Canonical Crypto founder says he’s bullish on the merging of AI and blockchain

Canonical Crypto founder says he’s bullish on the merging of AI and blockchain

the combination of crypto and AI has
been getting a lot of Buzz recently
according to vanc crypto AI revenues are
projected to reach $10.2 billion doll by
2030 do you agree with that
projection uh such a great question kick
it off I I think and I was talking to
the team at vanck about this I think
that’s on the low end of where we might
end up if uh if I remember correctly
from that report they were projecting
something like 6 trillion in in AI
driven productivity uh over by by 2030
and if decentralized AI serves as the
backbone for everything that needs to
get built on top with AI I believe those
numbers are the very low end of the
Spectrum in terms of what we might
expect but we’re starting to see some
really cool Tech and infrastructure
getting built so we’re expected to see
that uh you know we’ll expect to see
that play out really
well interesting so last month okx
Ventures released a report about the
potential of crypto and Ai and the
report says the merging of the two
technologies is giving rise to new
applications and Innovations
encompassing areas like model training
AI agents metaverse gaming and robots as
a service in a nutshell what is your
outlook for crypto and Ai and do you see
a lot of potential tied to the merging
of the
Technologies absolutely uh if you look
at the progression of AI to date uh it’s
been largely driven by centralized
entities right so the amount of
innovation and horsepower whether it’s
access to data access to Talent OR
access to resources has been largely
controlled by a select few uh on the
other hand when we look at decentralized
blockchain-based networks we really
thrive on certain ethos and principles
like
decentralization um uh transparency
auditability Etc so as we look forward
while we’re starting to build out the
infrastructure in a very collaborative
manner today there’s just so much that
needs to get built if you look at some
just like pointed use cases today right
data Provence Talia you and I are having
this conversation at some point this
data might get used to train a model how
does CNB how do we get credit for
something like that or we look at
training of models for medical purposes
for legal purposes or for finance those
can’t be trained on public data they
need to be trained on private they need
to be trained on private data and we
have is for things like this in the
world of blockchain like fully
homomorphic encryption we have zero
knowledge for attestation of proofs Etc
so uh I’ll pause there but I’m really
bullish on where we can take all the
work that’s been done in the world of
blockchain Primitives and really putting
that to work when it comes to
AI so I recently interviewed the chief
scientist at chain link Labs who argued
that the often touted uses for bringing
Ai and blockchain together aren’t
actually all that useful some of what he
calls misleading narratives include that
blockchain can combat misinformation
caused by generative Ai and that
blockchain can bring privacy to AI do
you think these narratives can be
considered misleading are there any
concerns you have tied to the
convergence of AI and
crypto yeah I I look at it as a a glass
half full opportunity right I think with
the sort of the blast radius of what
we’re encountering today uh it doesn’t
feel particularly good whereas the kind
of Primitives we have in the world of
blockchain actually can serve legitimate
use cases right we have seen uh
situations where there have been
elections held in various countries and
we have been able to use certain
Primitives like zero knowledge to be
able to test to the source of certain
media types and ensuring that those
actually came from the sources that they
were that they truly actually came from
how do we put these to work at scale
right so I would say the technology is
there and it is really up to us to put
these to work now and bring them to the
masses so while it’s completely fair to
be questioning these principles uh I
think what is incumbent upon us now is
to build out these products and put them
to work because you know we’ve been
building them out for quite some time
now so I I definitely appreciate the
skepticism but I’m confident that the
technolog is going to play out as we
hope it
will and realistically speaking how long
do you think that could potentially take
uh you know we’re seeing we’re star to
see shoots of this emerge today uh it it
is you know one of those adoption curves
that were’re sort of in this in the in
the thick of right now you know if you
look at sort of like how Venture Capital
evolves sometimes right we tend to place
bets on where we think that the puck is
going where technology will be in a few
years and that is you know we’re in sort
of like that infrastructure layer of of
making sure that there’s some Primitives
we need to put them to work for AI and
then we start to see the usage start to
show up here when certain use cases come
up I’ll talk about a very specific examp
example we’ve had this concept of
decentralized compute networks for for
several years now aash network is one of
these examples but uh if you look at
where the pressing need sort of came up
with akos today it was with training of
these models right we trading models is
a very expensive compute intensive task
whereas we have decentralized
blockchainbased networks that I actually
deliver the same level of efficacy at
you know anywhere from a fourth uh to
you know four to a sixth of the cost
that would be for centralized server so
maybe a more succinct and to Simply put
this I would say the technolog has been
there what’s starting to show now is
like the the the painkiller use case and
how these start to come together so we
starting to see those come together
today and as more of these start to come
up we’ll start to see the technology
adoption start to pick up but as as as a
venture capitalist we’re placing those
bets on where the technology we think is
going to go in the next few years but
also really partnering with people who
are truly living and embodying that
future
today now you are a light speeed Venture
partner and of course the founder of
canonical crypto and early stage fund
investing in crypto and web3
infrastructure so I’m curious to get
your take on what crypto VC Trends have
been gaining traction and how much of
the VC interest is focused on the
convergence of AI and blockchain
Technology yeah uh I have been
exclusively focused on this intersection
because I feel this technology is AI is
is one of those technologies that you
know we’re not going to be we’re going
to be T you and I in two years for
having this conversation we’re still
going to be talking about this and I I I
think it is it’s far too promising and
important for for there not to be
