Phala Network (PHA): Advancing Confidential Computing and Secure AI at Scale

Phala's 2025 Real Code for Real AGI report outlines its focus on developing secure, scalable infrastructure for AI-driven applications.

Key Insights

Phala Network (PHA) is an AI coprocessor that enables smart contracts to control and interact with AI Agents. It uses a blockchain-TEE (trusted execution environment) hybrid design to incorporate offchain elements — such as artificial intelligence (AI) — into blockchain-focused applications. This design creates the foundation for onchain smart contracts to control AI agents (run by offchain worker nodes) while maintaining security and user privacy. Phala consists of four core components:

In 2020, Phala secured a funding round at a $10 million valuation with participation from Candaq Group, InfiChain, Blue Mountain Labs, Incuba Alpha Group, and Exoplanet Capital. Its product was developed to offer AI-enabled, Turing-complete smart contracts, aiming to address the challenges posed by AI and centralized cloud computing. Following this momentum, Phala won a Polkadot parachain slot auction with 1,685 contributors in March 2022. As of Q4 2024, Phala is an AI coprocessor that provides a secure and verifiable compute solution for integrating crypto and AI at the application layer.

​​For a full primer on Phala, refer to our Initiation of Coverage report.

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Key Metrics

Performance Analysis

Monthly Active Users (MAU)

Monthly active users (MAU) measures the number of unique accounts interacting with Phala contracts on a monthly basis. Some users may use more than one account, which is not accounted for in the data. Phala’s monthly active users saw significant growth in Q4, reaching an all-time high of 1,125 unique users in December 2024, a 63% YoY increase. Phala went from an average of 510 MAUs in Q3 2024 to an average of 766 in Q4 (+50% QoQ). This growth was likely driven in part by the partnership with ai16z, which integrated Phala's TEE technology into the Eliza AI Agent framework, potentially attracting new users and developers to the Phala ecosystem.

Usage

AI Agent Contracts are AI computing programs that enable EVM smart contracts to extend their capabilities offchain. AI agent contracts are coded in TypeScript/JavaScript and Phala nodes execute these contracts offchain — though the requests originate onchain. Contract executions (by Phala worker nodes) measure demand for Phala AI Agents.

In Q4 2024, contract executions fell by 6% QoQ. Phala processed over 270 million contract executions throughout 2024. Within Q4, Phala partnered with multiple AI-focused protocols ai16z, Neurochain, and Vana. Executions are expected to rise as Phala’s recent partnerships and integrations take effect.

Phala increased the number of AI Agent Contracts deployed to its network by 4,991 throughout 2024. This number should also grow alongside Phala’s recent Q4 partnerships, which include Ava Protocol and OG. The addition of 4,991 new contracts should diversify the types of compute enabled by Phala, potentially attracting more demand from AI application protocols and their users in the coming quarters.

Service Providers

Worker Nodes provide compute resources to the network. They host AI Agent Contracts (offchain programs) inside the nodes’ TEEs. The TEE protects the workload for code integrity and privacy. To join the network, miners anywhere in the world can deploy Worker Node software clients inside their TEE-compatible hardware setups, getting them verified onchain.

The Phala mainnet initially operated on both the Khala and Phala blockchains. Khala, a parachain on Kusama, was scheduled for retirement on January 10, 2025, after the approval of Khala Referendum 128. This decision followed Intel's discontinuation of SGX-IAS support in April 2025, which rendered Khala workers inoperable.

To promote a smooth transition, all Khala assets were migrated to Ethereum, a network compatible with Intel's TSX and Nvidia's Confidential Compute GPUs. This consolidation streamlined the ecosystem, reduced redundancy, and enhanced the future-proof nature of the Phala Network.

Concurrently, the Phala blockchain continued to expand. Total Phala workers increased by 5% QoQ from 16,610 to 17,420, while Khala workers decreased from 22,693 to 11,705 in preparation for the network's sunset. This migration aligns with the project's long-term strategy of consolidating operations on the Phala blockchain.

Phala has a non-consensus staking mechanism that manages up to 1 million CPU cores from over 100,000 nodes.