Fact Friday –
@nillion
This week’s spotlight is on Nillion, a privacy-focused network building what it calls the “Blind Computer”, a system for private compute, private storage, and private AI, designed to let developers use sensitive data without exposing it.
Here is what you need to know:
Phase 2 Upgrade Is Live:
Nillion rolled out a unified developer portal, bringing nilDB, nilCC, and nilAI into one interface. It also shifted to a credits-based access model, introducing Stripe payments for nilAI usage, making it easier for developers to build and deploy in production.
Blacklight Verification Layer Is Live:
In February, Nillion launched Blacklight, its verification layer on Ethereum L2. Community-run Blacklight nodes verify workloads across the network, adding a public validation layer to Nillion’s private compute stack. This bridges private computation with transparent verification, a key step toward trustless privacy infrastructure. Anyone can stake 70,000 NIL and run a Blacklight node to earn rewards. Nillion later expanded access with managed nodes, lowering the barrier to participation.
ERC-8004 Agent Validation:
Nillion also introduced what it describes as the first verification layer for ERC-8004, allowing Blacklight to validate whether registered agents are live and responding onchain. Rather than treating agent registration as a one-time status, Blacklight adds continuous verification over time, improving accountability and transparency for onchain agent systems.
Nillion Migrated to Ethereum:
Nillion moved NIL from its Cosmos-based nilChain toward Ethereum as part of its L2 architecture shift. This move brings staking, verification, and node participation closer to Ethereum’s liquidity and application ecosystem. At the center of this transition is NIL. Previously more tightly scoped within the Blind Compute, it is now positioned as a core coordination asset across the network, underpinning verification, incentivizing node participation, and supporting emerging validation layers like Blacklight.