Speaking with AIBC News, Karla Kangleon and Michael Nielsen of the Global AI Council shared the group’s advocacy in providing AI education for all. According to them, the organisation wants to ensure that everyone has access to the knowledge and tools necessary to leverage this technology. ??

“The Global AI Council provides free education for everyone,” Nielsen, a representative of the council, said at the AIBC Asia held in the Philippines. Nielsen added that the council aims to democratise AI by making its resources and expertise accessible to all, a mission that has garnered global participation.??

Masterclasses and expert guidance

Kangleon, meanwhile, highlighted the organisation’s commitment to free education. “Since 2023, we have been conducting masterclasses that are free for everyone to join,” she explained. These masterclasses, led by AI experts from various industries, offer practical solutions and learning opportunities. “Anyone can register on our website and participate,” Kangleon added, emphasising the accessibility of these resources.??

Addressing the need for AI education??

According to both Kangleon and Nielsen, the necessity for an organization like the Global AI Council arises from the growing importance of AI in both professional and personal spheres. ??

“We need proper regulations and conversations about the use of AI tools,” Kangleon stated. She pointed out that while AI can significantly enhance productivity and simplify tasks, many people lack the time or resources to learn how to use these tools effectively. “We provide information and access to experts who can answer any questions during our live masterclasses,” she said, underscoring the interactive and supportive nature of their educational approach.??

Overcoming educational challenges

One significant challenge the Global AI Council faces is reaching underserved populations, particularly in regions with limited internet access. “The challenge here in the Philippines is that many people who need better education are from rural areas without internet access,” Nielsen acknowledged. He stressed the importance of infrastructure improvements to support online education initiatives. Despite these hurdles, the council remains committed to its mission and is exploring ways to extend its reach further.??

Outlook and upcoming projects

Looking ahead, the Global AI Council has ambitious plans to further its educational mission. “We aim to advocate for free AI education for all,” Kangleon stated. She emphasised that AI is here to stay and should be seen as a tool that enhances rather than replaces human capabilities. “AI can make our jobs better and give us more time for ourselves,” she shared from her personal experience.??

The council plans to engage with schools and educational institutions to incorporate AI education into their curricula. “We want to invite schools to be part of the AI council,” Kangleon said. This initiative aims to prepare future generations for a world where AI plays a critical role in various industries, including healthcare, business, and iGaming.?

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In an interview with AIBC News, Dizon points out that the Bitcoin halving event can have a significant impact on the liquidity of cryptocurrencies, subsequently influencing the value and adoption of Web3 gaming tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).??

Rise of Web3 gaming and opportunities for smaller studios

With the surge in Web3 gaming adoption, smaller studios are emerging as hotbeds of innovation. Dizon emphasizes that the agility and risk-taking propensity of smaller studios contribute to this trend, allowing them to pioneer groundbreaking concepts and gameplay experiences.??

“Smaller studios can take bigger risks, be more experimental, move faster and be more agile, and be highly focused, so, in Web3 as well as the broader startup ecosystem, we often see the greatest innovation coming from smaller, early-stage projects,” Dizon explained. “YGG has backed almost 70 early-stage web3 games that are building really impressive products in smaller studio environments.”??

Traditional gaming giants embrace Web3: Implications and lessons

The entry of gaming behemoths like Ubisoft and Square Enix into the Web3 gaming arena heralds a new era of mainstream adoption. Dizon underscores the potential of these industry giants to drive blockchain adoption and outlines valuable lessons that smaller studios can glean from their initiatives.??

“These Web2 gaming giants can bring a lot of credibility to Web3, thanks to their very strong brand equity while having the potential to onboard massive existing fan bases into crypto games and ultimately help to boost blockchain adoption,” Dizon said.??

“Smaller studios can take notes on the efforts of these larger studios and franchises as they launch and distribute their web3 offerings to their very large player bases; NFTs were not immediately welcomed by those traditional audiences however we believe this will change over time. Particularly with Web3 being introduced by the really big names of the traditional video gaming industry,” he said.???

Addressing gameplay concerns in GameFi projects

GameFi projects have garnered significant attention, with recent releases dispelling misconceptions about the engagement levels of Web3 games. Dizon highlights the immersive gameplay experiences offered by titles such as Pixels and Nine Chronicles, underscoring the evolution of blockchain gaming.??

“Since 2018 the sector has attracted approximately $19 billion in investments and Web3 game developers have been hard at work throughout the Crypto Winter. In November 2023, at the YGG Web3 Games Summit in Manila, Philippines, we showcased more than 40 high-quality Web3 games all playable now with a very positive response from our community,” Dizon elaborated. “Recent releases like Pixels, Parallel, My Pet Hooligan, Blocklords, and Nine Chronicles have proven that web3 games offer engaging gameplay. So, the idea that Web3 games lack engaging gameplay has largely been debunked with these new releases.”???

Unlocking value with NFTs: A paradigm shift in ownership

NFTs have revolutionized the concept of digital ownership, empowering players to assert control over virtual assets. Dizon explains how YGG leverages the Soulbound token (SBT) to reward and recognize community members, fostering a sense of belonging and incentivizing active participation.??

