CoinEdition spoke exclusively with Gonka co-creators David and Daniil Liberman ahead of WebX Japan 2026, where the project will participate as a Sponsor. During the interview, they shared their views on decentralized AI infrastructure, the growing concentration of AI computing power, blockchain’s role in addressing those challenges, and Gonka’s long-term vision for open AI compute.
1. Gonka is joining WebX Japan 2026 as a Platinum Sponsor. What made this event the right place to showcase your vision, and what are you most looking forward to during the conference?
We have always believed that smaller countries do not need to beat the US or China one by one. They need equal access through shared infrastructure and open protocols. Asia is deeply aware of this dynamic. WebX brings together the exact kind of global builders who recognize that AI is pure information, and information wants to become abundant. We are most looking forward to making real-world connections, because human contact becomes more valuable as digital content becomes infinite. Entrepreneurship remains meaningful precisely because it connects people in reality.
2. AI is advancing rapidly, but access to the computing power needed to build AI is still concentrated in the hands of a few major players. How is Gonka rethinking this model, and why do you believe a decentralized approach is the way forward?
The path we are on right now converts AI’s natural abundance into rent. Centralized AI leads toward five companies, two states, and eight billion tenants. This is GPU feudalism. Gonka changes this dynamic by turning AI compute into a permissionless economic primitive. We believe decentralization is the only viable path forward because AI itself is not scarce; compute is. The model fits on a flash drive, but the monopoly lives in the data center.
Bitcoin proved that open protocols can mobilize physical infrastructure without central command. Satoshi did not announce a data-center strategy; he wrote a protocol, and the data centers appeared. Furthermore, Proof of Stake rewards capital, but AI needs to reward work. Through our Proof of Work mechanisms, governance is weighted by computational contribution, ensuring the network is run by those bringing actual intelligence into it.
3. You both have experience building companies across AI, fintech, and emerging technologies. Was there a specific moment when you realized decentralized AI infrastructure was the next big opportunity, and what inspired you to build Gonka?
It really goes back to our roots. Our parents were scientists, so we grew up around experiments and data. But we also lived through the Soviet collapse, where our family lost its savings and stability. That gave us an obsession with institutional fragility and systems that fail ordinary people. At 18, we pitched transparent government spending and were warned to stop. That became our origin story for using decentralization as protection against institutional capture.
We went on to build companies across computer graphics, finance, and AR, eventually working as Directors of Product at Snap. Through our work with Frank Money on radical financial transparency and Product Science on code performance, the pieces came together. We actually had a distributed-compute idea back in 2002, which was early, but now the moment is right. We realized that if you do not control compute, your AI policy is a request, not a strategy. The inspiration for Gonka was simple: do not regulate your way out of a monopoly, build an alternative that makes the monopoly unnecessary.
4. We’re seeing more projects combine AI and blockchain, but many are still searching for practical use cases. Where do you think this intersection has the greatest potential to create real value over the next few years?
The greatest potential at the intersection of AI and blockchain lies where blockchain solves a trust problem that AI cannot solve on its own. As AI systems begin to generate content, make decisions, and act on behalf of users, the central question becomes: how do we verify what happened? That applies to the provenance of content and models, to payment and contractual infrastructure for autonomous agents, and to decentralized access to compute and data as an alternative to resource concentration in the hands of a few corporations. Projects built purely on narrative will fade away. Real value over the next few years will form around verification, payments, and coordination between autonomous systems. For us, the most immediate unlock inside that broader category is verifiable inference: proving that an AI agent actually executed what the model produced, not something silently modified by a server or intermediary.
5. WebX brings together founders, developers, investors, and enterprises from around the world. From your perspective, how important are events like this in helping emerging projects build partnerships, attract investment, and accelerate growth?
They are absolutely essential. We often say that a protocol coordinates strangers globally without a corporation, but the initial trust networks that spark those protocols are forged in person. As digital content becomes infinite, human contact becomes more valuable. Live events, theater, science, and entrepreneurship remain meaningful because they connect people in reality. If we want to build a shared compute protocol that empowers smaller countries and independent developers globally, we need to be in the room with them.
6. For developers, builders, and entrepreneurs attending WebX this year, what’s the one thing you’d like them to take away from Gonka and your vision for the future of decentralized AI?
The one takeaway is that universal basic income can become a leash, but universal basic access is a tool. The enemy is not AI itself, but rather the compute bottleneck around it. If we do not make compute cheap, AI abundance becomes a luxury subscription. We believe in sovereignty through tools. Do not give people coupons for the future; give them tools to produce inside it! The good future is not fewer machines, but rather more machines owned and accessed by more people. We want everyone building today to realize that owning a share of an AI lab does not let you build anything. You need to control the compute for that.
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