The Ethereum Foundation’s recent initiative in artificial intelligence was not originally anticipated in its plans, but emerged in response to requests from ecosystem projects, as explained by new team lead Davide Crapis.
While this isn’t a direct change in policy, it signifies “another step” toward the protocol’s long-term prosperity. “Our ecosystem needs this,” Crapis shared with Cointelegraph.
The newly established AI team will essentially bridge two major sectors of the Ethereum Foundation: the protocol and ecosystem divisions. This dual focus aims at product development and facilitating the onboarding of conventional AI developers into Ethereum.
“If we can demonstrate to these traditional AI developers that ‘hey, there is value here, there is decentralization, it could address some issues around alignment, verification of AI, governance of AI,’ that would mark a successful path for us,” stated Crapis.
Several AI products and services are already emerging within the Ethereum ecosystem, including micropayments—often involving stablecoins—paired with on-chain identity and verification solutions.
Crapis noted that Ethereum’s dAI team will focus on providing clarity and support in these areas. “Our plan is to officially release a detailed roadmap later this year, complete with milestones.”
The initiative’s core team will initially consist of Crapis, an AI product manager, and an AI staff member, who will collaborate on research with protocol teams.
Ethereum’s current efforts are guided by a short-term roadmap centered around Ethereum proposal ERC-8004, which aims to introduce a trustless method for discovering, selecting, and interacting with AI agents.
The proposal was co-authored by Crapis alongside MetaMask AI lead Marco De Rossi and OpenAI’s Jordan Ellis.
“[The proposal] gained significant traction early on,” Crapis explained. “We believe it has the potential for substantial impact already.”
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The opportune moment for AI at Ethereum
The Ethereum Foundation unveiled its new AI team on Monday. According to the research scientist, the idea originated from a group of Ethereum Foundation researchers who identified the potential within the ecosystem for supporting AI applications.
This is not the first instance of a crypto protocol exploring the intersection of AI and blockchain.
Infrastructure protocol Planck launched a layer-0 blockchain for AI in July, while Kite AI introduced an AI-centric layer-1 blockchain for Avalanche in February.
Crypto AI agents have begun to proliferate on blockchain infrastructures in 2023, capable of executing financial transactions and other tasks with minimal human oversight.
When asked if he viewed the Ethereum Foundation as a latecomer to the AI landscape, Crapis disagreed.
“I wouldn’t categorize it as late,” he stated to Cointelegraph. “The timing seems appropriate as people have been experimenting with AI coordination on these protocols for about two years.”
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