“A particular type of non-transferable NFT is a Soulbound Token (SBT). Through YGG’s Guild Advancement Program (GAP) and Superquests, players complete quests and earn SBTs that are issued by YGG, to recognize and reward members for their achievements and their contributions to the community,” Dizon said.???

“Reputation and Web3 identity are a very important concept if you want more individuals to be protected and be able to access opportunities in the open Metaverse.”???

Evolving gaming economies

The synergy between blockchain technology and gaming heralds the emergence of player-owned economies, where players dictate the value and trajectory of in-game assets. Dizon delves into the implications of on-chain reputation systems, which enhance trust and collaboration within virtual communities.??

“Web3 gaming economies are player-owned, meaning that the players themselves bring, build, and maintain the value and growth among their own community. When you put an asset on-chain, it’s basically giving ownership to the players and then they can do what they want to do with it, so it means they can own it, trade it, or sell it, but it means you are giving them permission to cash it out of your economy,” Dizon further explained.??

“On-chain reputation is also very important within virtual economies as it gives players control over their digital identities. For example, if a player wants to join a guild or participate in a multiplayer quest, their on-chain reputation vouches for their skills and reliability, earning them respect and opening opportunities within the game community,” he said.???

“This level of trust and transparency fosters deeper engagement and collaboration among players, ultimately shaping the evolution of the game economy.”??

Outlook for the blockchain gaming sector

Looking ahead, Dizon expresses optimism about the trajectory of the blockchain gaming sector. With gaming guilds establishing their identities on-chain and platforms like Farcaster and Lens redefining social interactions, the future promises a tapestry of innovative possibilities.??

“Platforms like Farcaster are making strides with features such as frames, offering a new perspective on social networking. Lens is also interesting, providing novel ways for social interactions to take place on the blockchain,” he said.??

“We’re seeing more and more different ways that people can interact on-chain, and YGG is contributing to this to show how groups and guilds can also participate,” he concluded.??

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What is the impact of AI on search engines?

Professor Alexiei Dingli: AI blunders have permeated various industries and applications, from the seemingly innocuous to the downright dangerous. One area where the flaws of AI have become particularly evident is in the realm of search engines. Google’s search algorithm, which relies heavily on user traffic, has occasionally led to controversial image search results. Searches for specific topics have yielded either misleading or outright false results, highlighting the susceptibility of AI algorithms to manipulation and misinformation.

What about AI-powered chatbots?

Professor Alexiei Dingli: Similarly, AI-powered chatbots have shown that, without proper safeguards, they can quickly devolve into rogue agents. Microsoft’s chatbot Tay, designed to learn from its interactions with Twitter users, began sharing Nazi statements and racial slurs after being exposed to abusive interactions. This infamous incident demonstrated the potential dangers of machine learning when faced with harmful input and the pressing need for safeguards to prevent such occurrences.

What are the challenges in face identification?

Professor Alexiei Dingli: The bias is present in facial recognition AI has also raised red flags. Numerous instances of the technology struggling to accurately identify people of colour have led to a greater awareness of AI bias and the need for more inclusive datasets. From Google Photos categorizing black people as gorillas to Amazon’s Rekognition software falsely identifying members of the US Congress as police suspects, these incidents serve as stark reminders of the consequences of unchecked AI bias.

What is the impact of ‘Deepfakes’ in spreading disinformation?

Professor Alexiei Dingli: Deepfakes, another AI-driven technology, have sown seeds of doubt in digital media. These convincing forgeries, created using deep learning AI, have become increasingly difficult to distinguish from real images and videos. As deep fakes grow more sophisticated, humans must develop methods for detecting and mitigating their impact to preserve trust in digital media and prevent the spread of disinformation.

Can you identify some repercussions of the impact of gender bias?

Professor Alexiei Dingli: In the world of recruitment, Amazon’s AI-driven tool exhibited a gender bias that ultimately led to the project’s demise. The AI, trained on a dataset of predominantly male CVs, began filtering out CVs containing the keyword “women.” Despite efforts to correct this bias, the project was abandoned, illustrating the potential pitfalls of relying solely on AI for decision-making.

What happens when AI is misued?

Professor Alexiei Dingli: The misuse of AI, particularly in the form of jailbroken chatbots, has raised concerns about potential harm. Users have found ways to bypass limitations meant to prevent chatbots from providing banned content, leading to the creation of zero-day malware and instructions for building bombs or stealing cars. These incidents highlight the need for human oversight and the importance of stringent security measures to prevent AI technology from falling into the wrong hands.

How does AI work in relation to autonomous vehicles?

Professor Alexiei Dingli: Once touted as the future of transportation, autonomous vehicles have faced their share of challenges. Numerous crashes involving advanced driver-assistance systems have dampened enthusiasm for self-driving cars and raised concerns about their safety. As these vehicles become more prevalent on the roads, human involvement must remain at the forefront of their development and regulation.

What in your opinion are the limitations of the innovation that AI has brought?

