Real AI use cases in crypto, No. 2: AIs can run DAOs
For every genuine blockchain project harnessing artificial intelligence there are 100 coins trading off the hype.
Magazine spoke with Near founder Illia Polosukhin, Framework Ventures founder Vance Spencer, MakerDAO founder Rune Christensen, Richard Ma from Quantstamp, Ralf Kubli from Casper and others to explore some of the key hype-free, genuine use cases for AI in crypto and blockchain.
We’re rolling out one genuine use case for AI in crypto each day this week — including reasons why you shouldn’t necessarily believe the hype.
AIs can help run DAOs
Decentralized autonomous organizations, as they exist today, are something of a fraud. As Framework Ventures founder Vance Spencer points out, they are “not actually autonomous. There’s a bunch of people in the middle.“
“It just seems like AI is really our only way to actually make the DAO concept work,” he says.
Given LLMs hallucinate between 3% to 27% of their output at present, the technology is too immature to run a DAO by itself or to enforce governance rules, says Maker founder Rune Christensen. Nevertheless, he’s mapped out an ambitious plan for AIs to help run MakerDAO and its forthcoming subDAOs in his Endgame manifesto.
“People misunderstand what we mean with AI governance, right? We’re not talking about AI running a DAO,” he says.
“What AI is so great at, is replacing the most soul numbing, dumbest part of the work.”
One of the big difficulties with DAOs is that it’s very difficult for members dispersed around the globe to understand what everyone else is doing and for tokenholders to understand the issues in the DAO well enough to cast an informed vote.
Near founder Illia Polushkin — an expert in both AI and blockchain — explains that AIs really shine when it comes to monitoring what’s going on and then summarizing and communicating that information effectively.
“In a way, that’s a manager’s job,” he says. “They know exactly what’s happening and they communicate to everyone exactly the part you need to know, as well as broader context about what’s happening.”
He says AI can scale up to work with thousands of people, onboard new DAO members, manage logistics and coordinate everyone’s tasks.
The broader direction of the DAO can still be set by the community, likely via an elected board of directors.
“It can still be overseen by the community, they can provide feedback and decide on what are the goals for the DAO.”
Read also
The Near future… of AI-assisted DAO
Polushkin says the Near Foundation plans to experiment with the use of AI to coordinate smaller tasks before graduating to more complex and important jobs. The hope is that eventually, the AI will be able to handle the day to day management.
“I think the role of me and other folks in the system should be replaced in many ways, right?” Polushkin says.
“You know, we can still come up with ideas, but I think the coordination of all the functions (can be handled by AI).”
Members of the Near community have already experimented with building an AI that can autonomously decide which projects to support with funding, based on whether it believes a proposal satisfies the grant program criteria, and then automatically fund it from the treasury.
Maker’s AI Atlas
Maker’s approach will be to use various forms of AI tools — called Governance Artificial Intelligence Tools (GAITs) — as a guide to the entire project. It’s currently undertaking the mammoth task of cataloging in a formalized dataset what’s going on, who is doing what, along with all the rules that govern the workings of the DAO and everything that Maker has ever done. They’re calling the dataset “Atlas,” as it will give a global overview of the entire project — and it will be updated in real-time.
“Having that sort of central repository of data just makes it actually realistic to have hundreds of thousands of people from different backgrounds and different levels of understanding meaningfully collaborate and interact because they’ve got this shared language.”
Community members can use GAITs to find and bid on projects, with the AI providing instant feedback on whether a proposal fits within the guidelines, overarching aims and budget. The ability to instantly translate between languages will help communicate better with community members based in different parts of the globe.
Fullblown AI-assisted DAO governance is unlikely to be ready for the launch of Maker’s four new subDAOs in early 2024, but Christensen sees huge potential in the future.
“The AI strategy just changes how many humans you need in order to have a successful DAO,” he says.
“It’s possible that once you really get AI-assisted governance to a level of maturity, you may have a lot more DAOs than you have humans.”
You can read more on what Maker is up to here.
Read also
Don’t believe the hype
AI is already a useful tool for DAOs, but it will be a long time before AI will be mature enough to actually run DAOs.
Given the fierce politics in DAOs (often around who gets funding) there will a temptation to outsource decision-making to an “unbiased AI,” but this is not possible with any degree of confidence yet, given the state of the technology.
The current generation of LLMs hallucinate their answers at least 3% of the time, making them an unreliable guide to DAO governance and could see them potentially steering community members down the wrong path while attempting to coordinate them.
