Spark leads $2.4 million funding round: Antseed to build an AI inference version of BitTorrent

P2P AI inference network Antseed has officially launched, with its non-profit operator Antseed Foundation disclosing that it has completed a $2.4 million token round financing. Spark Capital led the round, with participation from Collider, DCG, North Island Ventures, Reciprocal Ventures, Relay Capital, and Venice.ai. The project aims to adapt BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer model for AI inference, enabling different providers to directly sell models and agent services. After users run Antseed’s local router on their computers, they can connect tools like Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode to a single address. Each inference call is routed by the router based on price, speed, reputation, and privacy criteria, with fees settled directly via USDC on Base. Providers can run their own local models, fine-tuned models, or other AI services, and set their own pricing. Its key difference from OpenRouter is the absence of a unified forwarding platform in the middle layer: buyers connect directly to providers, while Antseed handles discovery, routing, reputation, and payment protocols. Regular providers can still view the prompts they process; users also have the option to select TEE-verified providers, where requests run in a trusted execution environment (hardware-isolated from request content). Antseed is also refining verification mechanisms including model fingerprinting, signed responses, and auditing to prevent providers from passing off cheaper models as more expensive ones. The code is open-source and the network is operational, though compatibility issues with tools like Codex and Claude Desktop are still being addressed on GitHub. It is best described as a rapidly iterating "decentralized OpenRouter".