The Crypto Conversation

Venga

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Sentient - Community-built Open AGI Oct 18, 2024

Show notes

Dr. Himanshu Tyagi is a Core Contributor at Sentient, a blockchain project enabling community-built open AGI He's a researcher in information theory, applying its principles to solve real-world problems. Currently, he's a Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Why you should listen

Sentient is an AI research organization fostering a new Open AGI Economy for AI Builders and Creators. It is building platforms and protocols to enable open-source AI developers to (1) monetize their models, data, and other innovations, (2) collaborate with each other to collectively build powerful AIs, and (3) be significant stakeholders in a new Open AGI economy.

Today, the development of AI is almost entirely controlled by a few organizations and a few individuals at those organizations. These organizations are locked into a feverish race to build AGI and, in the process, make critical decisions for all of humanity.

On the other side, a large fraction of humanity is working to build AI developer and user skills. They have limited ways to showcase and contribute their skills and even worse ways to be gainfully employed.

Sentient has the goal of bringing ownership rights to open AI development. By inventing science and technology that enables anyone to build, collaborate, own, and monetize AI products, we will birth an era of AI entrepreneurship.

Sentient is building an AI platform for builders to collaborate and monetize their innovations. AI builders are the workhorses and principal actors of this economy, the ones who innovate and collaborate to build powerful new AI offerings. The underlying blockchain protocol and incentive mechanism provide the necessary economic alignment needed for the evolution of Open AGI in this collective offering.

For all this to work, it is necessary that the powerful AI models hosted on Sentient are Open, Monetizable and Loyal (OML) – "loyal" models are those which remain aligned with the community that built them, enforced by the underlying blockchain protocol.

Sentient has pioneered a new ambitious field in AI research with OML models. OML models will drive a shared Open AGI economy, supporting millions of AI agents and further downstream applications for billions of AI users.

The next generation of AI will be able to reason, plan, and act strategically. This AI will be built using new innovative agents and by learning from interactions between these agents, underlying models, and humans. The Sentient AI platform will enable the community and the AI built by them to participate and learn from these interactions, with the underlying blockchain protocol ensuring everyone is incentive-aligned.

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Sentient

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Network3 - Reconnect the World Oct 15, 2024

Show notes

Leanid Palkhouski is the Head of Ecosystem at Network3, helping AI developers efficiently train and validate models using Network3's AIoT Layer 2 technology.

Why you should listen

Network3 builds a dedicated AI Layer2, enabling AI developers worldwide to efficiently train, validate, and optimize models at scale through advanced techniques like AI model optimization, compression, federated learning, edge computing, and confidential computing.

They recently secured $5M to build Edge AI infrastructure, growing to over 300,000 nodes and 100,000 daily active sessions.

Network3 announced its new Local Large Language Model (LLM) feature at the TOKEN2049 DePIN Summit. This feature enhances the AI processing capabilities of smart devices by optimizing performance and reducing reliance on cloud computing. With Edge AI, data processing is done directly on local devices, improving efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing privacy. Network3 aims to make AI and Web3 more accessible by allowing IoT devices to train small AI models and offer rewards for shared computing power. The new LLM will launch for testing soon.

Network3's N3 Edge V1 mining device, designed for decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) applications, sold out within seconds of its release. The high demand for the device reflects strong market interest in DePIN, which enables the deployment of decentralized infrastructure networks using token incentives. The N3 Edge V1 offers powerful edge computing capabilities, contributing to Network3's broader goal of enhancing smart device networks.

Supporting links

Network3

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LightLink - The L2 For Instant, Gasless Transactions Oct 14, 2024

Show notes

Roy Hui is the Co-Founder and CEO of LightLink, a Layer 2 blockchain company that lets dApps and enterprises offer users instant, gasless transactions. Roy also founded Pellar, a Web3 builder of blockchain solutions for government and enterprises.

Why you should listen

LightLink is an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain platform designed to offer fast, gasless transactions, primarily aimed at enterprises and decentralized applications (dApps). It was developed by Pellar Technology, a company that has been creating blockchain solutions for enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region since 2017. One of LightLink's key innovations is its Enterprise Mode, which allows businesses to run on the blockchain without requiring their users to pay transaction fees or even possess tokens, thereby simplifying the user experience.

