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The rapid expansion of decentralized AI is revolutionizing the landscape for startups. Nowadays, innovative minds are quietly brewing ideas that have the potential to reach billion-dollar status without the need for traditional venture capitalist support. By rolling up their sleeves and engaging in activities like running miners and validators on decentralized AI protocols, these entrepreneurs are creating wealth and advancing their technology independently.
It feels like we are witnessing history repeat itself, reminiscent of the days when Uniswap and Ethereum emerged as major players in the tech industry. This magic is on the verge of happening again. The focus is shifting away from the Silicon Valley giants growing into corporate behemoths like Amazon or Google. Instead, lean, decentralized teams are rewriting the rules on how to achieve success by raising funds directly from the community.
These teams are akin to David facing off against corporate Goliaths, demonstrating that deep pockets are not a prerequisite for taking on industry giants. In the past, challenging Google felt like bringing a knife to a gunfight, as they could simply acquire any potential disruptors. However, with decentralized AI, this conventional playbook is becoming obsolete. Thousands of developers worldwide are collaborating on the same protocol, creating a value that even Google cannot simply buy.
Decentralization is the key. Google may have the financial resources to acquire various search engines, but it lacks the credibility to develop a blockchain platform as robust as Ethereum. This market share is beyond their reach.
Similarly, with the emergence of new decentralized AI protocols, success is no longer determined by the backing of prestigious VCs or the size of corporate offices. The focus is now on who has the best miners, machine learning models, and GPU power. These agile teams are outsmarting tech giants by approaching problems with a deeper understanding rather than just throwing money at them.
The disruption caused by blockchain-based decentralized AI, operating on a reward system, is driving this paradigm shift. These protocols incentivize significant contributions to AI development. For instance, Bittensor allows developers worldwide to contribute by running machine learning models. These models process data and perform tasks across the network, with miners earning a cryptocurrency called TAO in return. The more valuable a miner’s contribution, as determined by the network’s consensus mechanism, the more TAO they receive. This creates a self-sustaining ecosystem where merit, not initial investment, drives earnings, fostering innovation, efficiency, and collaboration.
While governments and large corporations are investing in technology that looks promising on paper but fails in practice, developers within decentralized AI are leveraging their expertise to build functional solutions without the need for significant resources.
Decentralized AI and blockchain envision a world where expertise and innovation are not constrained by corporate boundaries. It empowers underdogs to build smarter and fosters an environment where innovation is not limited to those with deep pockets. The impact of decentralized AI is profound and transformative.
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About the author:
Mark Basa is a co-founder of a Bitcoin payment gateway, supported by Microsoft and Australian Government incubator programs. He also co-founded a web3 game studio backed by Japan’s largest VC and has served as a layer-1 blockchain brand director.