Decentralized AI Alternative Is ‘Greater than Bitcoin,’ Says DCG’s Barry Silbert

Crypto funding magnate Barry Silbert is betting huge on decentralized AI, calling it “the following huge period of crypto” that might be greater than even bitcoin.

In a letter to shareholders of his crypto conglomerate Digital Foreign money Group, Silbert went lengthy on deAI: the crypto business’s effort to fuse AI improvements with blockchain tech. He believes the tech mashup could pay higher dividends for humanity than the closed-off programs being developed by OpenAI and different giants.

“We’re transferring from the digital possession of belongings to the decentralized possession of intelligence and the supply of huge decentralized compute sources,” Siblert wrote within the This autumn letter reviewed by CoinDesk.

The setup reminded Silbert of bitcoin, the best-known and by far greatest cryptocurrency, and the one the place he first made his crypto fortune. However as an alternative of a cash revolution, deAI may herald an influence revolution with crypto because the mechanism to distribute possession of and governance over highly effective AI fashions.

DCG actually thinks so. The corporate has already invested $105 million into over a dozen deAI initiatives, “and we’re excited to ramp this up in 2025,” Silbert wrote.

He highlighted DCG’s funding in Bittensor – a crypto community that focuses on machine studying and AI purposes – because the portfolio firm closest to “escape velocity.” Bittensor’s TAO token has many similarities to bitcoin, he wrote.

Notably, TAO’s market cap is $2.7 billion, a rounding error towards bitcoin’s practically $2 trillion valuation.

DCG plans to take a position mightily in supporting the Bittensor ecosystem. Silbert identified that in November, it spun up an organization known as Yuma that incubates Bittensor infrastructure initiatives. And Grayscale, one other DCG firm, now provides funding merchandise that give publicity to TAO.

Silbert’s This autumn letter capped a yr of “rebuilding” at DCG after an extended interval of tumult spawned by the FTX implosion, which felled its lending enterprise, Genesis. DCG can also be a former proprietor of CoinDesk, having offered to Bullish in late 2023. All 5 of DCG’s wings had a “profitable 2024,” he mentioned.

“The self-discipline required over the past couple of years has resulted in enhanced infrastructure and extra mature processes, improved governance, and a stronger group targeted on executing on our progress initiatives,” Silbert wrote.