DAIA Welcomes New Partners: Bicameral Ventures, Zighra and XYO
“The Internet is indeed a technology of freedom — but it can free the powerful to oppress the uninformed, it may lead to the exclusion of the devalued by the conquerors of value.” — Manuel Castells
Our ecosystem of ecosystems is growing and in this contested terrain of what Castells calls the ‘Information Age’, every partnership for us means a step towards a more decentralized and equal world.
Sharing DAIA’s vision, we are honored to welcome today three more partners. Believing in co-creation rather than competition and overlapping our synergies to stir the development of decentralized and democratic AI for the benefit of humanity, let’s meet Bicameral Ventures, Zighra and XYO.
Bicameral Ventures
Bicameral Ventures is a Venture Capital fund focused on “Interconnected Investing” and building a portfolio of highly complementary projects working towards bringing new technology paradigms into reality. Bicameral’s themes include blockchain, interoperability, data and identity self-sovereignty, personalized AI and Web 3.0. Bicameral Ventures was co-founded by Kesem Frank, co-founder of the Aion Protocol and Alex McDougall, fintech and M&A investment banking veteran with Bank of Montreal Capital Markets.
Leaving to Alex’s words about why they are excited to join DAIA and what they think they can contribute you get a glance at what they are up to!
“One of the key evolutions of blockchain is the concept of privacy and self-sovereign data, which is extremely admirable but misses one important fact. By disaggregating data you are potentially missing out on the rich contextual magic that massive pools of datasets create. Decentralized AI is the best of both worlds, the ability to repatriate, own, control and transact on your own data, with the ability to build massive, transparent connected models to train AIs. As the world gets more and more complex and as AI becomes a greater and greater part of our day to day lives, both adding transparency to data sourcing as well as increasing the ability to influence its goals are existentially important.”
He doesn’t stop there:
“One of the core pillars of Bicameral Ventures thesis is to create value via the deepening of complex, peer to peer, data driven digital relationships (vs. paying Google and FB to mediate our digital relationships for us). We’re attacking this via investing in a whole bunch of interconnected projects and technologies all driving at different angles of the same, abstract goal. So number one we can bring an ally who is actively deploying capital to a goal that it is alignment with the DAIA mandate.[…]. Secondly we are a furious creator of content, much of which is highly in line with DAIAs ideas particularly in focusing around the Global Brain project and its ideas to move away from solely targeting AI towards optimizing for shareholder value towards deeper, more human goals. We would love to cross-promote and co-create. Third, we think as a highly regarded player within both the fund world and the blockchain world, we can provide an important voice on the governance of the DAIA and important input on how the alliance evolves. Very interested in being involved in the leadership of the Alliance as it grows.”
ZIGHRA
Building the next generation of intelligent connected devices, Zighra is the world’s first patented on-device AI-powered authentication solution available today. In a world increasingly reliant on sensor-based devices, Zighra is powered by ultra fast AI with N-dimensional behavioral biometric algorithms for next generation user interfaces, while applicable for today’s devices. Its non-intrusive, seamless authentication architecture where the user doesn’t have to explicitly authenticate, but instead is naturally-authenticated, is a necessity for our future sensor-based world.
Zighra runs AI algorithms entirely on-device and is available as a platform service for securing online transactions, making Zighra an extremely scalable solution.
Deepak Dutt, Zighra CEO has been promoting the decentralized AI narrative since 2017:
“Centralization of behavioral biometric data could lead to the same breaches that we are seeing with todays centralized systems including passwords and other personal data. Our vision is that for democratization of behavioral biometrics and identity it is critical that sensitive user data remain under the control of users — helping maintain privacy. Regulations such as the GDPR and the California privacy laws are driving this movement.”
For Deepak, Zighra’s interest in working with DAIA is to further the movement around decentralized AI, identity and reputation systems. “How can we put the user in control of their data while improving privacy, security and convenience?”, he said. In what comes to the work that he sees/ wants to do with DAIA, he adds: “Would be good to see more specific vertical applications/services built using the decentralized AI platforms. We are seeing partnerships with Singularity Net on insurance and the QSR space (Dominos). More such use cases with practical applications would be a great way to push this momentum behind decentralized AI.”
XYO
XYO is a network of IoT devices backed by cryptography. Their mission is to enable smart contracts to interact with the real world as if it were an API! Four types of nodes comprise the XYO Network. Each of them works cooperatively to collect, transfer and process geospatial data. The incentive mechanism tying all of this together is a digital currency called XYO.
XYO proposes a trustless, cryptographic geospatial network using a novel formulation reliant on a chain of zero-knowledge proofs to establish a high degree of data certainty on real-world sensor information. The XYO Network (XY Oracle Network) is an abstraction that enables layered verification across many device classes and protocols. At its core sits a set of novel cryptographic mechanisms known as Proof of Origin & Bound Witness that tie together the power of blockchain technology and real world data collection into a system with direct applications today.
According to Bryce Paul, Head of Business Development at XYO, they are very excited to join DAIA:
“XYO is excited to be a part of DAIA because we believe that AI and blockchain-based datasets are a perfect and inevitable marriage. This combination of authenticated data and predictive algorithms will be the prevailing super-trend of our generation. We are unshaken in our belief that blockchain brings out the best in AI, and vice versa. These two core technologies will be the underlying fabric and driving force behind all digital systems, bringing forth never-before-possible efficiency and security to the world. Serving as host to the brightest minds in both fields, we see DAIA as the perfect forum to come with tough questions, while building with purpose, pace, and persistence. XYO is thrilled to be contributing its unique geospatial dataset for DAIA members to harness.”
How can you get involved?
Our vision is to foster a world where AI technologies and associated data are made open with decentralized, democratic control for the benefit of all sentient beings.
The immense potential of AI means that it can either increase the inequalities of our societies or liberate us from numerous sufferings. We believe the best way forward is to come together and work practically toward creating a better future. We see a massive potential for evolution in the established centralized corporations. We believe tech giants can contribute immensely toward makingDAIA’s vision a reality.
We are welcoming the participation of those corporations that are sincere about their aim and goal of democratizing AI. The open access networks that have come together to form DAIA areenabling such a democratization process.
To learn more about us and inquire for memberships, please contact us at team@daia.foundation.
