Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has launched an innovative AI accelerator funding program aimed at advancing the integration of artificial intelligence into cryptocurrency wallets. The program will provide $3,000 grants to five projects exploring this area.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong specifically highlighted the potential of large language models (LLMs), noting that if these models were equipped with a crypto wallet, they would be able to manage financial tasks. Armstrong said in a tweet: "LLMs should have crypto wallets. Let's help AI agents get work done (on your behalf) and participate in the economy."
Coinbase demonstrates the huge potential of artificial intelligence in financial transactions. On August 12, Yuga Cohler, head of engineering at Coinbase, demonstrated the "AI Wallet" feature on the X platform, showing how artificial intelligence can autonomously process financial transactions. In the demonstration, participants were paid for their contribution to training the image recognition model, and the system automatically sent the payment to the user's cryptocurrency wallet. The concept is similar to Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform, but the far-reaching impact of artificial intelligence in processing and receiving wallet transactions could revolutionize various economic activities.
To further this vision, Coinbase’s developer platform has launched a $15,000 accelerator grant program to encourage developers to create useful “bots” that integrate LLM with Coinbase’s MPC wallet. This program aims to solve the challenges of AI agents managing payments autonomously, and developers interested in participating need to apply before September 5.
Coinbase also pointed out that the combination of artificial intelligence and blockchain provides new opportunities for entrepreneurs. Last June, Coinbase released a research report highlighting the potential of the combination of the two technologies. The report mentioned that decentralized data markets can help generative AI meet its needs for verified and diverse data sets, while token-based incentive mechanisms can improve data quality. In addition, the report also mentioned potential application scenarios for providing computing power through decentralized networks, improving data authenticity, and making the decision-making process of AI algorithms more transparent and auditable.
Combining the application of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology, Coinbase believes that this will help solve problems such as algorithmic bias, digital identity authentication, and false information risks. Blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can also be used to determine the source of media such as images, videos, and music, and make the decision-making process of generative AI models more transparent, helping users review the logic and reliability of AI-generated results.
