedMesh is an open-source framework that turned the entire Ratio1 network into a distributed continuous penetration monitoring testing engine. For developers and security engineers, RedMesh provided a way to launch a security scan job that doesn’t run on one machine, but on many nodes simultaneously and continuously. For example, a RedMesh task could instruct dozens of edge nodes to scan gradually with “Dune sand walking” approach a target web application from different geographic locations, test its open ports, attempt common exploits, and then aggregate the findings - all coordinated by Ratio1’s plugin system. This capability is typically impossible to achieve easily with traditional tools, and it showcased the power of having a "mesh" of orchestrated compute at your fingertips. By releasing RedMesh, Ratio1 not only improved its own security posture (the team and community could use it to continuously test the network’s resilience), but also opened up new use scenarios. Security firms and independent auditors took note that they could potentially use RedMesh + Ratio1 to perform more comprehensive continuous monitoring pentests for their clients, leveraging the diversity of the node network. The framework’s open-source nature encouraged community enhancements too; developers began to discuss adding new scanning modules and integrating third-party security tools into RedMesh. In essence, RedMesh demonstrated that decentralized infrastructure isn’t just about AI or data hosting - it can even transform how cybersecurity tasks are done, by providing scale and trustlessness (every RedMesh result can be verified on-chain) in a way centralized setups cannot.

For everyday application developers, Ratio1 delivered improvements on multiple fronts. The SDK releases were a key milestone: in Q4 the team rolled out a TypeScript SDK and a Go SDK, complete with sandbox environments, so that developers could interact with Ratio1 services using familiar languages. This meant a web developer could, for instance, use the TypeScript SDK to deploy a job or query the status of a node directly from a JavaScript application - opening the door for web and mobile apps to integrate Ratio1 as a backend. The Go SDK similarly catered to system developers who might build automation or tooling around the platform. Alongside these, Ratio1 provided a Node.js integration and templates (like a Next.js starter app that demonstrates how to use Ratio1 as the hosting layer). The goal was to meet developers where they are: whether you prefer Python, Node, Go, or even just REST APIs, Ratio1’s services became accessible through multiple channels.

The year also saw progress in low-code and no-code solutions to bring more users into the fold. The AI4E Creation Toolkit, unveiled in a technical preview, is a prime example. It’s essentially a wizard-based interface that guides users through building an AI application (like a custom image classifier or chatbot) without needing to write code. Under the hood it uses Ratio1’s infrastructure to set up the necessary components, but to the user it feels like a straightforward app builder. By releasing a pre-beta of this toolkit, Ratio1 signaled its commitment to democratizing AI app development - allowing even non-programmers to deploy AI services on a decentralized network. Similarly, LabelCraft, which entered beta in late 2025, took a gamified approach to a common AI task: data labeling. LabelCraft allows anyone to contribute to labeling datasets (for example, tagging images or transcribing audio) through a simple web interface, and in return earn R1 tokens as rewards. All of this runs on Ratio1 (with the application itself decentralized and the reward logic in a smart contract). For developers, LabelCraft offers an easy way to get datasets annotated, and for contributors, it’s an introduction to Ratio1 where they can participate without running a node - broadening community engagement. These tools, while still in testing phases, showed how Ratio1 is fostering an ecosystem where a diverse range of contributors - from hardcore developers to casual no-code users - can collaborate and benefit.

Finally, throughout 2025 Ratio1 nurtured its developer community with outreach and transparency. The team hosted regular open discussions (the "Ratio1 Talks" series) to share progress updates and technical deep-dives, inviting feedback directly from users. They also maintained active channels on Discord, Telegram, and other platforms for support. By the end of the year, the ecosystem had grown to include independent developers building plugins, writing how-to blogs, and even creating third-party monitoring tools (for example, community-made Telegram bots to track node performance). This flourishing community around Ratio1’s technology is a strong indicator of the platform’s momentum. Developers are not only using the provided tools but are also beginning to extend and customize them - exactly the kind of organic growth an open, decentralized project aims for.

Security and Trust: A Permissioned-Trustless Approach

One of the defining philosophies of Ratio1 - which became more evident over the progress in 2025 from the launch until the last days of the year - is its "PERMISSIONED-TRUSTLESS" architecture and protocol ethos. At first glance, that phrase might sound contradictory, but the experience of this year has illustrated how it strikes a practical balance for decentralized AI computing. In Ratio1’s model, certain actions are permissioned: for example, to become a node operator, one must purchase a Node Deed license and agree to the network’s terms, and to operate as a CSP (handling client jobs) one must go through a verification process. These steps ensure a level of governance and accountability. Unlike a fully permissionless network where absolutely anyone (even a malicious actor or a poorly configured machine) could join without checks, Ratio1 set a modest gate to entry - primarily to uphold quality of service and to meet regulatory compliance (important when dealing with enterprise and sensitive data workloads). This approach proved wise as the network grew; by having verified operators, Ratio1 avoided many of the spam and abuse issues that open networks face. For instance, every node on the network was tied to a known license NFT, and the community could see on the explorer which nodes belonged to which addresses and their performance history. There was transparency and accountability without sacrificing decentralization.