Professor Alexiei Dingli: No one doubts that AI and machine learning hold ground breaking potential, but these high-profile incidents demonstrate their fallibility. Human oversight is paramount in developing, implementing, and monitoring AI systems. By recognizing AI’s limitations and diligently addressing its flaws, we can harness its power responsibly and mitigate the risks associated with its unintended consequences. As we venture further into this era of rapid technological advancement, we must strike a balance between tapping into AI’s vast potential and guaranteeing its ethical and conscientious application.

How important is human oversight?

Professor Alexiei Dingli: These AI blunders serve as an explosive wake-up call and a crucial reminder of the importance of human oversight in the face of increasingly powerful and pervasive technology. By learning from these incidents, remaining vigilant, and collaborating, we can develop and implement AI solutions that are not only effective but also ethical and accountable. Open dialogue and a commitment to addressing AI’s limitations and potential pitfalls will ensure that this revolutionary technology becomes a force for good, paving the way for a brighter, more equitable, and safer future for all.

Prof Alexiei Dingli is a renowned AI expert and Professor at the University of Malta. With over 20 years of experience in the field, he has helped numerous companies successfully implement AI solutions. His work has been recognized as world-class by international experts, and he has received numerous awards from organizations such as the European Space Agency, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the United Nations. In addition to his considerable peer-reviewed publications, he has also been a core member of the Malta.AI task force, working to position Malta as a global leader in AI.

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I’d love to hear more about the founding of Web3m. What was your inspiration?

The vision for Web3m was sparked by my background in cybersecurity and (later) marketing. I was 12 years old when I started hacking. I loved the freedom of information available on the internet. I learned about privacy and data security by witnessing other hackers exploit and manipulate people online. Cybersecurity became my first career and I even managed the largest cybersecurity community in Israel.

One day, something occurred to me. Every black hat practice in hacking—fingerprinting, tracking, phishing, etc.—had a white hat equivalent practice in online advertising. Big tech companies made money using many of the same tools and techniques as nefarious hackers.

At first, my three best friends and I saw this as an opportunity to play big tech advertisers at their own game. Long story short, we used our hacking and data security chops to build a marketing company. It worked! We got to $100m in two years.

Soon, my inner 12-year-old hacker got the best of me. Rather than using data to make money, I was reinspired by the same vision that first drew me to the internet: decentralization. The Web3 community was hard at work building a better internet—and I wanted to be part of it. My partners and I pivoted to build a marketing platform that put users—not big tech companies—in charge of their own data.

In the end, that pivot resulted in Web3m, a decentralized multichannel ad network that allows advertisers to promote their projects across crypto.

Tell me more about launching multichannel campaigns in crypto. Why did you focus on that?

I should mention that Web3m is just the first tool in our ecosystem. There’s more on the way, like our innovations in the world of Inscriptions and Ordinals at digital-artifacts.io.

That said, Web3m is designed to help Web3 entrepreneurs advertise their businesses across crypto with the same ease as they advertise in Web2. The idea didn’t come out of nowhere. We consulted with dozens of marketers, entrepreneurs, agencies, influencers, and PR agencies. We inquired about the biggest challenges they faced when promoting their crypto projects.

Of course, many problems came up. Web3 is still fairly new. But there was one challenge that we heard about more than others: Multichannel advertising was highly inefficient.

The biggest online advertisers (like Meta and Google) were constantly changing their rules regarding which crypto ads were and were not acceptable. And if crypto marketers wanted to advertise on more niche websites, they had to manually negotiate each ad placement for every platform. Marketers needed a single platform to create, launch, and monitor all their advertising in one place. Web3m enables crypto marketers to do exactly that—and more.

Let’s return to the topic of data and advertising. What does the future of targeted advertising look like in Web3?

There’s no way around it: Advertising performs best for everyone (the advertiser, the consumer, and the network) with data. The biggest problem with small ad networks is their lack of data. Imagine selling banner ads on a casino website. If all the ad network knows about its users is that the visitor enjoys casinos and gambling, then the only targeted ads they’ll place are direct competitors to the website: other casinos.

On the other hand, a larger ad network can access more data. For example, if we know that the visitor just had a baby, and he is looking for a new stroller, we can sell the ad space on the casino website to a baby stroller company. The site visitor, the host website, and the advertiser all benefit from better information.

That’s where standard digital advertising ends. But Web3m takes the benefits two steps further. First, the data is much more detailed while remaining fully anonymous, giving advertisers better insights for every campaign. Second, we pay the site visitor (consumer) and the website for letting us use their data. It’s a data- forward advertising approach that rewards everyone.

Are you saying that Web3m users get paid when companies use their data in ads?

In Web2, effectively every website owner collects data about their site visitors. That data is sent to third-party companies essentially for free to be used in future ads.

Here’s where we flip the old model on its head. In Web3, websites still track data. But instead of sending that data to a centralized and walled garden (i.e. Big Tech), Web3m instead pays websites to send that anonymous web traffic data directly to the blockchain. We also pay the person whose data was collected.

This method decentralizes data collection and rewards both website owners and website visitors. Everyone gets compensated for their data. And their data remains anonymous.

How does Web3m adapt to changes in the digital marketing landscape?

Our goal is to put data back into the hands of internet users. The old model essentially locked up user data in a handful of major tech conglomerates. This meant that data power was centralized, offering almost no benefit to ad-hosting websites or consumers. It also meant that data became a walled garden whose dimensions (pricing and rules) could change at any moment. How many companies have gone out of business simply because Meta, Apple, or Google decided to tweak their ad platforms or change internal data policies on a whim?

