Layer 1 blockchain NEAR has launched an initiative to incubate and spend money on native AI infrastructure.
NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin has unveiled plans to make it “one of the best ecosystem for the subsequent era of AI analysis and purposes”.
NEAR Protocol is a decentralized, high-throughput, layer 1 blockchain that goals to be the house of user-owned AI and machine studying. Initially launched as an AI firm, NEAR pivoted in the direction of blockchain and funds options early on in growth and is now specializing in synergies between the 2 applied sciences.
Person-owned AI is supposed to supply a collaborative different to the centralized and closed business that controls most of Web2’s knowledge and data. Within the weblog put up, Polosukhin said, “We don’t need to reside in a world the place just a few mega-corporations management probably the most highly effective human useful resource: intelligence.”
The chain’s native token, $NEAR, rallied 3.5% after the weblog put up and is now up 400% during the last yr.
The NEAR Basis will present funding and incubation companies for AI-related analysis and purposes alongside its analysis and growth unit, led by Polosukhin and fellow co-founder Alex Skidanov.
NEAR goals to draw the highest builders in AI growth in an effort to deliver the user-owned AI motion to a world scale. The muse’s equity-free accelerator, Horizon, is at the moment accepting purposes for its subsequent cohort, set to start in September 2024.