Once on board, however, participants operate in a trustless environment. That is, the system itself does not require trust in any single party - not even the Ratio1 team. All the critical operations are governed by smart contracts and consensus rules: job assignments, result validations, token emissions, and so on. 2025 demonstrated this clearly whenever an AI job was run. A CSP might be the one initiating the job, but they couldn’t cheat the outcome - the work was distributed to random eligible nodes, those nodes executed the task, and the verification (via Proof-of-AI and potentially redundant computations) ensured that no tampering occurred. Node operators, for their part, did not have to trust the CSP or the job source; payment was guaranteed by the escrow contract if they did the work correctly, and the results were hashed and confirmed on-chain. Even the Ratio1 core team couldn’t arbitrarily change these rules or seize control - the contracts were deployed and public, and the network’s state was maintained collectively. This trustless execution gave even cautious enterprise users confidence: they could see that, say, if they submitted a sensitive computation, multiple independent nodes would process it and consensus would only release the answer (and payment) when integrity checks passed. Any attempt to game the system (by a rogue node or client) would be caught and penalized by the protocol. In effect, Ratio1 created an environment of "verifiable honesty" among participants.

An example of this philosophy in action was the dAuth (decentralized authentication) mechanism and the node governance features. Rather than each service handling user auth in a silo, Ratio1 provided a dAuth layer where identities (for users or devices) could be verified by the blockchain and by approved oracles. If a node operator were to misbehave (say, try to falsify availability or produce bad results), the network’s governance could respond by flagging or blacklisting that node’s license - a process that’s also transparent and governed by consensus of oracle nodes. In 2025 there were no major security incidents, but these safeguards were in place and tested in simulations. It underscored that being "trustless" doesn’t mean anarchic - it means the rules are enforced by the protocol rather than by discretion. Ratio1’s stance was that some permissions at onboarding lead to a healthier network, but from that point onward, everything can and should be algorithmically enforced. This hybrid approach garnered positive feedback, especially from enterprise partners who appreciated the KYC aspect (knowing who they are transacting with on the network) while still getting the benefits of decentralization (no single hosting company, no vendor lock-in, and auditability). By the end of 2025, Ratio1 had effectively pioneered a new paradigm in Web3 infrastructure: one where decentralization is achieved not by removing all entry rules, but by removing all need for trust once inside. This approach is now part of Ratio1’s strategic identity, setting it apart from both fully open networks and traditional clouds, and it appears to be a solid foundation for scaling into more regulated and mission-critical domains.

Outlook for 2026

As Ratio1 enters 2026, it does so with a solid foundation and a growing ecosystem. The accomplishments of 2025 - from launching the mainnet and core features to supporting live enterprise applications - have positioned the platform for an exciting next chapter. In 2026, we expect to see accelerated growth on all fronts. On the network side, the number of edge nodes is projected to continue rising as more Node Deeds are acquired by the community; a larger node network will increase capacity and resilience, enabling Ratio1 to take on even more ambitious workloads. The team also plans to further optimize performance, including support for a wider range of hardware (such as specialized AI chips and more GPU models), so that the network can handle heavyweight AI training tasks with greater efficiency.

For Cloud Service Providers, 2026 will likely bring enhanced tools and perhaps new revenue models. The Deeploy console will continue to evolve based on user feedback - we anticipate even more polished user experience, additional automation (for example, auto-scaling of jobs based on demand), and deeper analytics for CSPs to manage their decentralized "fleets." With the groundwork done, Ratio1 and its CSP partners are well positioned to onboard larger clients and more diverse applications. We may see deployments in new industries, as word spreads about successful case studies in fintech and healthcare. The partnerships seeded in 2025 (especially those related to Horizon Europe projects and other consortiums) could come to fruition, integrating Ratio1 into international research and enterprise initiatives. If funded, those projects will not only validate Ratio1’s approach at a continental scale but also drive further development of features like federated learning, compliance reporting, and cross-network interoperability.

The developer community can look forward to a maturing ecosystem in the coming year. In 2026, Ratio1’s SDKs and APIs will likely become more robust and comprehensive, incorporating lessons from the initial integrations. We also expect the AI-For-Everyone Toolkit and LabelCraft to officially launch out of beta, providing user-friendly pathways for anyone to create and enhance AI models on Ratio1 - potentially bringing a wave of new content and applications created by non-traditional developers. The RedMesh framework, having been open-sourced, might gain new modules and see adoption in real security operations, which in turn will strengthen the network (a more battle-tested network is a more trusted one). And with the Ratio1 platform being open and extensible, community contributions might lead to entirely new plugins or services running on the network - imagine decentralized video processing, VR worlds hosting, or other creative uses that leverage distributed compute and storage. If 2025 was about proving the concept, 2026 will be about scaling it up and out.

In terms of vision, Ratio1 remains committed to its mission of decentralizing the cloud for AI and beyond. The coming year will be about refinement and expansion rather than radical change of course. Users can expect the core values - transparency, security, user empowerment - to guide all new developments. Token-wise, the emission and burn mechanisms will continue as planned, gradually widening network ownership and keeping the economy aligned with actual usage. By the end of 2026, Ratio1 aims to have a markedly larger footprint: more nodes, more CSP businesses, more end-users indirectly benefiting from its services (perhaps without even realizing it’s Ratio1 under the hood), and more recognition in both the blockchain and AI communities. The optimism is measured with the knowledge that challenges will arise - be it scaling certain components, educating new users, or ensuring governance keeps up with growth - but the experience of 2025 has built confidence that these challenges can be met.

In summary, 2025 was a formative year for Ratio1 - one that took the project from inception to a living, breathing ecosystem. The network became operational and useful in the real world, the community grew from a small base to a vibrant collective of operators, developers, and partners, and the technology delivered on its promise of a decentralized "AI OS." As we look to 2026, the outlook is highly encouraging: with a strong foundation and clear momentum, Ratio1 is poised to further push the boundaries of decentralized AI and on-edge CNCF-compliant cloud computing in general, bringing its benefits to even more users and industries in the year ahead. Here’s to building on this first year’s success and reaching new heights in 2026!