All work
03 · AI search, Web3
AthenaAI: AI search product: the app, token rewards, staking and governance
- Client
- AthenaAI
- Industry
- AI search, Web3
- When
- 2023 to 2024
- My part
- Full-stack and smart contract build
- Status
- Delivered
Overview
AthenaAI is an AI-powered search product. Users search, and their activity earns ATH tokens. Token holders can stake and vote on the platform. The product is AI search; my work was the Next.js application and the on-chain incentive layer around it, where the hard engineering problem was distributing rewards to many users every day without paying for a transaction per user.
What I built
- 01AthenaMerkleTree contract: activity is snapshotted off-chain each day, a Merkle root is posted on-chain, and users claim with a proof.
- 02Staking and governance contracts and the front-end flows for them.
- 03Next.js application with Thirdweb for wallets, Hardhat for contract development and tests.
What was hard
Problem
Daily rewards for many users without many transactions.
Approach
The Merkle pattern: one root per day on-chain, claims on demand with proofs, so cost scales with claims, not with users.
Problem
Reward farming by bots and multi-accounts.
Approach
Snapshot rules that weight sustained, wallet-linked activity and make short bursts worth little.