The platform stands out for its scalability and affordability, boasting a transaction throughput of over 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) at a cost of less than $0.01 per transaction. This performance is achieved using its Optimium architecture, which separates the consensus, execution, and data availability layers. LightLink integrates with Celestia's data availability solution, enhancing security and allowing the platform to continue functioning even if the Layer 2 network goes offline.

In addition to its performance advantages, LightLink offers a gasless transaction model for both developers and enterprises, making it easier to scale decentralized applications without the need for complex tokenomics.

The platform's native token, LL, is used for governance, staking, and utility within the ecosystem. LightLink is also designed to be fully EVM-compatible, meaning developers can migrate their Ethereum-based projects to LightLink without needing to modify their code, simplifying the process of building on the network.

LightLink's mission is to make blockchain adoption as seamless and intuitive as possible, abstracting away complex features like gas fees so that users can interact with blockchain technology as easily as they do with traditional Web2 applications.

LightLink and its partners have demonstrated cutting-edge web3 capabilities in over 50 projects, including Australian Open, Translucia, The Red Village, Vhils, CoalaPay, and more.

Supporting links

LightLink

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Chirp - The Global DePIN Network For IOT Oct 10, 2024

Show notes

Tim Kravchunovsky is the founder and CEO of Chirp. Chirp is a DePIN network founded by a team of Telecommunications experts. Tim Kravchunovsky has over 20 years of experience as a network engineer, having held a position as a Consulting Engineer at the World Bank, Comacast and Chemonics International. Tim founded Chirp in January 2021 to connect the world through groundbreaking, accessible technology that has the potential to transform the way we live our daily lives.

Why you should listen

Chirp's mission is to connect the largest number of devices with the blockchain under one revolutionary network and a SaaS platform. With a focus on IoT and Mobile, Chirp aims to redefine the future of wireless communication.

DePIN is one of the leading crypto narratives of 2024. DePIN uses blockchain to develop physical infrastructure like telecom communication, storage, IoT, and more. By decentralizing infrastructure, DePIN achieves tech scale and gives power back to the users.

Tim Kravchunovsky, founder and CEO of Chirp, discusses the ambitious goals of Chirp in creating a global IoT ecosystem that connects real-world devices through decentralized technology. He shares insights on the challenges of IoT connectivity, the importance of breaking down barriers between different devices, and the potential of decentralized networks to empower communities. Tim emphasizes the need for standardization in IoT and the role of Chirp in facilitating this transformation, while also touching on the future of smart cities and the impact of blockchain technology.

Supporting links

Chirp

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Curvance - The DeFi Everything App Oct 06, 2024

Show notes

Curvance is a modular liquidity management protocol designed to optimize the use of yield-bearing assets and ERC-20 tokens. Curvance DeFi aims to be the "everything app" for lending and borrowing, designed to help address fragmentation across chains and protocols.

Why you should listen

Curvance is a chain-agnostic reward and utility layer for yield-bearing assets and other ERC-20 tokens. Initially to be launched on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Blast, Base, Optimism, and Polygon zkEVM, it aspires to establish itself as the de-facto reward and utility layer for any ERC-20 token.

Curvance as a protocol allows users to unlock further capital efficiency on yield-bearing assets. The vault technology's modular approach allows the support of nearly any ERC-20 token.

The goal of Curvance is to become DeFi's end-game and the de-facto "everything app" to facilitate user access to lending and yield generating protocols.

As DeFi continues its growth trajectory and more sophisticated yield-generating products are built upon existing DeFi infrastructure, the market size and prevalence of yield-bearing assets are expected to expand significantly.

In this evolving landscape, Curvance assumes a pivotal role, facilitating the continued growth of DeFi by empowering users to leverage their assets through borrowing, lending and staking protocols, thus amplifying their capital efficiency and opening doors to new opportunities.

A key component of this vision is Curvance's multichain strategy that enables Curvance to tap into different flywheels quickly. This removes one more step in the users journey, further simplifying the DeFi experience.

