Howard Krieger
Director
SHAFT Token x AI Value Creation
SHAFT’s tokenomics are designed to create a flywheel where capital, code, and community continuously reinforce each other, making it cheaper and more attractive to build AI tools for people with mental and physical differences.
By tying token rewards directly to accessible AI agents, bounties, and open‑source contributions, the model attempts to turn speculative energy into a self‑funding pipeline of assistive technology.
What SHAFT is trying to solve
SHAFT (Strategic Hub for AI‑Focused Technology) positions itself as a funding and coordination layer for AI accessibility projects rather than a generic AI meme coin. Its stated mission is to “support the needs of those with mental and physical differences” by directing capital and talent toward AI agents that remove access barriers.
A project overview describes SHAFT as “a social bounty funding platform designed to support the development of accessibility improving applications, tools, and integrations across AI and DeFAI.”
The Foundation’s launch blog frames the core problem starkly: “For individuals navigating mental and physical challenges, the digital divide can be particularly profound,” arguing that crypto incentives can be repurposed to close that gap instead of just fueling speculation.
Core tokenomics: bounties, treasury, and governance
The SHAFT token underpins a closed‑loop system where work on accessibility tools begets more funding, which begets more tools. Three mechanics are central to this flywheel: bounty rewards, a community treasury, and token‑based governance.
A third‑party analysis notes that SHAFT is “built around a bounty board and community treasury that provide developers with opportunities to earn rewards, secure funding, and contribute to Web3AI ecosystem growth in a socially responsible manner.”
The same profile explains that “the SHAFT token is used within the platform for rewards and to participate in governance… token holders influence treasury allocations and proposals, giving the community a direct role in deciding which projects move forward,” effectively turning users and investors into a distributed grant committee.
How the flywheel of value works
The Foundation explicitly describes a virtuous cycle where investors, “AI accessibility agent code generators,” and “AI accessibility builders” all receive value in ways that reinforce one another. Each completed bounty produces open‑source code, reputational capital for developers, and new tools that lower the cost and friction of building the next generation of AI accessibility agents.
In its program announcement, SHAFT states: “This mechanism fosters a meritocratic environment where the best contributions receive the highest recognition and reward, encouraging a virtuous cycle of development.”
The same piece spells out the flywheel logic: “Investors see their capital drive meaningful impact and generate returns; code generators are celebrated and compensated for their valuable contributions; and accessibility builders gain access to the tools they need to make a tangible difference in the lives of millions,” concluding that it is “a truly inclusive and equitable system where literally everyone wins.”
Why this design encourages AI tools for cognitive and physical differences
Crucially, SHAFT narrows its scope to accessibility agents rather than general AI apps, which structurally tilts the bounty flow toward disability‑centered use cases. The Foundation commits to publishing an “open‑source AI accessibility agent library” and prioritizing developers who contribute portions of their code back into that commons.
The launch article emphasizes a “dual focus on providing the public an open‑source AI accessibility agent library and incubating or investing in seed to Series A AI agent developers who commit to providing a portion of their code to the library,” effectively wiring open‑source reciprocity into the funding logic.
In a public statement, SHAFT director Howard Krieger describes the mission as to “empower Devs with open‑source #AI agents to eliminate barriers facing those with cognitive and physical differences,” underscoring that the token’s purpose is to underwrite accessibility‑first tools rather than generic AI utilities.
Industry voices on AI accessibility and crypto incentives
SHAFT also leans on partnerships and commentary from established AI and web3 figures to legitimate its model and deepen the flywheel. The goal is to combine crypto’s incentive machinery with AI research rigor to accelerate agentic tools that are genuinely usable by people with disabilities.
In announcing a partnership between SHAFT and SpeechLab Inc., an AI Fund‑incubated company associated with Andrew Ng, SpeechLab founder Seamus McAteer argues: “By tapping into the cryptoverse’s vibrant user communities, we can gather deeper insights to prioritize and build sophisticated AI models that truly solve user pain points,” presenting crypto‑backed bounties as a real‑time user research engine.
The same release highlights “robust incentive structures” that merge “the crypto community’s incentive mechanisms with SpeechLab’s proven strategies for user engagement,” illustrating how token rewards, feedback loops, and open‑source contributions are meant to accelerate development and deployment of accessibility‑focused AI agents.
Through this architecture, SHAFT’s tokenomics attempt to turn speculative capital and developer ambition into a reinforcing loop of open, disability‑centered AI tools—using financial incentives, reputational rewards, and community governance to keep the flywheel spinning in service of people with mental and physical differences.