Our model decentralizes that data by sending all data back to the blockchain, giving power to each user—and every advertiser—in equal measure. In other words, we’re not adapting to the changing marketing landscape. It’s more accurate to say that we’re the ones who are changing it.

How does the Web3m protocol balance the decentralized monetization of data while protecting consumer privacy?

Without getting too technical, we have developed a non-intrusive way to fingerprint a device without sharing personal details (like name or email). All users are completely anonymous.

Think of it this way: Everyone can create a wallet that acts as their fingerprint on the blockchain. Content on the blockchain is transparent but you can’t tell who owns which wallet, keeping the anonymous owner in constant control of their privacy. From the anonymous wallet, we can gather information from each website visitor—their past shopping tendencies, for example—while ensuring that each user remains in control of their privacy.

What sort of data and analytics can advertisers expect to leverage in Web3?

One of our biggest innovations at Web3m is wallet-specific marketing. We launched Web3m Analytics to give marketers access to on-chain metrics of the visitors to your website. I know that’s a little technical. Here are a few examples of the types of data website owners can leverage in their ads:

When was this visitor’s first transaction (How long they’ve been in the crypto space)?

What is their average investment size?

What is their preferred token?

What are their current token holdings (and sub-niches of interest)?

As I’ve iterated above, all of this information is completely anonymous. It is presented on the Web3m Analytics tool alongside the standard traffic analytics that we are all familiar with.

Web3m has fostered a large community of marketers. How important has this community been in the success of Web3m?

Communities are a beautiful thing that got a lot of attention with the rise of Web3. We believe that the secret to fostering a successful community is to never confuse community members with customers.

Strong communities are based on two principles: Sharing and building. The Web3m community is made up of marketers and entrepreneurs who love to share their experiences and knowledge. We’re all growing and learning together.

The community is also critical to what we’re creating at Web3m. The community believes—like I do—that Web3m is the future of marketing. They are contributing to that cause, supporting us, and guiding us to build useful tools for the industry. Web3m’s success is the community’s success. It’s a direct correlation.

Check out more exclusive interviews like this one in the latest?BLOCK Magazine, or related industry news on AIBC News.

The post Shaping Web3 marketing: An exclusive interview with Web3m’s Adir Buskila appeared first on AIBC.

Which industry trends for 2023 do you predict will have the most impact on the emerging tech space? Which areas are likely to see the most growth, and which ones are likely to face challenges?

Undoubtedly, the field of zero-knowledge (ZK), data science, optimism, and infrastructure will play a significant role in the future. While these areas may not be considered emerging, they serve as the backbone of our networks and are increasingly gaining recognition for their fundamental importance. As more people become aware of what goes on “under the hood,” the significance of these areas will become more widely understood.

What role will decentralized AI play in the Web3 ecosystem, and how might this differ from the centralized AI models that are currently prevalent in many Web 2.0 platforms?

Decentralized AI is the future of intelligent systems, and it’s set to shake up the status quo in the Web3 ecosystem. Unlike centralized AI models that concentrate data control in the hands of a single entity, decentralized AI leverages blockchain technology to distribute data control across a network of nodes, making it a more secure and accountable option. This new era of AI will empower users to take control of their data and will lead to exciting new possibilities, including privacy-focused applications, trust-based supply chain management, and collaborative data sharing. Get ready for a smarter, more equitable future powered by decentralized AI in the Web3 world!

ZK, rollups, and Starkware are gaining a lot of attention in the blockchain space. Looking beyond the hype, what are some practical use cases for these technologies, and how do they differ from each other in terms of performance and security?

I could list countless applications, but I’ll focus on my area of expertise. In the banking sector, decentralized AI can help to solve and streamline complex intra-bank transactions such as repurchase agreements or swaps. I believe that finance is a crucial aspect of the next evolution of our society, and I’d like to give it a special mention. By utilizing zero-knowledge technology, we can reduce or even eliminate fees in the Ethereum network, which will significantly increase the speed and usage of blockchain technology.

What are the biggest challenges businesses in the blockchain space face when it comes to scaling their projects?

Undoubtedly, effective cash flow generation and smart spending during fundraising are key to success. However, it’s important to note that having the right team in place is also critical. The team is the heart and soul of a project, and having the right people with the right skills and experience can make all the difference in achieving success.

How do you evaluate the fundraising and treasury management strategies of different projects? What metrics do you look at, and what red flags do you avoid?

I mainly look for red flags such as lack of transparency or unclear strategies. Key metrics I analyze include burn rate, cash balance, and funding sources, while keeping in mind the project’s goals and market conditions. Sometimes you can also do a quick analysis on the backbone of the project judging their capable and advisors.

Growth hacking is a popular term in the startup world, but how does it apply to the blockchain space? In what ways can growth hacking through organic methods be more sustainable and effective in the long-term, compared to relying on bots for short-term gains?

