Ethereum Enables Privacy-Preserving Metered AI Payments

Vitalik Buterin and Davide Crapis published a research proposal on Ethereum Research proposing that Ethereum serve as a privacy-preserving settlement layer for metered AI API usage, not by running LLMs on-chain but by issuing ZK API usage credits built on Rate-Limiting Nullifiers. The design uses a deposit-once, many-calls-per-deposit flow with off-chain inference and on-chain settlement via layer-2 rollups; challenges include metadata leakage, RLN tooling gaps, and provider coordination.