Author: Nancy, PANews
Once upon a time, software was eating the world. Now, AI is eating software. Standing at the historical river of technological progress, the revolutionary painting surrounding AI large models is rapidly unfolding, opening up new application spaces at an astonishing speed.
Recently, Binance founder CZ pointed out that 'AI tagging and data processing are very suitable for being done on-chain, enabling instant (micro) payments through cryptocurrency while leveraging global low-cost labor without geographical restrictions.' This view has added fuel to the already hot crypto AI track, making OORT and similar projects that release related products once again the market focus.
OORT, supported by giants like Microsoft and Google, is a pioneer in the decentralized AI field, building decentralized trust infrastructure for the AI era, while promoting the democratization and popularization of AI development processes through innovative DeAI (Decentralized Artificial Intelligence) solutions.
From data, storage to computing, OORT's three flagship products unlock AI potential.
Since ChatGPT sparked the wave of AI large models, major tech giants have been competing to 'mold' models, leading to a market landscape resembling a 'hundred-model war'. Currently, in the training of AI large models, 'data' has become a crucial battlefield, as publicly accessible data has been exhausted globally.
For all businesses globally, data collection, storage, and processing, especially the acquisition and labeling of high-quality data, have encountered bottlenecks in their development processes. Traditional centralized cloud service providers usually rely on high-cost and monopolistic data collection models, often lacking transparency and trust, which imposes numerous limitations on the training and application of AI models and raises a series of concerns regarding compliance and ethics.
'One of the most pressing issues facing AI is the 'black box' dilemma, where the AI decision-making process lacks transparency and is hard to audit. The immutability and transparent ledger of blockchain provide a powerful solution, recording every phase of the AI lifecycle from data collection, training, to deployment decisions. This ensures that the system can be audited and remains trustworthy. By integrating blockchain technology into AI development, we can ensure transparency, enforce ethical standards, and prevent monopolistic control,' said Dr. Max Li, founder and CEO of OORT. 'DeAI proposes a model of AI development that everyone can participate in, creating a decentralized AI alternative to challenge centralized AI companies like OpenAI.'
Addressing the 'data black box' problem in the AI field, OORT combines AI and DePIN business, not only enhancing the transparency and traceability of data through blockchain technology but also encouraging more users to participate in contributions through effective economic incentives, ensuring high-quality and real-time data, thereby promoting further implementation and popularization of AI technology applications.
OORT's flagship products include three main offerings: decentralized object storage solution (OORT Storage), decentralized AI data collection and labeling (OORT DataHub), and decentralized computing services (OORT Compute, commercial version not officially launched yet). These three products provide innovative decentralized solutions addressing the pain points of data storage, data collection and labeling, and computing services.
Among them, CZ's public advocacy for using blockchain to achieve AI data labeling has been explored first by OORT through OORT DataHub. OORT DataHub is OORT's second commercial product and the world's first decentralized data collection and labeling solution, providing decentralized AI data collection and labeling services for developers, enterprises, and researchers, with the commercial version officially launched.
As is well known, the success of AI requires a large amount of data for learning, especially high-quality datasets that are crucial for enhancing AI model performance and decision-making capabilities. However, data labeling and collection often face issues of inconsistent quality and high costs. OORT DataHub offers trustworthy and traceable data while breaking the geographical limitations of traditional platforms, allowing users worldwide to contribute data through the DataHub platform, such as images, audio, or video, to enhance AI and machine learning models.
At the same time, to better incentivize users to participate and contribute data, OORT DataHub has introduced a mechanism to pay global contributors with cryptocurrency. This mechanism starts with points; contributors can earn points by daily logins, completing tasks, verifying tasks, and referrals, which can then unlock USDT rewards—this is a fundamental bottleneck for traditional data collection, as traditional banking systems cannot effectively implement global cross-border micropayments. Additionally, OORT DataHub has introduced NFTs as an extra incentive mechanism to share revenue rights from future data sales. Notably, to promote large-scale product adoption, OORT has launched the OORT DataHub mini-application for seamless integration with Telegram.