As a result, Curvance can provide services to a broader range of users and leverage the strengths of different yield-bearing asset protocols and markets, maximizing its revenue potential.

The goal is to become the top liquidity management layer for new crypto users and experienced DeFi veterans. This mission starts with supporting and integrating the biggest revenue generating protocols in DeFi, abstracting the complexity required to access these opportunities away from the user. Additionally, the multichain strategy enables Curvance to expand to emerging chains and protocol flywheels that are in demand easily.

The Curvance protocol capitalizes on the extensive composability of yield-bearing assets and ERC-20 tokens, allowing tokenized treasuries, tokenized NFT markets, and other primitives to be borrowed against in a decentralized peer-to-peer fashion. It will open a whole new world of capital efficiency and optimized yield.

On Curvance, users can access third-party protocols that facilitate earning a competitive Annual Percentage Rate (APR) on assets. Curvance unlocks additional utility and reward layers that can unlock liquidity by securing loans against user assets and in some cases earn CVE tokens via the Gauge System.

Hence, Curvance can be regarded as the final top layer for DeFi yield.

Upon beta, Curvance will be live on at least Ethereum, Arbitrum, Blast, Base, Optimism, and Polygon zkEVM. By being multichain from the start, Curvance places itself at the center of the multichain DeFi landscape and aligns itself with similar protocols.

Supporting links

Curvance

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GenLayer - The Intelligence Layer of the Internet Oct 03, 2024

Show notes

Albert Castellana is the Co-Founder and CEO at Yeager AI, building GenLayer, a decentralized blockchain platform designed to integrate artificial intelligence directly into smart contracts. By combining blockchain and AI, GenLayer opens up a range of use cases, such as intelligent oracles, prediction markets, decentralized governance, parametric insurance, and more.

Why you should listen

GenLayer is a decentralized blockchain platform designed to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) directly into smart contracts. These enhanced contracts, called Intelligent Contracts, surpass traditional smart contracts by not only executing predefined conditions but also by interacting with real-time data from the web and processing natural language. This integration allows GenLayer's contracts to perform tasks beyond basic transactions, such as decision-making based on dynamic, real-world information without the need for oracles.

At its core, GenLayer uses a Python-based execution environment called GenVM, which enables developers to create contracts that can interact with large language models (LLMs), such as GPT, to analyze and process complex information. The platform's unique Optimistic Democracy consensus mechanism ensures that multiple validators, powered by AI models, reach an agreement on the validity of transactions. This consensus mechanism allows for greater flexibility, as validators can handle non-deterministic tasks (those with multiple possible correct outcomes) like interpreting natural language queries or accessing web data.

By combining blockchain and AI, GenLayer opens up a wide range of innovative use cases, such as intelligent oracles, prediction markets, decentralized governance, parametric insurance, and much more.

Supporting links

GenLayer

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ANKR - Build the Open Internet of the Future Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

Tyler Sloan is a Product Manager at ANKR, the leading Web3 infrastructure company. It has a set of different products for building, earning, gaming, and more — all on blockchain.

Why you should listen

Ankr is a decentralized infrastructure platform designed to simplify access to Web3 services, making it easier for developers and enterprises to build, deploy, and manage blockchain applications. By leveraging a global network of nodes, Ankr aims to provide a cost-effective and efficient solution for interacting with blockchain networks, supporting various use cases in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Ankr focuses on providing reliable and scalable node hosting services. Developers can deploy their own nodes on the Ankr network, accessing a variety of blockchain protocols such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon. This flexibility enables users to tailor their infrastructure according to specific project needs, ensuring optimal performance and reduced latency. By eliminating the need for extensive technical knowledge and resources, Ankr empowers developers to focus on building their applications rather than managing complex infrastructure.

One of the standout features of Ankr is its unique proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which enables users to earn rewards by staking their tokens. This not only incentivizes participation in the network but also enhances its security and decentralization. Users can stake ANKR tokens, the native cryptocurrency of the platform, to support various blockchain networks while earning rewards in return. This dual functionality of staking and node hosting positions Ankr as an attractive option for both developers and investors.