The term “growth hacking” is broad and can be applied in any industry. In the Web3 space, it involves the constant effort to counteract the use of bots or lazy human effort. To be effective in this context, it’s important to have a sector-neutral understanding of the blockchain sphere and a basic understanding of Web2 marketing approaches.
Bots are not necessarily the enemy, as they can serve a valuable purpose in protection. However, relying solely on bots for growth does not guarantee long-term growth or retention. It’s important to consider a more holistic approach that encompasses genuine engagement and commitment from users for sustainable growth in the Web3 space.

Masterblox offers its own in-house growth hacking solution – tell me more about this?

We have been researching and developing our growth hacking strategies for years now. It takes the efforts of several analysts and 24/7 monitoring to refine our approach. Our track record is something we take great pride in, with successful partnerships with industry giants such as BNB, Chainlin among others. Our techniques have been proven to boost engagement and enhance user acquisition. Our growth hacking strategies have the potential to take a new project from start to finish with ultimate success, or to bring about the resurgence of an industry giant.

BLOCK Magazine

For more enticingly insightful, industry leading opinions and idea, check out the latest issue of BLOCK Magazine.

The post Developing decentralized AI appeared first on AIBC.

While meant in jest, this question hides a macrocosm of nuances that highlight many of the shifts in economy and society that we may see in the very near future. Will automation render even creative jobs obsolete? Will the common man have agency in an AI-driven future?

Putting these concerns to rest, Rinnan stated that we’ll probably still go for flesh-and-blood bands and all the eccentricity that comes with them. This being said, he noted that the way we eat, the way we travel and the way we work are due for a massive disruption.

Maybe you won’t have a normal job. You quite certainly won’t own your own car and maybe the hamburger you’d be eating would be made in a laboratory. What’s even better is that the world may not have poverty, pollution, famine, and maybe even disease would be a thing of the past.

As the CEO of Amesto NextBridge and a seasoned futurist, Rinnan’s keen insight into the potential of Deep Tech as informed by his background in business intelligence and AI makes him a leading oracle into what the future may entail. According to him, the main lynchpin of this transformation is the exponential growth in computing intelligence that can already be seen today.

It’s an important milestone because then [in 2029], a cheap thousand dollar computer will have the same computing power as your brain. That means he can do just about any cognitive task that a human can do only faster, better and cheaper.

Moving towards automation, a necessary and divisive aspect of enhanced computation, Rinnan notes that we should be excited rather than worried about an AI-augmented workforce. Arguing that half of the jobs in 2029 will be automated, he noted that these jobs will be hardly missed.

All the boring, dirty, and dangerous jobs will be gone and no one will miss them. All the routine jobs will be automated to a large extent. Storage work will be done by drones and robots, accounting will be done by algorithms etc etc

He also expanded on the topic by pointing out that the jobs left would be significantly augmented by artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies such as AR, VR and Machine learning. He also elaborated on the fact that we may see the very nature and even necessity of work change. He noted that we may see the rise of UBI policies given that automation and hyper-efficiency would allow the economy to support more of the population without issue.

That income will come from universal basic income, financed by taxation of the hyper profitable companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, you know them.

Moving towards energy and transportation, Rinnan noted how we may see a much more sustainable and (quite literally) brighter future to look forward to. Advances in energy harvesting and in the efficiency of energy-intense systems will lead to groundbreaking advancements in the fight against Climate Change.

While our energy output will be augmented through these advancements, the very food we eat will be disrupted for the better through new methods such as hydroponic farming.

Done indoors with 99% less soil, 90% less water, no pesticides and no seasons. This is 300 times more efficient than traditional farming.

From Bespoke 3D printed food tailored to your own metabolism to nanomachines that protect your health, Rinnan concluded by illuminating the main motive force behind all of these future disruptions; exponential progress.

The problem is people don’t understand the difference between linear and exponential progress. 30 linear steps are 30 metres, 30 exponential steps are a billion metres. So people tend to think linearly, but technology is developing exponentially, doubling every 18 months. This is why all of this is possible.

Asking us to look to the Future from the Present, Rinnan shows us that we may have more to look forward to than one would think. For more panels on Tomorrow’s Economy, follow the AIBC Summit on Youtube.

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Moderated by James Bowater, the global ambassador of World Mobile and founder of Crypto AM, the panel was composed of Eric Wall, the CIO at Arcane Assets, and Luis Carbajo, founder and CEO at Vottun. These three industry leaders endeavored to shed light on both the definition of the admittedly nebulous term “Smart Money” as well laying out potential roadmaps for this emerging sector to reach its full potential. Bowater began by flooring the question but also highlighting how current issues were hyper-accelerating the mass adoption of Blockchain-based technologies.

Smart money is a bit of a confusing title but I think one of the things that’s actually been quite astonishing is how, during the pandemic, we’ve seen the transformation and the advent of DeFi and the move away from cash. So what we’re now looking at is what’s going on now.

Wall joined the conversation by illustrating these changes through the success that the likes of Bitcoin has had when compared to fiat currencies.

One of the obvious data points for that is obviously the price of Bitcoin but along with that also came an acceleration of DeFi. So in the end of 2019, DeFi was just a buzzword but by the summer of 2020, shortly after the pandemic had become taking hold of the entire world, then all of a sudden you have people from all over the world participating in the decentralized finance economy, and we’ve seen an absolute explosion of applications and decentralized exchanges lending markets, NFTs financial derivatives margin trading.