Given this unreliability, it’ll be a long time before you’d trust one with the keys to your treasury without strict guidelines and spending caps to mitigate any errors.
Also read — Real AI use cases in crypto, No. 1: The best money for AI is crypto
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Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, marks their 50th birthday amid a year of rising institutional and geopolitical adoption of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The identity of Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in crypto, with speculation ranging from cryptographers like Adam Back and Nick Szabo to broader theories involving government intelligence agencies.
While Nakamoto’s identity remains anonymous, the Bitcoin (BTC) creator is believed to have turned 50 on April 5 based on details shared in the past.
According to archived data from his P2P Foundation profile, Nakamoto once claimed to be a 37-year-old man living in Japan and listed his birthdate as April 5, 1975.
Source: Web.archive.org
Nakamoto’s anonymity has played a vital role in maintaining the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network, which has no central authority or leadership.
The Bitcoin wallet associated with Nakamoto, which holds over 1 million BTC, has laid dormant for more than 16 years despite BTC rising from $0 to an all-time high above $109,000 in January.
Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Lugano, Switzerland. Source: Cointelegraph
Nakamoto’s 50th birthday comes nearly a month after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, marking the first major step toward integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system.
Related: Bitcoin at 16: From experiment to trillion-dollar asset
Nakamoto’s legacy: a “cornerstone of economic sovereignty”
“At 50, Nakamoto’s legacy is no longer just code; it’s a cornerstone of economic sovereignty,” according to Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert.
“Bitcoin’s reserve status signals trust in its scarcity and resilience,” Lian told Cointelegraph, adding:
“What’s fascinating is the timing. Fifty feels symbolic — half a century of life, mirrored by Bitcoin’s journey from a white paper to a trillion-dollar asset. Nakamoto’s vision of trustless, peer-to-peer money has outgrown its cypherpunk roots, entering the halls of power.”
However, lingering questions about Nakamoto remain unanswered, including whether they still hold the keys to their wallet, which is “a fortune now tied to US policy,” Lian said.
Related: Bitcoin’s next catalyst: End of $36T US debt ceiling suspension
Is Satoshi Nakamoto wealthier than Bill Gates?
In February, Arkham Intelligence published findings that attribute 1.096 million BTC — then valued at more than $108 billion — to Nakamoto. That would place him above Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the global wealth rankings, according to data shared by Coinbase director Conor Grogan.
Satoshi’s new addresses. Source: Conor Grogan
If accurate, this would make Nakamoto the world’s 16th richest person.
Despite the growing interest in Nakamoto’s identity and holdings, his early decision to remain anonymous and inactive has helped preserve Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos — a principle that continues to define the cryptocurrency to this day.
Magazine: 10 crypto theories that missed as badly as ‘Peter Todd is Satoshi’
The United States stock market lost more in value over the April 4 trading day than the entire cryptocurrency market is worth, as fears over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to ramp up.
On April 4, the US stock market lost $3.25 trillion — around $570 billion more than the entire crypto market’s $2.68 trillion valuation at the time of publication.
Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market”
Among the Magnificent-7 stocks, Tesla (TSLA) led the losses on the day with a 10.42% drop, followed by Nvidia (NVDA) down 7.36% and Apple (AAPL) falling 7.29%, according to TradingView data.
The significant decline across the board signals that the Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market” after falling 6% across the trading day, trading resource account The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 4 X post. This is the largest daily decline since March 16, 2020.
“US stocks have now erased a massive -$11 TRILLION since February 19 with recession odds ABOVE 60%,” it added. The Kobessi Letter said Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement was “historic” and if the tariffs continue, a recession will be “impossible to avoid.”
Source: Anthony Scaramucci
On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.
Trump said the reciprocal tariffs will be roughly half the rate US trading partners impose on American goods.
Related: Bitcoin bulls defend $80K support as ‘World War 3 of trade wars’ crushes US stocks
Meanwhile, the crypto industry has pointed out that while the stock market continues to decline, Bitcoin (BTC) remains stronger than most expected.
Crypto trader Plan Markus pointed out in an April 4 X post that while the entire stock market “is tanking,” Bitcoin is holding.
Source: Jeff Dorman
Even some crypto skeptics have pointed out the contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and the US stock market during the recent period of macro uncertainty.
Stock market commentator Dividend Hero told his 203,200 X followers that he has “hated on Bitcoin in the past, but seeing it not tank while the stock market does is very interesting to me.”
Meanwhile, technical trader Urkel said Bitcoin “doesn’t appear to care one bit about tariff wars and markets tanking.” Bitcoin is trading at $83,749 at the time of publication, down 0.16% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
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