Chromia Adds Onchain Vector Databases for AI Apps Following Mimir Upgrade

Layer 1 blockchain Chromia has successfully launched its Mimir upgrade on mainnet and it introduces an array of powerful improvements – particularly for developers building AI applications. In short, Mimir’s deployment means that devs can now store vector data fully onchain, something that previously required the use of centralized servers. As a result, it’s now possible to create fully decentralized applications that leverage artificial intelligence.

Chromia Sets Its Stall for AI Developers

There’s currently fierce competition among L1 and L2 blockchains to attract AI developers, which is understandable given that AI is beginning to dominate not just dapps but everything that connects to the internet, be it web2 or web3. Tasks such as contextual text retrieval, similarity search, and long-term memory all fall to vector databases powering AI systems, and usually AWS or Google Cloud is relied on for this sort of heavy lifting.In bringing this capability to a fully decentralized environment for the first time, Chromia has signaled its intention of becoming a hub for AI development. Successfully deployed on Chromia’s mainnet on March 25, Mimir marks a major leap forward in decentralizing AI without introducing trade-offs in the process. Not only does this support the creation of “true” decentralized applications, but Chromia’s vector storage looks set to be more than 50% cheaper than centralized solutions.

AIs are trained to excel at pattern recognition. They spot similarities, in other words, be it in text, images, or other media. Normally, an off-chain vector database is required to handle this, but Mimir brings it all onchain, eliminating web2 dependencies.

Blockchain Storage Just for Vectors

According to Chromia’s Head of Data & AI, Johnson Lai, the introduction of vectors onchain, to complement Chromia’s existing relational databases, can be likened to “IPFS/Arweave for any blockchain—complementary to existing L1s but with native vector capabilities.” Naturally, Chromia is keen to attract web3 AI developers interested in putting this tech to the test – and it’s got a $20M ecosystem fund to sweeten the deal.

While onchain vectors is the biggest feature that Mimir adds, it’s by no means the only one. The upgrade also supports distributed AI inference and onchain agent memory. The inference support comes courtesy of the new AI Inference Extension. It allows open-source models such as DeepSeek to run on Chromia provider nodes. Just like vector databases, this is something that’s traditionally been the preserve of centralized cloud services.

Chromia Levels Up

It’s proving to be a prolific month for Chromia. On March 20, $CHR was listed on BitMart, expanding access to the network’s native token. A week earlier, Chromia also published a case study on the first AI application to utilize its onchain vector database solution. Murder mystery game Shadows of Harrow City takes advantage of similarity searches and contextual understanding, all conducted fully onchain. Chromia is confident that the game will soon be complemented by an array of games and other decentralized applications powered by its vector technology.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.