focused on it so that’s been my area of
focus but there’s just so much so much
more that needs to get built you know
obviously with the kind of Tailwinds
that have happening with ETFs with with
Solana hitting certain high high
thresholds lately with various upgrades
happening in the world of ethereum
there’s a lot of infrastructure that’s
getting built in and around this but
we’re also starting to see certain
consumer Trends pick up farcaster for
example which is a web3 native social
networking platform is having a moment
they’re having record usage on their
platform uh proud to have been an
investor from the earliest days there um
but we starting to see shoots like this
emerge whether it’s social whether it’s
gaming or true manifestations of Finance
coming to life um you know we’re
starting to see some companies you know
not that scale avability we feel like
we’ hit that point where we can reliably
use blockchain networks for payments
we’re starting to see trfi and and
blockchainbased finance come together so
these are some interesting areas with
sty developments and Investments going
into infrastructure middleware developer
tooling and at the very top of the stock
Finance gaming social we’re starting to
see Investments full there as well so in
a nutshell what’s your investment
outlook for crypto what are some of the
hottest sectors you touched on some but
what else are you paying attention
to uh you know for me it’s still it’s
still about the basics and I grew up
building and evangelizing developer
infrastructure and to me a signal uh
that is very promising for any
Technologies when developers flock to it
that’s when you know that you’re
starting to build something that needs
to get that that starts to compound in
terms of what it can offer to the world
right so we saw this initially with
cloud-based platforms like AWS and azure
you start to see another wave happen
with mobile became another platform and
I think with AI now this is truly
another platform blockchain again two
very loaded heavyweight platforms that
are coming together so to me you know to
peel another layer of this or to to you
know descend uh this plan a little bit
more I’d say you know I would love to
see more focus on you know privacy
preserving machine learning Concepts
using blockchain Primitives I think data
provenance is a huge issue it continues
to be a problem today we solve for that
how do we fight things like
disinformation misinformation or deep
fakes that are emanating um but in a
nutshell I would say we have such
beautiful technology that that needs to
be put to work for some of the things
we’re seeing out there today and I’m
really excited about that and really
starting to put our our rails to work in
incredible
way so are you noticing there’s more
interest in crypto now that Bitcoin hit
a new all-time high above $73,000 in
recent weeks and it’s spot Bitcoin ETFs
started trading here in the US have you
seen a shift in sentiment from
investors that that is definitely a
provider for awesome Tailwinds for
activity from an investment perspective
coming back in which is also closely
tied to developer activity Founders
getting back into The Fray and wanting
to build here as well so absolutely
that’s that’s been uh you know that’s
been a huge uh proponent for us um on
the flip side I I was reflecting on this
uh you know I uh in my career you know
usually we tried to make bets that are
several years out and the the pros and
cons of operating crypto are that
sometimes we anchor a lot on price and
you know when this tends to happen you
know there’s like in you es and flows
that happen with price and that’s
related to our investment Trends as well
but over a long enough time Horizon
right again we’re having this
conversation five 10 years out these
small episodic moments will will feel
like such small blips relative to how
much the price will have appreciated and
how grateful I think we’ll all be that
uh we were able to do some incredible
things on these you know what feel like
nent platforms today so it is uh while a
lot of it is predicated on price today
over a long enough time frame as more
developers and more Founders come in
we’re going to see some really cool Tech
being built which is really going to
work for us in the
future now in a recent report from JP
Morgan the bank’s Global Market strategy
team argued that the price of Bitcoin
will slide following this having citing
overbought conditions
prices still well above the banks
comparison to gold and subdued Venture
Capital funding new research from
deutche Bank also says not to expect the
post having Bitcoin rallies so do you
agree what’s your take on what we can
expect yeah you know as I think as uh
someone said uh you know history tends
to rhyme but doesn’t repeat right so if
you were to follow that I’d say it to be
completely CED I I don’t know what’s
going to happen you know I feel like uh
you know if we were to reflect back on
this post having you know there’s
obviously three very incredible
scenarios it price could go up it could
stay flat it could go down but I I’m
more interested in what I think is going
to happen in the next 9 12 24 months
where uh again the price is invariably
you know there may be some imminent
pressure on Supply post having but over
a long enough time frame as ETF flows
continue to grow and I know you captured
this really well tell in a previous
report as well I think we’re looking at
what 12 B ion in inflows now and that is
going to continue to grow as as mass
adoption starts to happen over a long
enough time frame I believe that we are
you know the price action is going to be
favorable for for all of us so uh this
is kind of a non-answer to your question
and some somewhat tongue and cheek but
I’m trying to not pay attention to the
to the micro but pay more attention to
the macro and of the multimodal factors
that could Implement that could impact
price whether it’s it’s beyond crypto
obviously there other factors whether
it’s Wars or or various other
catastrophes that could cause these es
and flows but but on a broad enough time
frame uh you know price will will
appreciate as we’ve seen you know I
first started mining Bitcoin back in
2012 and here here we are you know like
almost 12 years later how much the price
is appreciated I would never have been
able to forecast that but as we look
forward I think we’re going to start to
see more price appreciation start to
happen and it certainly will be very
interesting to see if that does in fact
happen Anand a founder of canonical
crypto thank you very much joining us
and for that comprehensive
Insight thank you so much

Anand Iyer, founder of Canonical Crypto, an early stage fund investing in crypto and web3 infrastructure, explains why he is bullish on the convergence of AI and blockchain technology. Iyer also provides his outlook for VC trends in the space.