In the following discussion that took place on Silicon Dreams, blockchain investors Miko Matsumara and Manmeet Singh Bhasin were gracious enough to sit down and talk about their opinions and ambitions on the revolutionary potential of Web3. The host Soniya Ahuja, the CEO and founder of Orbis86, helps mediate the discussion to touch upon one of the most fascinating areas of Web3’s vast potential— the marriage between blockchain and AI.
With 30 years of experience in the tech industry, Miko Matsumara is the managing partner at gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC), a venture capitalist fund for blockchain, Web3, and cryptocurrencies. Over the past 5-6 years, they have invested in many early-stage startups that are now unicorns. Their most significant investment is OpenSea— the world’s first and largest NFT marketplace.
Manmeet Singh Bhasin is another elite name in the tech industry with 30-year experience, who is the founder and managing partner of Punja Global Ventures (PunjaVC), a VC fund focussing on blockchain and AI startups. He himself was an entrepreneur who founded two companies and then sold both of them— Dataguise, a data security and compliance provider to tech firms, and PKWARE, a tech consultancy firm. PKWARE was bought by Thompson Street Capital Partners, a renowned US-based tech VC and consultancy firm.
The focus of PunjaVC is AI, VR, and metaverse projects on Web3 and blockchain. Their target market is businesses and enterprises, rather than consumers directly.
Market Evolution with Web3: Services and Jobs
Matsumara starts with his opinion on NFTs— “NFTs are permanent digital objects that live actually on the internet itself, which I think is a first. In the past, digital objects would sit inside of proprietary company databases, not natively on the internet itself.”
Bhasin explains the companies he has invested in, and carefully examines the actual use-cases in the emerging AI landscape— “The recent investment I made was in the company looking into fake reviews, audio, video, campaign reviews… It’s becoming very big. (The problem for the users is that) is it ChatGPT-generated? Is it AI-generated? Or is it human-made? So all those things are becoming a big issue. Tomorrow somebody makes a (fake) video (with AI)…
So we invested in a company, it used to be called TestedWeb. Now it’s called Polygraf.ai. The reason we invested in it was that I think this market is going to evolve. All enterprises, law, law enforcement, FBI, and CIA would need (to determine) if this is real or fake. Audios, videos, text, content… So that’s how AI could be against you or AI could help you. And everything is recorded on blockchain, so it’s an immutable record. If it’s true, it’ll be there. If it’s false, it’ll be there.”
The Marriage of Blockchain and AI
The AI technology has existed for decades but is now getting a lot of traction for being developed on the blockchain. Then there are multiple Web3 projects working on developing the metaverse.
Bhasin explained how and why blockchain is being leveraged to build various AI and metaverse tools, “Decentralization with the blockchain is very important because with the same AI, I could show a different video to you and the same video with different concept and different action to him… This is where a blockchain tells you this is right or wrong. All that decentralized check can happen on an open public forum. It’s a marriage happening.
AI has been talked about for years, but now this generative AI is creating a new issue. Will everybody be ethical in AI? I don’t think so… You will need regulations. Because of the immutable proof of records it’s able to host, we will be able to leverage blockchain to audit records.”
Matsumara contributes to the chain of thought— “Ethical use is so important because AI makes it very easy to lie and create a fake reality now. Nobody’s going to know who to believe, what to believe.
And the answer is going to be cryptography and (digital) signing, and using this base-layer technology, there’s mathematically no way that it couldn’t have been this person. And then they’re making a mathematical statement that’s permanently in a public record, and eventually, you can make them accountable.”
Bhasin suggests a concept of developing a credit score for every transaction, every online activity— “With blockchain and AI marriage, the accountability, if you are telling the truth or a lie, each person will have an individual rating; (for example) right now, you have a FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) score. There will be a scoring. It’ll be very difficult to lie 300 times, because the whole world will know about you.”
The Accountability-Anonymity Paradox
Notably, blockchain was built as a trustless solution that enables user anonymity. Users got into the system for anonymity reasons. Therefore, there seems to be a paradox that how can blockchain enable accountability and anonymity at the same time.
Manmeet goes on to clarify how accountability and anonymity can co-exist, “Anonymity and accountability go hand in hand. You’re anonymous, but you are not anonymous from an angle. We know that somebody’s posting. And at some point, we will know (who it is). You cannot be anonymous from a blockchain for a very, very long time. You could be anonymous through certain times. You make a transaction, it’ll go into the same chain…
So anonymity will be there. It’s the accountability that will become more important. And that’s where all the marriages are happening (of) these AIs and Web3.”
AI and other tools are being developed to catch bad actors. There are companies like Chainalysis constantly monitoring the chain. In 2013, it was easy to launder money through cryptocurrencies. But just recently, a user from America was caught stealing 10,000 USD in BTC.
Sharing his thoughts on privacy and internet freedom, Matsumara says, “I think the internet and freedom itself is really about choices, and people giving choices. If you just pick a random crypto and say, is that a safe thing? 90% of anything will be bad, crazy fraud. But to me, the 10% that’s not a scam, is actually world-changing technology. It’s incredibly powerful, virtuous, and valuable technology. So we have to learn how to make decisions about how to trust and who to trust.”
Passion or Opportunity: What Should be the Motivation?
The speakers share great wisdom on what should be one’s reason for picking a certain project; what should be the criteria for an investor to invest in an enterprise. Are they doing it because they have a passion for addressing a specific problem statement, or just because there’s an opportunity?
Matsumara says, “For me, one of the insane points is passion. Our slogan at gumi Cryptos is ‘your passion is our conviction’. I always ask, why are you building this thing? And the worst answer that I don’t like is if they say something like, it’s a great opportunity. (Because) that’s just an opportunist.
My point is that entrepreneurship gets very hard. When it gets hard, then some other opportunity will look better. If you’re competing against every other opportunity in the world, then maybe running your dad’s chain of sandwich shops is a better opportunity.
Whereas, if you have a true passion, for example, a person who has felt a problem in the world and they have a burning desire to make the problem solved for all. That’s a beautiful motivation. That’s someone who’s like, I’m going to fix this no matter what. That’s a great entrepreneur. That’s someone who will stick to it.”
The experts shed a very bright light upon the exciting future of tech that unfolds at the intersection of all of these cutting-edge technologies of our time— blockchain, crypto, Web3, AI, AR, VR, and metaverse. The seasoned thought leaders take us on an enlightening journey to a hopeful and optimistic vision of the future.
Disclaimer: The article is a transcription of the interview conducted by RJ Soniya Ahuja. No statement or comment in the article is a direct or indirect portrayal of the writer’s views or opinions. The interview does not intend to promote, demote or demean any organization or community. It also does not intend to give the readers any financial or investment advice.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/07/20/intersection-of-blockchain-and-ai-with-gccs-miko-matsumara-and-punjavcs-manmeet-singh-bhasin/