Dialogue with KIP Protocol Co-founder Julian Peh: How to Break the Data Monopoly and Promote Decentralized AI Progress Amid the closeAI Crisis

Questioner: Mia, ChainCatcher

Responder: Julian Peh, Co-founder and CEO of KIP

Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher

With tech giants like OpenAI and Google making groundbreaking advances in AI, global attention on AI technology has reached unprecedented heights. However, amidst this wave of innovation, we must also face a harsh reality: tech giants, with their substantial capital and advanced hardware, have almost monopolized the development of AI technology, leading users to become increasingly subject to their power.

At the same time, the combination of AI and Web3 is seen as a new trend with immense potential, promising to break the existing paradigm and inject new vitality into the development of AI technology. However, how to continuously enhance AI's deep learning capabilities while ensuring the digital property rights of creators remains a pressing issue that needs to be addressed.

It is against this backdrop that KIP Protocol—the first decentralized Web3 underlying protocol focused on AI—was born. It aims to deeply integrate decentralization with AI technology.

Recently, ChainCatcher invited Julian Peh, co-founder and CEO of KIP Protocol, to discuss how KIP Protocol can bring new possibilities to the development of "AI + Crypto."

Julian Peh graduated from the National University of Singapore's Faculty of Law and co-founded ADITUS Network in 2017, marking his first entrepreneurial venture in the crypto space. Since then, as a continuous entrepreneur in the Web3 field, he established the Web3 investment consulting firm Immersion and has invested in fintech company TranSwap and AI consulting firm Eigenform.

In April last year, Julian Peh co-founded KIP Protocol with Dr. Jennifer Dodgson, co-founder and Chief AI Strategist.

On February 1 of this year, KIP Protocol announced the completion of a strategic financing round led by Animoca Ventures, with participation from B.Army (Vietnam), CSP DAO (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), MQdao, Spicy Capital (Latin America), Skyvision Capital (Hong Kong), and Purechain Capital (UK).

Recently, KIP Protocol announced an official AI partnership with the educational platform Open Campus, where both parties will explore the application of blockchain and AI in education, simplifying the transmission of educational content and the monetization of intellectual property. Additionally, KIP Protocol has reached a strategic cooperation with Aethir to jointly promote the decentralization of AI and GPU. KIP will provide data and payment infrastructure for Aethir's AI ecosystem, while Aethir will offer enterprise-level decentralized GPU computing capabilities to KIP. More details on the collaboration will be announced in the coming weeks.

1. Veteran Entrepreneur: Transitioning from Law to Web3

ChainCatcher: We know that law and blockchain, as well as AI, may be worlds apart. What prompted you to enter the Web3 field and become a serial entrepreneur?

Julian Peh: My entrepreneurial journey began in the 1990s during the Web1 era, which was the early stage of the internet. One of the companies I founded eventually grew to become the largest media and advertising technology company serving luxury brands in the Asia-Pacific region. Another was a data analytics startup serving credit card companies and regional banks.

By 2016, I successfully exited and sold all my media and technology companies, transitioning to become a VC/PE investor focused on cutting-edge technologies, particularly in Web3, robotics, and AI. In AI venture capital, I invested in Eigenform, founded by Dr. Jennifer Dodgson.

Fortunately, I entered the Web3 field early in 2016 and began collaborating with key industry players, one of whom was Animoca. This led me to establish Immersion, a Web3 consulting firm focused on providing research and communication services for top Web3 venture capital firms like Animoca Ventures.

ChainCatcher: What prompted you to decide to establish KIP Protocol?

Julian Peh: Our team officially entered the AI field in 2019, and Jennifer is a highly influential researcher in machine learning and natural language processing. Before founding KIP Protocol, she and I co-founded a consulting firm focused on providing AI solutions for governments and international organizations, offering AI consulting services to global clients such as the World Bank, Adam Smith Center, Swatch Group, and LVMH.

In 2022, while providing AI consulting services to Web3 clients, we discovered that there were no comprehensive decentralized tools in the market to protect the data security and digital property rights of AI creators. Coupled with our years of senior development experience in the AI space and top-notch client relationships, KIP Protocol was born.

