Digital Currency Group's Barry Silbert Bets Big on AI Blockchain Bittensor

Barry Silbert will be the CEO of Yuma, a new DCG company focused on incubating and building new businesses within Bittensor's decentralized AI ecosystem.

Digital Currency Group (DCG) is now focusing on decentralized AI, particularly the Bittensor ecosystem, for its next venture. A new company called Yuma will be incubated and constructed by the conglomerate for new enterprises.

People's interest in AI is piqued by its potential to alter a wide range of sectors. However, as users contribute their data to the massive computers of businesses like Microsoft, Facebook, and Google, it also runs the danger of concentrating excessive power in the hands of a select few corporations.

This might be avoided by decentralized AI, not only by utilizing enormous, largely untapped computational resources but also by dispelling some of the technology's opacity and sinister reputation.

The native cryptocurrency of Bittensor, $TAO, is used to compensate a decentralized workforce of either miners who provide advanced computing services for specific jobs or validators who evaluate contributions for quality and distribute incentives.

DCG's first investment in Bittensor was made in 2021. More recently, Grayscale, an asset management company owned by DCG, has introduced funds centered on AI, including the $TAO token. Silbert will take over as CEO of Yuma, which will begin operations with around 25 employees. This demonstrates his dedication to the project.

The Yuma incubation and design studio is to Bittensor in some ways what Joe Lubin's Consensys model was to Ethereum, according to Silbert. However, it is more akin to the Y Combinator model of a venture capital firm combined with an accelerator than it is to owning 100% of the subnets developed under Yuma's supervision.

“There are two flavors of subnet partnerships,” Silbert said. “We are doing an accelerator, so if you are a startup or an enterprise who has an idea and wants to explore the world of Bittensor and launch a subnet, we will help you. Then we have a subnet incubator, where we will partner up with somebody to build from scratch a new subnet.”

According to Evan Malanga, Yuma's chief revenue officer, the present lineup covers a broad spectrum of applications.

“We've got human detection, like bot detection subnets,” Malanga said in an interview. “We have time series prediction subnets coming online. We've got a few academic ones as well; AI research, leveraging the miners in the subnets to go do that work for them, some security ones, and a role-play one. And sports predictions. Lots of sports predictions.”