Web3 is losing the battle to decentralize AI.
A blockchain-driven future for AI is still possible. But it's rapidly slipping out of reach as Big Tech pads its lead.
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In theory, the potential intersection of web3 and AI is certainly intriguing. But in fact, real-world implementation has advanced so little that the window of opportunity for web3 to have an impact may be closing.
So says DeFi entrepreneur Jesus Rodriguez in an essay for CoinDesk on Tuesday. The co-founder and CEO of IntoTheBlock writes:
"AI innovation is compounding rapidly, and Web3 has been a passive observer. None of the major AI milestones ā unsupervised pretraining, advanced fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation, reasoning engines, or agentic frameworksāhave involved Web3 architectures in a meaningful way.
"As each new release compounds on the last, the barriers to catching up become steeper. All critical tooling, platforms, and infrastructure for building frontier models are currently centralized. Without urgent, coordinated efforts to change this trajectory, Web3-AI will be left decades behind in a field that advances in months."
As if on cue, the headlines that broke in the days right after Rodriguez published this warning only served to underscore his point:
Meta -- unrivaled poster child for the evils of centralized tech -- announced it would acquire a 49% stake in the startup Scale AI for $14.3 billion.
Disney sued Midjourney, calling the AI image generator "a bottomless pit of plagiarism."
Ouch.
You know, it's almost as if the internet economy is crying out for some native way for people to immutably document identity, authorship, and provenance of intellectual property. Especially as generative AI proliferates, it would also be handy if this system were to enable easy digital payments, licensing, and collection of royalties on IP.
Or we could all just keep suing each other and running up legal bills.
Yeah. Sure. Let's do the latter.
Five Things: June 8-14, 2025
The week's top headlines about emerging technologies and trends reshaping the web:
A new ETH whale: Nasdaq-listed SharpLink Gaming announced it has bought $463 million in ether for its coprate treasury. The purchase instantly makes SharpLink the world's second-largest holder of ether tokens, behind only the Ethereum Foundation. (The Block)
Bitcoin ETFs hit a major milestone. U.S.-listed bitcoin funds on Wednesday surpassed $1 trillion in cumulative trading volume since their launch in January 2024, according to data from The Block. BlackRock's IBIT fund dominates the category with a 79% market share and over $70 billion in assets under management.
An amended version of the GENIUS Act, which would set clearer rules for stablecoins in the U.S., passed a procedural vote in the Senate on Wedneday. The move puts the bill closer to final passage on the full floor soon. (Politico)
Guggenheim Capital's treasury unit launched a commercial paper offering on Ripple's XRP Ledger platform, offering institutional investors exposure to short-term debt instruments on-chain. The move is emblematic of Wall Street's growing interest in tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) rather than trading them over traditional proprietary networks. (The Block)
In new study by researchers at Tokyo's Waseda University, 75% of study participants turned to AI chatbots for emotional advice while 39% perceived AI as a constant, dependable presence in their lives. Lead researcher Fan Yang warned that the findings suggest AI platforms could exploit vulnerable users' emotional attachments for money or other goals. (Decrypt)
Market Snapshot
A quick look at some major indicators as of Friday's market close on Wall Street. For fuller detail, including additional indexes and asset classes, see my spreadsheet here.
Looking Ahead
Coinbase's latest State of Crypto report found that 60% of Fortune 500 companies are investing in or using blockchain technology. The survey also revealed that small and medium-sized businesses have doubled their use of blockchain over the past year. (Decrypt)
U.S. investors' retirement portfolios increasingly include exposure to crypto, often in indirect ways that might not be obvious. Contributing factors to this trend include public companies holding bitcoin in their cash reserves, the addition of crypto companies like Coinbase to major stock-market indexes like the S&P 500, and the listing of exchange-traded funds holding crypto. (New York Times)
Walmart and Amazon are exploring the possibility of issuing their own stablecoins, which could bypass traditional payment systems and reduce fees for merchants. (Wall Street Journal)
Odds & Ends
In an interview with Cointelegraph at their recent Future of Money conference, pro basketball player Tristan Thompson recounted his decision to reject a friend's advice back in 2015 to receive a small portion of his salary in bitcoin. Thompson estimates those tokens would now be worth $32 billion.
A New York City councilman plans to introduce a bill to legalize the presence of cats in bodegas. According to Gothamist, an estimated 30% to 40% of such neighborhood corner stores in the city currently have cats, in large part to deter rodents. (Which definitely aren't legal.)
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Best wishes for a healthy and productive week ahead. š