Fetch.Ai CEO Humayun Sheikh discusses Web3, B…

In this article, we are interviewing Humayun Sheikh, CEO and Co-Founder of Fetch-ai Network about how AI/ML technology can leverage blockchain, Fetch-ai Network’s ecosystem, and the role of AI in the Web 3.0 revolution.

Hello Humayun! Thank you for participating in this interview. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?

I am an entrepreneur, investor and a tech visionary, who is passionate about technologies such as AI, machine learning, autonomous agents, and blockchains.  I was a founding investor in DeepMind where I supported commercialisation for early-stage AI & deep neural network technology. DeepMind was ultimately acquired by Google for $650m in 2014. In 2017, I saw the opportunity at the intersection of blockchain, AI, and autonomous agents that. This is my fourth major venture. At Fetch.ai we are building the world’s first peer-to-peer connectivity platform that aims to bring autonomous agents and AI capabilities – Open CoLearn, Axim and Dabbaflow products, on our blockchain based ledger – Fetch-ai Network 

How did you come up with the idea of merging AI/ML with blockchain technology? 

Blockchain brings the tenets of immutability, resiliency and decentralization. Once code in the form of smart contracts was able to use these tenets, it was logical for us to start building multi-stakeholder agent-based automation and AI/ML capabilities that are the cornerstone of the Fetch technology. We see the opportunity for our technology to leverage blockchain, cryptography and privacy-preserving primitives to solve complex coordination problems in a truly peer-to-peer fashion that will be devoid of centralized rent-seeking that is plaguing Web 2.0. 

What kind of applications do you foresee using Fetch-ai Network’s ecosystem? 

The crypto asset market is relatively young when compared to assets in the traditional financial system. This is reflected in the relative lack of liquidity for the crypto assets when compared to the traditional assets, which took multiple decades to develop and get to the current levels of liquidity. Therefore, in the near term, it is fair to expect Decentralized Finance (DeFi) based applications to lead the charge as the primary use case for blockchains and crypto. We also expect DeFi to progressively bring new users in the blockchain and crypto fold. Particularly, we see an opportunity for apps offering real-world asset-backed stablecoin loans. 

Beyond DeFi there are opportunities in other consumer-facing apps such as decentralized delivery networks, Move2Earn apps, decentralized and privacy-preserving file-sharing, and other apps that will unlock truly peer-to-peer gig economies.

MEXC and Bybit recently announced a $150M Fetch-ai Network Development Fund. Can you tell our readers about this Fund?

The development fund is aimed at growing the Fetch-ai Network ecosystem by sponsoring DApps that will leverage the various tools for building decentralized applications that would increase the utility of the network. The development fund would be particularly interested in DApps that can not only serve a specific domain but can also become a building block for other DApps to have a multiplier effect on increasing the utility of the Fetch-ai Network. 

Can you shed some light on how you see the role of AI and Fetch-ai Network in Web 3.0? 

Web 3.0 is aiming to harness the true power of the interconnected web of computers to enable true peer-to-peer digital economies. There will however be a transitional phase where the w2.0 will embrace w3.0 ie W2.5.At Fetch-ai Network, we see our role as the infrastructure provider that leverages technologies such as blockchain, multi-agent frameworks, and AI to accelerate development and deployment of such peer-to-peer applications. We believe that our Fetch-ai blockchain network and automation using our Autonomous Economic Agents (AEAs) which can also be leveraged for off-chain interactions (not using the blockchain) will provide highly actionable datasets that can be leveraged by our AI tools to create more advanced peer-to-peer applications.

How is Fetch-ai Network ready for the Web 3.0 revolution?

We have our own Fetch-ai blockchain network that is based on the modular Cosmos SDK technology. DApp builders can write more secure Cosmwasm-based smart contracts in the Rust programming language. Our network is a Proof of Stake blockchain that has low transaction fees, instant transaction finality and is more environmentally sustainable than a first-generation Proof of Work blockchain such as Bitcoin. Our network also communicates with the other networks in the Cosmos ecosystem using the Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. And soon it will be able to communicate with other popular ecosystems such as Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Avalanche, and Polkadot. Besides our network, our key differentiators are our Autonomous Economic Agents (AEAs) that can not only help with automation but also enable peer-to-peer off-chain communication. Fetch-ai Network’s products such as Open CoLearn, Axim and Dabbaflow provide privacy-preserving decentralized federated learning capabilities to all DApps on the Fetch-ai Network.

Can you share some insight into the unique ecosystem around the FET token?

The FET token forms the backbone of the Fetch-ai Network and will be the fuel to power all applications being deployed on Fetch-ai Network. I would like to highlight some key Fetch-ai Network ecosystem projects: Open CoLearn a decentralized federated learning network, Dabbaflow a decentralized privacy-preserving file-sharing application, Fetch.ai app for unlocking peer-to-peer digital economies, Mobix a Move2Earn app, Resonate Social an AI-powered social media app, BotSwap a DeFi automation app, and Mettalex a decentralized commodities derivatives exchange. Beyond this, we are also collaborating with many large enterprises on multi-stakeholder and multi-year projects that will leverage many of our technology components. We also have many new exciting applications that are going to launch in the next few months.

What are your top priorities for the quarter, for the year? 

Our priority this year is to underline all our tooling to the community of builders. We want to make it easy for them to create their DApps, so they can focus on solving their real-world use cases. We also want to focus on building end-user products that will lower the barrier for non-crypto natives to use our technology. In the coming months, we will also start enabling our technologies within our Fetch-ai Network Wallet. We see the wallet in the same vein for Web 3.0 as the browser is for Web 2.0 and as an important tool to attract new entrants in the space.

It was great to talk with you and hear your insights! Thank you so much!

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.