Coinbase, a major crypto exchange, has introduced an artificial intelligence accelerator grant program that will award five projects with $3,000 each. The program aims to explore the integration of AI with cryptocurrency wallets. CEO Brian Armstrong highlighted the potential of large language models (LLMs) to manage financial tasks when equipped with crypto wallets. Armstrong’s vision is for AI agents to conduct transactions on behalf of users and participate in the economy, emphasizing the importance of supporting AI agents in buying products in the future.
The potential of AI in financial transactions was demonstrated by Coinbase’s engineering lead, Yuga Cohler, who showcased the “AI Wallets” feature on X (formerly Twitter). In the demo, participants were paid for their contributions to training an image recognition model, with payments automatically sent to their cryptocurrency wallets. This demonstration illustrated how AI could autonomously handle transactions, similar to platforms like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk where users complete tasks for compensation. The implications of AI conducting and receiving wallet transactions have the potential to revolutionize various economic activities.
Coinbase’s Developer Platform is supporting this vision with a $15,000 accelerator grant program to explore AI-driven economic applications. The company is encouraging developers to create bots that integrate LLMs with Coinbase’s MPC wallets. This initiative is part of Coinbase’s efforts to address barriers in AI and finance by enabling AI agents to autonomously manage payments. Developers interested in participating have until September 5 to apply for the grant program.
In June of last year, Coinbase released a research report highlighting the opportunities presented by the intersection of artificial intelligence and blockchain for entrepreneurs. The report emphasized the benefits of combining AI and blockchain technologies to create solutions for societal challenges posed by AI. Potential use cases mentioned in the report include decentralized data marketplaces to provide diverse data for AI models, token-based incentives to improve data quality, and using decentralized networks to provide computational power for AI projects. Additionally, AI and blockchain can address issues such as algorithmic bias, digital identity verification, and disinformation risks.
The combination of AI and blockchain has the potential to make AI algorithm’s decision-making processes more transparent and auditable. Blockchain technology can establish the provenance of media such as images, video, and music through non-fungible tokens, allowing users to verify the authenticity of content. Furthermore, blockchain can address algorithmic bias issues and improve the transparency of AI models, enabling users to understand the logic behind AI-produced outcomes. Overall, the integration of AI and blockchain technologies presents new opportunities for collaboration and innovation in the crypto space.
