The internet enabled companies to create tremendous value, but the monopolization of data has inhibited upstarts from taking part in the next wave of technological disruption, artificial intelligence (machine learning). Blockchain 3.0 offers a solution.
Internet companies dominate their respective industries, largely due to the data advantage they enjoy over potential competitors. As an example, Google and Facebook’s ability to provide targeted data and insights to advertisers have earned it over 60% of online advertising revenue. As the importance of online has grown over time, their share of total marketing revenue (online and offline) has almost tripled over the last three years.1
While artificial intelligence has been around for over half a century, machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence driving recent innovations from image recognition to spam filtering, requires large training data sets to produce generalizable models that can leverage the power of artificial intelligence. In other words, without data, only the existing large internet companies can fully take part in many potential artificial intelligence use cases.
Unlike blockchain 1.0 (bitcoin protocol) and blockchain 2.0 (ethereum and smart contracts), blockchain 3.0 offers a number of advantages such as high scalability, interoperability, sustainability, and governance.
Blockchain 3.0 protocols (decentralized applications)* allow for application-specific use cases that solve many of the problems brought about by artificial intelligence, such as:
- Monopolization of data — blockchain democratizes data by organizing data on a decentralized ledger at scale and allowing participants in the network to determine how their data should be used and monetized.
- Catastrophic risks- smart contracts can limit the actions of artificial intelligence in real time, which could otherwise go unchecked.
- Lack of trust- transparent immutable records will enable bots and humans to trust each other.
- Inexplicable decisions — blockchain could create a clear audit trail that we can use to trace the data and understand how data was used to make decisions.
While adoption is still at an early stage, new products are already solving many of these issues. BitBounce, for example, allows users to earn tokens from viewing email advertisements and take control of the data received by advertisers, enhancing privacy and allowing users to monetize their data. At our company, SWFT Blockchain, we grease the wheels of the token economy by reducing friction due to interoperability and price discrepancies, enabling a one-stop transfer platform.
The intersection of blockchain 3.0 and machine learning has the potential to democratize access to data, resolve many of AI’s pain points, and unleash a new wave of value creation accessible to upstarts.
*Decentralized Applications (Dapps) utilize smart contracts instead of backend code running on centralized servers.
Disclaimer: Author is affiliated with companies mentioned in this article and also own tokens of companies mentioned.
Sources:
Richter, Felix. “Infographic: 25 Percent of Global Ad Spend Goes to Google or Facebook.”Statista, 7 Dec. 2017, www.statista.com/chart/12179/google-and-facebook-share-of-ad-revenue/.
Khatwani, Sudhir, et al. “These Are The Top 5 Blockchain 3.0 to Watch For In 2018 👈🏻.”CoinSutra — Bitcoin Community, 18 Apr. 2018, coinsutra.com/3rd-generation-blockchain/.