KIP not only provides digital property protection for model creators, data providers, and app developers but also builds a robust infrastructure and data/payment network, enabling these AI creators to efficiently deploy and monetize their work using the power of Web3.

Without a solution like KIP, the entire AI industry could fall completely under the control of big tech companies. We firmly believe that the development of AI should benefit everyone, not just be monopolized by a few giants, which is why we created KIP and promoted the development of decentralized AI to counter the growing AI monopoly.

Why is this so important? Because AI impacts everyone and everything, and we need to ensure that everyone can benefit from it.

2. KIP Protocol Focuses on the Integration of "AI + Crypto," Supporting the New Trend of DeAI Technology

ChainCatcher: How should we understand the KIP Protocol project?

Julian Peh: KIP Protocol is a Web3 foundational layer focused on AI, enabling model designers, data providers, and app developers to own their AI assets, allowing for quick deployment and efficient monetization of their work through KIP.

KIP has been exploring the implementation of decentralized retrieval-augmented generation (dRAG), with some key achievements winning the Tencent Cloud Award at the 2023 Chainlink Fall Hackathon.

We aim to make KIP an indispensable infrastructure tool for AI creators to conduct commercial activities in the Web3 world.

ChainCatcher: How does KIP Protocol differ from other Web3 products that also focus on AI concepts? How does it truly realize "AI + Crypto"?

Julian Peh: In the DeAI space, most projects propose novel solutions, but they mainly focus on specific areas. No project has a comprehensive approach to address the three main issues of DeAI: connectivity, deployment, and monetization, which KIP has achieved. We successfully deployed the first decentralized RAG (dRAG).

Through dRAG, KIP enables various AI models and data owners to connect directly within the DeAI ecosystem, facilitating a more secure data retrieval process and fairly distributing revenue to all AI creators.

KIP enhances the functionality, security, and economic viability of AI applications in a decentralized manner. This innovation is significant for advancing artificial intelligence in fields such as DeFi, content creation, education, and healthcare.

KIP allows AI products to be rapidly deployed in Web3. Without real products and users that can be deployed in Web3, the dream of DeAI would remain just a dream, and KIP is driving the formation of DeAI.

3. Supporting Decentralized RAG, Empowering the AI Data Field

ChainCatcher: As the first Web3 protocol to support decentralized RAG (retrieval-augmented generation), how can we better understand the concept of RAG?

Julian Peh: Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is an advanced technology in AI that enhances the capabilities of generative models by integrating them with external knowledge bases.

Generally, using RAG allows users to analyze data with AI without first training the model on the data. The training process exposes the training dataset to the model, which can be problematic if the user does not own the model.

Currently, one issue with RAG is its centralized nature: the data repositories used for retrieval are stored and managed in a single location or by a single entity.

By using a decentralized RAG framework, KIP aims to prevent data monopolies and enable AI model designers, app developers, and data owners to securely and quickly deploy in Web3. KIP distributes the storage and management of retrieval data across multiple nodes, ensuring that no single entity can fully control all data. Through the retrieval process in a decentralized RAG system, it allows multiple contributors to own their assets, participate in the AI value chain, and benefit from it.

ChainCatcher: What are its application scenarios?

Julian Peh: Decentralized RAGs like KIP are particularly useful in fields that require the latest and sensitive data sources, such as gaming, education, healthcare, and asset management.

For example, a neurologist uses a fine-tuned large language model (LLM) trained on Netter's anatomy atlas and Gray's anatomy to consult patients with neurological symptoms and retrieves patient data through dRAG to provide anatomical insights, differential diagnoses, and treatment plans.

Another use case is in the education sector. In today's era of fragmented attention, AI can greatly assist learners. Educators can clone their expertise into digital twins and monetize their knowledge around the clock. Students can obtain instant answers for just $1 instead of spending $100 on textbooks. Notably, we have officially announced our strategic partnership with the educational platform Open Campus to jointly promote educational innovation based on KIP Protocol.

Decentralized RAGs provide new monetization possibilities for individual contributions in datasets and AI models, fostering the development of a fairer AI ecosystem.

ChainCatcher: KIP has proposed the KnowledgeFi framework. How should we understand this concept?

Julian Peh: The KnowledgeFi framework is invented by KIP, and our goal is to accomplish two things:

1) Allow independent AI value creators to connect with each other to create commercial value;

2) Enable the transfer of economic value (revenue) from AI users to AI value creators through blockchain.

