We’re excited to welcome Joaquim - MageofWeb3, Core Contributor, Alpaca Network.
Joaquim is a serial entrepreneur and Web3 pioneer who previously co-founded MLG Blockchain, Trustswap and GDA Capital. With deep experience across AI, decentralized finance, and venture acceleration, Joaquim is one of the core contributors currently leading Alpaca Network’s mission to decentralize AI ownership and empower the next generation of intelligent systems.
Chris: What was the original insight that led you to “owning the AI itself”?
Joaquim: The original insight came from seeing open-source AI developers consistently out-innovate large labs, only for their work to be repackaged and monetized by centralized platforms. We realized the missing piece was a protocol-level primitive for owning access to the model revenue itself, rather than just the applications built on top. Modelz is our answer to that. We’re enabling open-source models to become ownable, monetizable assets with transparent incentives and on-chain coordination baked in.
Chris: Why start at the model layer instead of building agent hype?
Joaquim: The agent layer is sexy, but fragile. Without stable, scalable, ownable models underneath, most agent systems are skin-deep. We saw too many teams chasing wrappers while the real IP, the models, remained unmonetized. So we chose to start at the foundation: the model. By anchoring economic rights to the models themselves, we set the stage for a true agent economy, not just another short-lived UX trend.
Chris: What problems does the IMO model solve?
Joaquim: Token launches today often rely on artificial hype, complex DeFi mechanics, or vague utility. IMOs (Initial Model Offerings) flip that by tying token value directly to model revenue—automated at the smart contract level. They allow developers to raise capital while keeping their models open-source, and allow investors to benefit directly from usage, not speculation. It’s crowdfunding for AI—but with real, protocol-level revenue share.
Chris: Who’s your ideal early adopter among developers?
Joaquim: Our earliest adopters are solo researchers, indie AI devs, and open-source contributors who’ve built great models — but have no path to monetization beyond GitHub stars. Alpaca gives them tooling, infrastructure, and a marketplace to launch their models, raise capital, and get perpetual royalties without needing to build a company. That said, we’re also seeing strong interest from emerging AI startups looking to decentralize their distribution from day one.
Chris: How do you keep $PACA staking attractive long-term?
Joaquim: We’re designing staking as a participation gateway, not just a passive yield farm. PACA Stakers keep the ecosystem alive, and in return receive a portion of every model tokenized on Modelz. This allows for people without deep AI knowledge to gain exposure to all the upcoming models.
Chris: How do you balance compliance vs. narrative with $PACA and staking?
Joaquim: We’re clear in our documentation: $PACA is a utility token used for access and participation in the modelz ecosystem. We have always been clear that this represents the PACA Foundation's DAO, which governs who the core contributors are and where the funds go.
Chris: How does the agent layer (2026) change SaaS and AI economics?
Joaquim: The agent layer will transform SaaS from a subscription model to a streamed value model. Imagine every time an AI agent completes a task, answers a prompt, or calls an API, top line micro-revenue flows to the model creators, infrastructure providers, and stakers in real time. That flips the traditional SaaS model on its head and turns Alpaca into a decentralized monetization layer for open agents. It’s like Stripe, but for AI services - with tokens instead of fees.
Chris: What kind of proposals do you expect in PacaDAO?
Joaquim: We have already brought to vote important decisions such as staking, branding, and certain amounts of funds for grants and campaigns. It will continue to be used to ensure the foundation is run smoothly.
Chris: What’s the biggest unknown on your roadmap?
Joaquim: The biggest unknown is regulatory clarity around decentralized AI ownership. If clarity improves, it could accelerate model tokenization and institutional buy-in. If not, we may need to rely more heavily on decentralized infrastructure and contribution layers. From a tech standpoint, the biggest risk is coordination—ensuring the protocol scales as we move from hundreds to thousands of tokenized models and agents.
Chris: What does success look like in five years?
Joaquim: Success is when we see the abundance of AI properly democratized to the people. When open-source developers expect protocol-level royalties, when model usage streams value back to contributors in real time, and when agents built on top of Alpaca rival the capabilities of closed platforms, with transparency and community at the core.
Quantitatively, we are aiming for 10,000+ models tokenized, that bring $100M+ in revenue distributed to builders and stakers, in a thriving marketplace where the default is decentralized AI ownership
That’s what we’re building towards!!
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