Effect.AI — 2019 Overview

Published in

Effect Network

5 min readDec 31, 2019

Dear Community, Friends,

The year has come to an end, which is proof again that time really flies. It’s been an incredible year with many events, laughs, cries, losses, and victories. But at Effect.AI we’ve never been more excited about the future. In this newsletter, we’ll first take you through some highlights of the past year to consider where we came from. Then we’ll look at what 2020 could hold for us, a year of significant importance.

2019 In Review

Winning the TNW pitch competition

We had a great start to the year by winning The Next Web (TNW) pitch battle on January 15th, against the top European tech startups. You can watch back the winning pitch here:

Part of the prize was an invitation to the 4YFN conference. On the 27th of February Chris was received with great applause in a packed house in Barcelona, as he presented our decentralized network for Artificial Intelligence.

Welcome, EOS!

The most significant milestone of 2019: the migration of The Effect Network to the EOS blockchain. After the announcement in February, we received a grand and warm welcome from the EOSIO community. A highlight of this period was when Chris and Jesse joined Zack Gall and Rob Finch on the The Everything EOS Podcast, which is worth a re-watch:

Block One, the billion dollar company behind the EOSIO blockchain, also wrote and released an in-depth feature on their blog, #BuiltOnEOSIO, which you can find here.

On the 10th of July, the migration officially started with the opening of the EFX token swap. As of today, over 180 million EFX tokens have been swapped. That’s over 71% of the circulating supply. A demonstration of the resilience and determination in the community!

NFX and TEN Dashboard

Along with the token swap in July, the NFX token and staking were released as 2 fundamental forces within The Effect Network. Staking gives a brand-new purpose to EFX tokens, allowing them to generate governance tokens and give voting power in the ecosystem. To understand the technicalities it’s best to review this publication and visit the TEN Dashboard to manage your staked tokens.

Time has shown that staking is immensely popular among token holders. At the end of 2019, over 58% of all EFX tokens are staked. This truly gives power to the people when NFX starts to play its part in 2020.

Rosette.AI

An important milestone was the release of Rosette.AI earlier this month, which is a transcription and translation service for YouTube subtitles. Rosette.AI uses translators from the Effect Workforce combined with several algorithms to make professional subtitling affordable. Currently, there’s support for 4 languages, but this will soon expand. It is a great demonstration of an intelligent service that can be built on top of TEN. We highly recommend getting subtitles on your videos today, and spread the word!

More Memorable Moments…

Effect.AI was placed on the KvK Top #100 innovation

A partnership with the UN was established that included funding of the first AIBC Center in Rustavi.
Our new partners and requesters: Ortec, Cosine, KPMG. Thank you for being part of this!
Effect Force received 20+ product updates: including a leveling system, skills, notifications, leaderboards, avatars, and badges.
Over 1.9 million tasks were completed on Effect Force in 2019, transacting over 1 million EFX in rewards.
Effect.AI successfully completed the Yes!Delft validation program on AI and Blockchain.

2020: Looking Forward

The Effect DAO

After the success of staking and a wide interest in the NFX token, we’re eager to take the next steps in implementing a decentralized governance model. Although we’re a bit behind on the roadmap when it comes to the release of the first voting system, it’s clear that something as delicate as governance should not be rushed. To make the experience of governance more intuitive a new release of TEN dashboard 2.0 will accompany the voting system. The excitement is real and more updates are coming at the start of 2020.

Monthly AMA

The Ask-Me-Anything has always been an important part of community involvement at Effect.AI. The project had several large scale AMA’s since its inception, which has been an important source of transparency. In 2020 this will be embraced further with a monthly AMA every last Thursday of the month. So start collecting your questions, we hope to see you on the 30th of January!

Clients and Requesters

If 2020 had a theme, it would be ‘Requesters’. Having a sizable client base is vital in growing the Effect Workforce and providing a launchpad for algorithm developers. The commercial development of the Effect.AI brand will be a core focus throughout the year.

This direction will be started with increased marketing and sales efforts, including the release of a new unified Effect.AI website in Q1 that is optimized for attracting new clients. Next to that services like Rosette.AI will drive sales by introducing a large scale referral program that enables the power of a decentralized community.

Smart Market

2020 will also be the year that the second phase of The Effect Network will see the light: the algorithm marketplace called Smart Market. This phase has been taking shape as services like Rosette.AI already rely on the seamless interaction between a human workforce and a diversity of algorithms. These early use cases are the first steps towards the release of the hybrid marketplace that makes The Effect Network so unique. You can expect updates on this progress throughout the year :-)

Opening of the Rustavi AI & Blockchain Center

The first Effect AI & Blockchain Center (ABC) — which is co-funded by the United Nations — will open in Q1 2020. This will be an educational center where participants learn the basics of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and how these components are changing the global job and financial markets.

Thanks for reading!