Carbajo chimed in by noting that the idiosyncrasies of the Pandemic have also strengthened the growth of the industry by allowing more and more people to have the time to learn about the sector and to experiment with novel experiences like play-to-earn games.

So what is Smart Money?

Bowater returned to the question by noting how, given how we were living in times of extraordinary transition. With the Metaverse and crypto mass adoption on the horizon, we may see a complete paradigm shift when it comes to daily finance.

Cash is no longer king because it’s toxic. Literally, that’s the infusion in the mind. You’ve got people, who never knew what a QR code was, now using them every day of their bloody lives…the speed of transition is so fast that none of us really can keep up with anything.

Wall rose to the challenge of defining the term.

You could perhaps argue that hard money is an asset class. Smart money is the money that invests in hard money.

Carbajo then elaborated on this foundational definition in more detail.

Smart money is smart because it’s run through smart contracts. But I think that is everything that is behind that term that is important. It’s the fact that people realize that they are just halfway in the data world and they can use data money in different ways and earn money in different ways, not just tied to the banking system.

Bowater then elaborated on the need for infrastructure in place to connect previously unconnected demographics to the digital world. With half of the globe not being connected to any digital infrastructure, there is a pressing need for international development in order for this overhaul to come to pass.

If you have to travel 10 kilometers to go and download something or get bandwidth to do something, you can’t certainly pay with it at the time you need access. Cash still has its absolute place.

The future of finance

Returning to the definition as elicited by Bowater, Wall argued that the concept of “Smart money” is built on three main pillars. The first is an investor profile, or the type of money that gets invested into Blockchain-aligned technologies. The second is technological integration.

For example, with Bitcoin, if I wanted to take all my money from one country to another, I can do it with Bitcoin just by memorizing words. So if I’m a Venezuelan citizen and the government imposes a highly inflationary currency upon me, It’s very hard to transport the amount of wealth that you have acquired to another country and exchange it for something else. On the other hand, with Bitcoin, you can just memorize 12 words and walk across any border in the world, and there’s no central bank that can inflate the value that you have.

The final aspect was the existence of smart contacts, which allow users more flexibility when it comes to the usage of their money when it comes to both legal and logistical issues as well as the types of applications that could be built.

Let’s say you have a mountain of wealth, and you want to make sure that this mountain of wealth gets distributed according to your will. You can embed the rules of your will in a smart contract language. So you can say, for instance, only 2% of my wealth shall get allocated to my children after I die. You can have a smart contract that imposes those rules upon the money that you have left after you die. That’s not possible to do in the existing system.

Bowater also noted that we may be far off from full legal clarity when it comes to smart contracts due to the fact that the process of writing and auditing these contracts may have not entered legal consensus yet.

The panel concluded with an exploration on the future of NFTs and how the tokenized economy could end up being a vital pillar of the future economy beyond simply augmenting the monetary system. Examples included the tokenization of time and the rise of X-to-earn business models that have only been strengthened by the pandemic.

AIBC returns to the United Arab Emirates:

Drawing the leading figures of the emerging tech world to the Middle Eastern metropoles for cutting edge technology, the?2022 AIBC UAE expo plans to unite the policy-makers, developers, C-suite executives, and legal experts of the burgeoning AI and Blockchain sectors. Through three days of educational panels, inspiring keynote speeches, workshops, and networking events, the expo seeks to create the foundation that the Industrial Revolution 4.0 can be built upon. Join us from the 20th to 23rd March 2022, in UAE.

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With an excitement that underlines most of the emerging industry, Virginia explained that by accepting her role as Brand Ambassador, she looked forward to taking an active role in tying the emerging tech world closer together. An innovative soul in her own right and a master of her craft, Virginia has played an active role in the technology industry for more than two decades and has advised, taught and published on the Blockchain internationally and even at European Union-level.

In this situation, we are making a new industry involving cryptocurrency and Blockchain. This space is very important. In the overview, the building of a new industry needs structures in place in different countries so the world could conduct business. It’s fantastic for startups and people that are building up this new space.

When asked by Trudy on how the industry was moving and evolving, Virginia shed light on the fact that not only was the technology becoming more sophisticated but the space was actually starting to see the creation of a self-sufficient and innovative ecosystem. She emphasized that it was important to press on this development as it could lead to the progress being made within the sector to spread into other economic areas.

It’s about the logistics supply chain, the health sector, the sports sector, all of these sectors are deeply reliant on technology. The most important values right now are learning together, living together and making partnerships. This is of course what is happening at SiGMA.

Blockchain Brand Ambassador: Virginia on the future of the industry

Trudy then moved onto the topic of what the industry had to look forward to in 2022. The last few years have been of extreme importance for the development of the sector in terms of both adoption and regulation with even the IMF commenting on the need for a global policy on cryptocurrencies. Virginia noted that the technology was advancing rapidly and that we should also be looking forward to more proliferation as the technology becomes more and more mainstream.