OORT Storage offers secure storage and management of hot and cold data. In addition to meeting enterprise-level availability, durability, and latency requirements in performance and easily enabling data interaction through integrated AI, it provides on-demand billing services that are up to 80% cheaper than traditional giants like AWS. Furthermore, to enhance user data privacy protection, OORT has adopted a decentralized data infrastructure for data management, effectively resisting censorship and single points of failure. Currently, OORT Storage supports popular storage management tools like ChatGPT, AWS CLI, Rclone, and S3 Browser.
OORT Compute, which has not yet been officially launched, is a decentralized computing service with advantages of low cost, high privacy, and easy accessibility, enabling decentralized data analysis and processing (such as training and fine-tuning large models) by integrating global GPU resources. This product has yet to be officially released.
In this process, to ensure the reliability and availability of data and to achieve the globalization of the DeAI ecosystem, OORT’s cloud infrastructure layer adopts a three-layer node architecture, consisting of super nodes like Tencent Cloud and SEAGATE, backup nodes like Filecoin, Storj, and Arweave, as well as edge nodes composed of personal devices. As of now, OORT's network nodes have exceeded 65,000.
In this regard, OORT can effectively address the pain points in data collection, storage, and processing in the AI industry, while also reducing data collection and computation costs through decentralized mechanisms, providing robust infrastructure support for AI development.
Technical exploration in a commercial context, academic achievements stepping out of the 'ivory tower'.
Past experiences tell us that every new technology must undergo a transformation from infrastructure development to successful commercial implementation; otherwise, it is difficult to form a true competitive moat. OORT is continuously advancing the 'monetization' of DeAI technology, building its own advantages through effective commercialization paths while promoting the application of AI technology across various industries.
For example, tech giant Dell's global loyalty program integrates OORT Storage services, providing decentralized storage services for Dell customers, including data storage and migration; OORT signed a three-year contract with Lenovo, achieving 40% cost savings and a 95% customer satisfaction rate through its customized AI assistant; Tencent Cloud has become a full-node provider for the OORT network, allowing applications deployed on its data cloud to access more comprehensive data services while enhancing privacy and security; OORT provides storage support for BNB Greenfield, ensuring privacy and cost efficiency; OORT collaborates with the eCAT IUCRC research center of the National Science Foundation to improve the safety and efficiency of electric, connected, and autonomous vehicles, etc.
The initial success of OORT in commercialization was not driven by the pursuit of short-term market trends but stemmed from a genuine need arising from an academic challenge. As early as 2018, when OORT founder and CEO Dr. Max Li was teaching AI courses at Columbia University, he encountered a dilemma: his graduate students found traditional cloud computing services (like Amazon AWS and Google Cloud) too expensive, far exceeding their budgets. This issue sparked Max's deep reflection on how to optimize cloud computing costs through blockchain technology, which not only helped the students successfully complete their project but also laid the foundation for the birth of OORT.
Max's profound academic and technical background also lays a solid foundation for OORT to step out of the academic 'ivory tower'. As an experienced tech industry expert who previously worked as a researcher at Qualcomm Research, he participated in the design of 4G LTE and 5G systems, and is also a prolific inventor and tech expert, holding over 200 international and US patents across various fields, especially in communications and machine learning. Other core team members of OORT also possess strong capabilities, mainly coming from world-renowned institutions like Columbia University, Qualcomm, AT&T, and JPMorgan Chase.
With solid technological accumulation, a strong team, successful commercial products, and a clear market positioning, OORT has also gained high recognition from the capital market, securing nearly $10 million in financing this year, with investors including Taisu Ventures, Red Beard Ventures, Hike Ventures, and Optic Capital, as well as support from tech giants Microsoft and Google. Max believes that 2025 will be the year when decentralized AI transitions from niche to commercialization and implementation, and the integration of blockchain and AI will gradually become mainstream, profoundly impacting the development of the coming decades.
In summary, as a hot potential stock in the DeAI field, OORT's continuous commercialization not only reflects its transformation based on practical commercial needs but also reveals the enormous market potential in the DeAI field, injecting more momentum into the popularization and advancement of AI technology.
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