A hotter investment than AI?
When AI and blockchain converge
I know, you’re going: “Ugh, not another article about AI - enough already!”
I feel you. My grandma is ranting about it as much as yours is.
AI is riding on the mother of all hype cycles. It’s so hot that the narrative has added an eye-watering $2.4 trillion to the market cap of the biggest tech companies.
I don’t know about you, but I want some of that action.
The typical advice would be to buy some Microsoft or Nvidia stock, and rightly so.
But this is Alt Macro, this is not where you come for anything typical. You have Jim Cramer and CNBC for that ;)
We want to outperform the markets and spank it out of the park. What better way to do that than by combining two of today’s hottest investment narratives?
Two hot narratives are better than one
AI is the investment theme of our time; ignore it at your peril.
And then we have (almost) every alternative investor’s darling asset: Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has woken up with a roar from its bear market slumber. It has gone from $16,600 at the start of 2023 to $43,000 at the time of writing this just a year later. This rise has come just in time for a critical milestone that all Bitcoin investors wait for - the halving event.
This is when the amount of new Bitcoin released into the network drops by 50% every four years, putting a strain on supply and making it deflationary.
The halving event has always kicked off massive Bitcoin bull runs, and we are scheduled to have our next one in April this year.
When Bitcoin flies, so does the rest of the crypto market. Bitcoin investors take their profits and plow them into other blockchain projects, sparking price rises of cryptocurrencies across the board.
With the price of Blockchain projects set to rise due to Bitcoin’s halving and the investment narrative of all things AI, can there be a better opportunity in 2024 than one that combines BOTH themes at once?
AI and the Blockchain
A good investment theme is always grounded on solid fundamentals. It showcases a scalable and efficient solution to a real problem and is backed by a dream team of experts.
Blockchain’s promise is decentralization. It can save us from AI’s most significant risk: limitless power in the hands of a few.
We live in a world where just seven companies own almost all of the internet - Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Alibaba, Apple, Microsoft, and Tencent. They have the capital and data to spearhead the creation of AI. This puts way too much control in the hands of people who have betrayed our trust over and over again.
If we create an AI that works for everyone and is not controlled by a few, we will have to build it based on three core principles:
Use a distributed protocol so there’s no central ownership - like what the blockchain offers
Developers should be able to submit their algorithms to this network and get compensated for their work
These intelligent systems must be able to interact and transact with each other
No, I’m not channeling this from a highly advanced techno-utopia millions of years ahead of us. I’m describing what the team at SingularityNET is building.
More effective AI for everyone
SingularityNET (‘AGIX’) is building an ecosystem that meets the three core principles for equitable AI.
Today’s AI tools are highly fragmented, developed in silos that don’t talk to one another.
SingularityNET is developing the capability of plugging together these algorithms so the intelligent systems can collectively produce a value greater than the sum of their parts.
For example, an algorithm that can convert text to speech can have much more value when connected to another that can translate between two languages. One could type out a note and have it read out in real time in any language.
We will need such an interconnected platform for AI to one day perform intellectual tasks at the same or better level than any human, also called “Artificial General Intelligence” (AGI) - the holy grail of this field.
The cherry on top is the potential to turn AI from a corporate asset controlled by a handful of powerful companies to a force for the common good.
Assessing the merits of SingularityNET
SingularityNET aims to become both a marketplace and a transactional network for AI.
Putting AI on the blockchain is a nascent concept. SingularityNET is, therefore, “incubating” several independently-run projects that will one day make up its early ecosystem. How they perform with this is crucial; it will be their ‘make or break’.
There’s significant risk with this approach.
Early-stage ventures have a high mortality rate, and their incubator will have to have a “portfolio approach,” expecting just a small number to make it for the long haul.
The success of this community-building will determine the early adoption and use of their network and native ‘AGIX’ token - the asset any investor in this project will hold.
At the time of writing this, their marketplace has 84 services on offer, with an average of 1-2 reviews each.
This is a sign of some progress in attracting developers; however, there’s very little commercial activity to show.
It is unclear what the marketing team is doing to attract more users or whether they’re in a position to scale further.
Despite their apparent challenges, SingularityNET has been building its platform since 2017 and has attracted a vibrant community, thanks partly to its dynamic founder, Dr. Ben Goertzel.
Goertzel is an OG in this space.
He was amongst the first to use the term “Artificial General Intelligence” (AGI), and he’s been discussing ethics and the emergence of AI for years. He has pioneered the field with 25+ scientific books and ~150 technical papers.
Alongside him is a cofounder and team highly proficient in AI and crypto, making up a solid technical team.
This strength has also skewed their talent mix towards being more technical. The group appears short on marketing and outreach support from people who have successfully driven product adoption.
Traction is a critical factor in evaluating the potential of an opportunity, and their team is yet to deliver on getting momentum on their platform.
Keeping an eye out for risk
If anyone believes that Artificial Intelligence will drive us into the future, paving the infrastructure for its growth deserves attention.
SingularityNET is doing just that. The team is building toward an equitable and ethical future of the technology, and it is being led by a visionary and veteran who understands AI’s future better than most in the industry.
There are still unanswered questions though.
The team has a long way to go to prove the viability of their product despite kicking off operations in 2017. AI has now hit an inflection point, and whether its adoption translates to the growth of the SingluarityNET network will be tested.
Finally - for anyone interested in investing in SingularityNET (or any other asset for that matter), you must do your own research. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile assets and should be treated with a cautious approach.
You can purchase SingularityNET’s “AGIX” token on an easy-to-use centralized exchange such as Binance, Kucoin, or OKX.
As the field matures, anyone building the railings for AI’s growth should be on investors’ radars, whether it’s SingularityNET or its alternatives.
Did I miss anything? What do you think about blockchain's role in AI development? Leave me a comment or hit reply if you’re reading this from your inbox - I would love to hear from you!
Disclaimer:
The author is not invested in SingularityNET or its native token ‘AGIX’
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