Therefore next year we need to really prepare a strategy in terms of partnerships with events, mainly SiGMA, that spreads the technology around different industries and different regions of the world. We are building a new economy, a new digital society with possibly a new internet in the next 15 years.

Trudy then referenced an interview with Akon where he compared the rapid evolution of the music industry to the rapid evolution of the Blockchain industry. Trudy concurred and said that technology not only rapidly advanced in its own right but also cross pollinated with other advances in other fields to compound the rate of sophistication and their innovative potential.

We are changing the world with this technology and to change the world we need to be better because we may be in a new era [of technological sophistication].

Trudy then concluded the interview by asking Virginia about how she was finding her time at SiGMA. She answered that she was very happy with the arrangement and was looking forward to a very fruitful future of cooperation.

SiGMA is one of the world’s largest players when it comes to making the systems that allow for emerging industries and decision makers to meet and this connection would not be possible if these systems were not present to allow them to also connect to global markets.

AIBC returns to the United Arab Emirates:

Drawing the leading figures of the emerging tech world to the Middle Eastern metropoles for cutting edge technology, the?2022 AIBC UAE expo plans to unite the policy-makers, developers, C-suite executives, and legal experts of the burgeoning AI and Blockchain sectors. Through three days of educational panels, inspiring keynote speeches, workshops, and networking events, the expo seeks to create the foundation that the Industrial Revolution 4.0 can be built upon. Join us from the 20th to 23rd March 2022, in UAE.

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What I want to talk about is a new frontier in the investment of decentralized finance as the managing partner of Beacon 256. In recent years, Decentralized finance has almost become synonymous with market volatility.

In an industry that has become stereotyped by outsiders as being hyper-volatile, Zou points out that this perception mainly comes from the media circus that surrounds the sector. With the mainstream media mainly covering either 1,000% gains or 1,000% losses, it naturally follows that what most people see is either explosive growth or catastrophic collapse.

Moving on to DeFi, Zou pointed out that DeFi wasn’t a specific “thing” but rather an umbrella term for Blockchain applications that disrupt financial intermediaries. However, this fear and apprehension surrounding a nascent industry with genuine potential scares off investors that could be pillars of the still growing sector. We can also see the opposite effect where incoming investors, egged on by stories of massive upswings, come into the space with unrealistic expectations of both the money that could be made as well as the timeframe that they could make it in.

Many investors are looking for 10X to 20X returns. Many more investors are trying to time the market to benefit from market upswings, which is largely unsustainable. So think about it yourself. Can the average investor consistently time the market or buy the next 10x coin? Is this a sustainable way of investing that helps make you successful in the long run with DeFi investments?

Zou then proceeds to pour cold water on daydreaming investors hoping to pull off another Shibecoin 2,50,00,000%.

Even market professionals fail to consistently time the market and define the best investments possible. As a result of chasing big gains from single coins, investigators are opening themselves up to tremendous amounts of risk that most investors cannot tolerate, particularly those coming from traditional finance.

In response to this, Zou points potential investors towards one of the oldest and most respected investing tips; Diversify, Diversify, Diversify.

We’ll work to minimize permanent losses of capital and the keyword here is “permanent loss.” I come from a background of traditional finance, where there is a surplus in the variety of asset classes and technical instruments for de-risking such as stock losses, options, calls, puts and so on and so forth. In DeFi, these Trad-Fi or traditional finance instruments already exist. But new tools unique to crypto provide alternatives to diversification and de-risking.

Crypto-Finance 101: Staking and yielding

On that note, he moved towards two novel but heavily underrated tools: staking and yielding. The former refers to the use of making your crypto available through an exchange for use in the proof-of-stake process and earning interest through it. The latter refers to lending crypto to aid in the creation of liquidity wherein rewards are provided to yielders in the form of interest and fees.

As of July 2021, only 24% of proof of stake tokens are actually staked in the market. To put a monetary sum on this as per market capitalizations at that time, that’s over $400 billion that could be generating returns for investors across the globe with lower risks.

Both of these are methods fundamentally idiosyncratic to the Blockchain as staking allows investors to use their own crypto to validate transactions more effectively and efficiently with every new block being added to the chain leading to new coins being minted with the coins being returned back to the investors in the form of rewards. When an investor wants to unstake to readjust their market portfolio, they simply go through a two minute transaction. This also is a tactic that works both during an upswing as well as market downturns since both are the result of a higher volume of transactions that would have their liquidity provided by aforementioned stakers.

You’re fundamentally de-risking yourself against volatility because the more volatile the market is, the more money you can theoretically make with seeking opportunities. Staking large cap alt coins can net anywhere from 5 to 20 percent profit which, if you’re familiar with Decentralized finance, is not a lot. We recommend looking for and investing into up and coming digital assets that can generate substantial returns, which is the true opportunity we have before us today.

Illustrating this point with an example, he noted that early stakers in Shiba swap, a coin a lot of us in the space have heard about, earned over 710% APY. He emphasised that through this, you wouldn’t be adding your own money into the system but rather leaving your existing allocation into a software.

