DCG launches new Bittensor-focused subsidiary Yuma, doubling down on decentralized AI investments
Quick Take
- Digital Currency Group is launching a new artificial intelligence-focused subsidiary called Yuma aimed at supporting the development of the open-source Bittensor network.
Digital Currency Group, sometimes referred to as the Standard Oil of blockchain, is launching a new artificial intelligence-focused subsidiary to support the development of the open-source Bittensor network.
The move represents the convergence between the crypto and AI sectors, in the hope that decentralized infrastructure will lead to less “top down” development of machine learning.
DCG is spinning up a new company called Yuma to provide startups and established businesses with capital and technical resources to build projects on Bittensor, a decentralized protocol that powers a blockchain-based machine learning network. A representative says the company already has at least 25 employees and is running the third-largest validator on the network.
Bittensor is a decentralized, open-source network that enables users to contribute computational power to run various AI models. Users are incentivized to participate in the process via TAO token payouts. The network supports independent subnets that can direct computation power to particular subjects.
“Just like the early days of Bitcoin, which fueled the development of a new form of transparent, borderless money, we’re moving from the digital ownership of assets to the decentralized ownership of intelligence,” DCG founder Barry Silbert said in a statement. “Yuma offers startups and enterprises access to everything they need – including capital, technical resources, and operational support – to deploy their innovative ideas onto the Bittensor network.”
DCG first invested in Bittensor in 2021. The company has also invested in several decentralized AI plays, including Tensorplex, Natix and Flock.
Silbert will serve as CEO of Yuma, named after the eponymous consensus algorithm used by Bittensor.
“We think about potential the same way, where you have you have OpenAI, Meta, Google, who are creating a walled garden access to AI. Bittensor has kind of created this Cambrian explosion of subnets which, like the explosion of websites and applications, over the next 20 years, we'll see the next Ubers and the Airbnbs emerge because of this permissionless innovation," Silbert told The Block.
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