Dialogue with the founders of Bittensor, Near, and Sahara: How different projects integrate with AI

Host: Matt Stephenson, Head of Research at Pantera

Guests: Jacob Steeves, Founder of Bittensor; Illia Polosukhin, Co-founder of NEAR Protocol; Sean Ren, Co-founder of Sahara.

Organizer: Deep Tide TechFlow

Discussing three pioneering projects that explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and Web 3.0 technologies.

Discussion Overview

• The theme of this discussion is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3, exploring how these two fields can mutually promote and address current challenges. The discussion is hosted by Matt Stevenson, Head of Research at Pantera, with participants including Ilia Pellun, Co-founder and CEO of Near Protocol, Jacob (also known as Const), Core Developer of BitTensor, and Sean, CEO and Co-founder of Sahara.

• Jacob shared BitTensor's efforts in creating a decentralized AI marketplace, enhancing the quality of AI models and data privacy through market mechanisms and decentralized consensus. He believes that the right incentive mechanisms and efficient resource allocation are key to the success of decentralized AI systems.

• Ilia emphasized the importance of building a decentralized internet from the vision of Near Protocol, introducing how the Near AI project promotes the development of the next generation of the internet through automated programming and decentralized infrastructure. He pointed out that ensuring the security and privacy of user data is crucial in building a decentralized internet.

• Sean approached the topic from the perspective of user privacy and data sovereignty, explaining how Sahara has built a decentralized blockchain platform specifically designed for AI, prioritizing user asset sovereignty and security. He emphasized that the future development of AI requires a multi-layered infrastructure to ensure that users can enjoy AI functionalities without sacrificing privacy and data sovereignty.

BitTensor: Decentralized AI Marketplace and Incentive Mechanisms

• Jacob introduced the decentralized network established by BitTensor, where anyone can join and contribute their computing resources and data. This decentralized approach can create a global AI marketplace, allowing anyone to participate and benefit.

• Jacob highlighted the importance of the right incentive mechanisms in decentralized AI systems, stating that effective incentive mechanisms can address current issues of data privacy and resource allocation in the AI and cryptocurrency fields. He mentioned that BitTensor attracts many teams and talents through market mechanisms, incentivizing them to drive innovation into the network. This competitive mechanism is more efficient than traditional centralized organizations.

• When discussing the security and privacy of decentralized AI systems, Jacob mentioned the use of decentralized consensus mechanisms to ensure the security and reliability of the system. He emphasized that through market mechanisms and decentralized consensus, the quality of AI models and data privacy can be enhanced. This approach can prevent single points of failure and malicious attacks, ensuring the stability and security of the system.

• Jacob also talked about how BitTensor handles large-scale data and computing demands through a decentralized computing network. This method ensures efficient allocation and utilization of computing resources, thereby guaranteeing the system's efficiency and reliability.

Near Protocol: Building a Decentralized Internet and Automated Programming

• Ilia discussed the vision of Near Protocol, which aims to build a next-generation internet through decentralized infrastructure and AI technology, achieving higher security, privacy, and user sovereignty.

• Ilia introduced the vision of Near Protocol to create a trustless decentralized internet. This internet will provide infrastructure for payments, identity, provenance, and smart contracts, enabling users to enjoy high-quality AI applications without sacrificing privacy, ensuring the security and privacy of user data. This requires not only advanced technological support but also ensuring the system's transparency and verifiability to enhance user trust.

• Near was initially an AI project that later transformed into a blockchain project. Ilia emphasized how the combination of AI and blockchain technology can create more useful AI applications and promote the development of a decentralized internet.

• Ilia mentioned the relaunch of Near AI, aiming to teach machines programming and change the way software is built. The relaunch of Near AI is an important step in realizing the vision of Near Protocol, aiming to promote the development of the next generation of the internet through automated programming and decentralized infrastructure. This will enable computers to write code based on users' natural language requests, providing a more efficient and verifiable software development environment.

• Ilia emphasized the use of advanced cryptographic techniques and strict access control mechanisms to ensure the security and privacy of decentralized AI systems. Additionally, he mentioned the need for ongoing security audits and monitoring to promptly identify and fix potential security vulnerabilities.

• Ilia pointed out that decentralized solutions need to compete with centralized solutions in terms of user experience, AI model quality, and dataset value. This is a key criterion for assessing the practical feasibility of decentralized AI projects.

Sahara: Decentralized Solutions for User Privacy and Data Sovereignty

• Sean noted that as AI model capabilities improve, these models begin to impact people's work and monetization opportunities. For example, AI models can replace some simple design, text editing, and translation tasks. This raises concerns about user privacy and data sovereignty.

• Sean emphasized that users often need to upload personal data, such as health records, financial reports, and chat logs, when using AI functionalities. This data may be used to train more powerful AI models, further replacing users' businesses. Therefore, protecting user privacy and data sovereignty becomes crucial.

• Sahara is committed to creating a high-performance decentralized infrastructure from the perspective of user asset sovereignty and security, aiming to build a blockchain platform specifically designed for AI, allowing users to enjoy AI functionalities without sacrificing privacy, ensuring the security, fairness, and accessibility for all users.

• Sean mentioned that Sahara's high-performance decentralized infrastructure is designed to ensure the privacy and security of user data while providing flexible computing resources to meet sudden computing demands. This design ensures that the system remains efficient and stable even under high load.

• Sean believes that the future development of AI requires a multi-layered infrastructure to support user privacy and data sovereignty. This not only requires advanced technological support but also ensuring the system's transparency and verifiability to enhance user trust. Sahara's multi-layered infrastructure includes execution layer, computing layer, and data layer, used respectively for private user data storage, AI model training and inference, and data management and exchange. This multi-layered design not only ensures the efficient and stable operation of the system but also enhances user trust and security. Sahara's vision is to promote a fairer, safer, and more accessible AI ecosystem through technological innovation.