Staking helps validate blocks of transactions while yield farming helps provide DeFi platforms with liquidity. These are two of the many under leveraged return generating opportunities in DeFi that a lot of investors aren’t looking at. The new frontier of DeFi is not a single revolutionary investment that’ll generate you a 100x or 200x returns. The new frontier that we’re suggesting is a diversified crypto portfolio that uses new DeFi tools to adjust for risks, rather than trying to generate unsustainable rates of return.

He concludes the speech with a method that his firm refers to as RDM. The acronym stands for Reduce risks, Diversify your holdings and Minimize your permanent loss of capital. These three priorities would allow investors, even institutional ones, not only avoid irrevocable losses when in a volatile market but allow them to survive and even thrive in this emerging market.

AIBC returns to the United Arab Emirates:

Drawing the leading figures of the emerging tech world to the Middle Eastern metropoles for cutting edge technology, the?2022 AIBC UAE expo plans to unite the policy-makers, developers, C-suite executives, and legal experts of the burgeoning AI and Blockchain sectors. Through three days of educational panels, inspiring keynote speeches, workshops, and networking events, the expo seeks to create the foundation that the Industrial Revolution 4.0 can be built upon. Join us from the 20th to 23rd March 2022, in UAE.

The post [WATCH] David Zou on staking, yielding and next gen crypto-finance at AIBC Europe appeared first on AIBC.

One of the most fundamentally disruptive technologies of the last century has without a doubt been the internet. It’s ability to connect all four corners of the globe has given rise to entire virtual economies and ecosystems that would have been incomprehensible just 30 years ago. With his deep well of experience as a pioneer in this emerging space, Monteleone refers to the sheer degree of influence that the internet has had on modern society and how it not only shaped the global economy but even the trajectory society was taking.

The Web Age is similar to other ages like the Iron Age and the Stone Age. We see society being changed by technology. What is happening today is that our society is impacted by social media, social networks and these prominently change [the path society is taking]. In the last few years, we have assisted with this [process of] change. This is our present.

He also noted that we were in a crucial phase in the evolution of the internet with the Father of the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, himself stating that “The web has failed instead of served humanity as it was supposed to have done.” In an interview with Vanity Fair, he outright claimed that the noble purpose of his invention had been twisted and warped by vested interests and Big Tech into something that was antagonistic to human welfare.

Building on this, Monteleone pointed out that Web 2.0’s infrastructure consolidated power in the hands of a few companies and gave them free reign on some of the most sensitive aspects of its consumer base, mainly personal data that has been sold off to the highest bidder.

All these people become victims because they get injected, they get scammed, they get phished and they suffer cyber attacks. Data breaches are just the beginning. It’s not only that because, like banks, when you put the money in the bank it is not your money anymore. It’s the same case with data. Once you put your data in the social networks, it is not your data anymore because they manage, profit and decide who can access your profile and data.

He continued by stating that the sheer power of these conglomerates meant that they were the proverbial judge, jury and executioner when it came to anything relating to the digital space.

They are the law enforcement, the prosecution, the defense and the jury. They basically replaced the entire justice system. In other words, they have established a kind of digital dictatorship.

While the keynote so far may have given the impression that the status quo was immutable, Monteleone then argues that, through Blockchain, we may finally have a way to correct the path the internet will take moving forward. He started by elaborating the nature of the Blockchain breakthrough with a historical example.

Newton discovered The Laws of Gravity but for that achievement he also invented integral math. That tool was used afterwards by other mathematicians to demonstrate other theories to move their field forward. Satoshi Nakamoto invented the Bitcoin and, to invent the Bitcoin, he solved an impossible problem that was the decentralization of the ledger.

Blockchain and the Digital Revolution 3.0

This technological leap allowed for the creation of the perfect tool that could not only decentralize finance but, in theory, decentralize any centralized systems, including the internet.

After describing the mechanics of how Web 3.0 will work, he illustrated the benefits that such a system will provide. The first aspect he wanted to illustrate was the fact that Web 3.0 would be permissionless. This means that the community would have the freedom to build, refine and improve upon systems without barriers that would be required from traditional alternatives.

The second aspect he focused on was Data Ownership. As the ownership of a private key would necessitate that all personal data would be encrypted, data ownership would be a fundamental pillar of this emerging system.

Transparency would be another aspect of this ecosystem, allowing users to comprehend their ecosystem in ways impossible in Web 2.0.

Finally, the potential for Innovation through this system was immense due to the cross-pollination of different technologies.

Monteleone concluding by noting how we should be optimistic and that the technologies of the present have the potential to supercharge the economies of the future. Through his pioneering work on the next generation of the internet, we may see the emergence of a new era of safer, more democratic and more ethical digital ecosystems.

AIBC returns to the United Arab Emirates:

Drawing the leading figures of the emerging tech world to the Middle Eastern metropoles for cutting edge technology, the?2022 AIBC UAE expo plans to unite the policy-makers, developers, C-suite executives, and legal experts of the burgeoning AI and Blockchain sectors. Through three days of educational panels, inspiring keynote speeches, workshops, and networking events, the expo seeks to create the foundation that the Industrial Revolution 4.0 can be built upon. Join us from the 20th to 23rd March 2022, in UAE.

The post [WATCH] Web 3.0 and the Digital Revolution with Daniele Monteleone at AIBC Europe appeared first on AIBC.