At Open Campus University (OCU), KnowledgeFi brings innovation to the education sector with its decentralized education platform, optimizing the learning process through independent AI models. This innovation not only achieves personalization and accessibility of educational resources but also incentivizes content creators to provide high-quality educational content through economic reward mechanisms.

At the same time, the application of Web3 technology ensures transparency and trust within the entire educational ecosystem.

KnowledgeFi provides educators with unprecedented opportunities to monetize their educational achievements using Web3 technology. This is particularly important because educators have long played a crucial role in society, yet their compensation often does not match their contributions.

4. Future Outlook: Deepening Community Incentives and Expanding Ecological Cooperation

ChainCatcher: Currently, the Genesis NFT of KIP Protocol has completed its Free Mint. What community incentive plans does KIP have for the future?

Julian Peh: Our NFT series has sold much faster than expected, and all holders of the KIP Genesis Pass NFT and KIP100x SBT will receive $KIP airdrop rewards. Additionally, our Season 2 event, The Uprising, officially launched on May 27, with a larger scale and more generous rewards compared to Season 1.

For this event, we designed a brand new website: https://uprising.kip.pro/. Users can earn points and bonuses by completing various social media interactions and inviting friends, and win related rewards. We hope to encourage everyone to interact with KIP through this gamified and entertaining approach, helping us further expand our influence, and of course, actively participating users will receive corresponding rewards.

Moreover, we have set up point bonuses for some partners and blue-chip NFT holders, currently including: Azuki, BAYC, Pudgy Penguins, Ultiverse ElectricSheep, Mocaverse, Milady, and KPR. We also plan to include more communities in the future, so please stay tuned for our announcements.

ChainCatcher: Previously, you mentioned that KIP is discussing integration with the Base chain. What other ecosystems will you consider collaborating with in the future?

Julian Peh: KIP is designed as a multi-chain protocol, and we have already deployed on multiple chains, including Base, Arbitrum, Ethereum, and TON, and we are preparing to deploy on Bitcoin Layer 2.

As one of the investment projects of Animoca Ventures, our partners will come from a broader Animoca ecosystem, with over 450 projects. We will leverage Animoca's network effects and have collaborated with several of their major investment projects (two of which are OpenCampus and Aethir).

We are currently negotiating potential partnerships with many large and established projects, some of which will be announced soon.

For details, please refer to our Blog for the latest partnership announcements: https://www.kip.pro/blog

ChainCatcher: What are KIP Protocol's recent plans?

Julian Peh: KIP Protocol's mission is to fundamentally change the way knowledge assets in the new era of AI are utilized, shared, and valued. Right now, we are in the early stages of the project. KIP Protocol also plans to launch the $KIP TGE soon, so stay tuned.

In terms of market activities, I just mentioned that Season 2 has begun, and we welcome everyone to actively participate and earn generous rewards.

Currently, KIP Protocol is in discussions with multiple chains and will soon integrate with selected Layer 1 chains. Early adopters and community members will have access to dApps launched through the KIP protocol, including KnowledgeFi.xyz and OpenCampus University.

We have developed a specific GTM plan to expand the KIP Protocol partner and project ecosystem and establish on-the-ground activations and new communities in multiple regions, with more details to be announced soon.

On the product side, the team is rapidly expanding and working hard to prepare for the comprehensive launch of the KIP protocol, which will include KIP Foundation, KIP Starter, KIP DAO, and will begin development work on App Chain, along with many other key deliverables.

About KIP Protocol

KIP Protocol builds a Web3 underlying protocol for AI app developers, model creators, and data owners, enabling AI assets to be easily deployed and monetized while retaining full digital property rights.

KIP will establish a new AI business ecosystem to address the issues and challenges faced in decentralized AI deployment and ensure that everyone can enjoy the economic benefits brought by AI.

The KIP team consists of senior PhDs and technical experts dedicated to AI research since 2019, who also have a deep professional background and rich experience in the Web3 field, committed to promoting the decentralization of AI and becoming a catalyst for the decentralized AI wave.

For more information, please join the official Chinese community: https://t.me/KIPProtocol_CN