Ankr also offers a developer-friendly suite of tools and APIs that facilitate seamless integration with blockchain networks. The platform provides SDKs (Software Development Kits) and documentation to help developers create decentralized applications (dApps) and services with ease. These resources streamline the development process, allowing for rapid prototyping and deployment of projects. Ankr's commitment to fostering innovation is evident through its focus on community engagement and support, providing a vibrant ecosystem for developers to collaborate and share ideas.

Ankr addresses the scalability challenges faced by many blockchain networks. By utilizing its distributed architecture, the platform can handle a high volume of transactions without compromising speed or efficiency. This scalability is crucial for supporting the growing demand for decentralized applications and services in various sectors, including finance, gaming, and supply chain management.

Ankr is a comprehensive infrastructure solution for Web3, offering developers and enterprises the tools and resources necessary to thrive in the blockchain space. With its focus on accessibility, scalability, and community support, Ankr is poised to play a significant role in shaping the future of decentralized technology.

Supporting links

ANKR

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Kairon Labs - The Premium Market Maker Sep 28, 2024

Show notes

Mathias Beke is Co-Founder and CTO at Kairon Labs, an advisor and crypto market maker for digital asset issuers.

Why you should listen

Kairon Labs is a player in digital asset trading and liquidity provision, offering a wide range of services designed to optimize liquidity management for crypto projects and exchanges. Established as a leading market maker in the cryptocurrency space, Kairon Labs specializes in ensuring that digital assets have sufficient liquidity across centralized exchanges (CEXs) and decentralized exchanges (DEXs), allowing for seamless trading experiences for users and institutional clients.

One of the core services provided by Kairon Labs is liquidity provision. By utilizing sophisticated algorithms and market-making strategies, the company ensures that token projects can maintain tight spreads and consistent order books, helping to minimize volatility and enhance market depth. This service is vital for new token launches and ongoing token liquidity management, ensuring that tokens are traded efficiently across multiple platforms.

Kairon Labs also offers market-making services, acting as a liquidity provider to foster a healthy trading environment. This can be particularly beneficial for tokens listed on multiple exchanges, where liquidity fragmentation can hinder smooth trading. The company's market-making solutions help reduce slippage, enhance price discovery, and improve overall market quality.

Kairon Labs also provides advisory services, leveraging its deep expertise in digital assets and liquidity management to help projects navigate the complexities of exchange listings, trading strategies, and regulatory landscapes. By offering tailored consulting services, they enable crypto projects to develop optimized strategies for liquidity deployment, tokenomics, and exchange relationships.

Supporting links

Kairon Labs

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IBL Partners - The Tech-forward Distributed Law Firm Sep 24, 2024

Show notes

Aaron Krowne is Partner & Practice Group Lead Blockchain & Corporate, at Industria Business Lawyers (IBL Partners) a technology-forward distributed law firm.

Why you should listen

Since its founding in 2018, IBL Partners has leveraged versatility and technology to deliver professional and sophisticated legal services for innovators in the twenty-first century technology sector. Advances in technology, including AI, Blockchain and DLT, fintech, "DeFi", and "Web3", continue to revolutionize the industry. Unfortunately, government agencies and corporate stakeholders often find themselves playing catch-up with innovation. IBL Partners leverages its collective regulatory experience and expertise in technology to navigate the regulatory uncertainty and offer clients indispensable legal support in new frontier as well as established areas of the law.

Aaron Krowne is an attorney who arrived at the practice of law following a career in computing and technology, where he worked as a research data scientist.

He founded a series of online startup ventures, several of which attained global recognition. His pre-law career also includes establishing multiple online libel law precedents and participating in the early development of the Creative Commons IP license system.

He was one of the first lawyers globally to focus on blockchain, initially familiarizing himself with Bitcoin and its underlying technology in its early days.

Today, he advises a diverse array of blockchain and "crypto" companies, covering areas ranging from money services and AML law to NFTs, and works at the forefront of the professionalization and expansion of the rapidly-growing cryptocurrency finance and "DeFi" space.

Aaron joins Andy to discuss blockchain law, regulations, the regulation by enforcement approach of many US agencies, and the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act.

Supporting links

IBL Partners