ICOs Jumping Into The Next Business Wave Integrating Blockchain And AI

The pace at which technology advances is hard to keep up with. Businesses are looking for ways to adapt and exploit innovative technology in different ways. ICOs are the embodiment of how businesses are using blockchain technology to raise funds, create a user base and make their services more efficient. However, it seems that technology is even out-pacing itself. Many ICOs that would have been trail-blazers in their respective industries a few months ago, are already losing their allure. It seems that the next step for businesses is to integrate innovative tech into a single platform.

ICOs Integrate IoT

Probably the most notorious project that is integrating blockchain technology – although distributed ledger technology would be a more suitable term – with another budding technology field is IOTA. This project aims to enable the trading of technological resources, effectively integrating IoT resources to an open market place. Businesses will be able to use these IoT resources by paying for them on a distributed ledger that has built-in consensus. Therefore, transaction fees will be non-existent.

Integration of New Technology is the Key to the Next Business Wave

IOTA will also allow users to store and use data from devices within the system. The integrative nature of this project will allow businesses to enter a new era and create new business models on top of data and device sharing, as well as friction-less transactions. This shows that the next crop of ICOs will have to start thinking about integration of new technologies, instead of simply thinking about new business models and technology deployment. Some ICOs have already started doing this, venturing into other fields that can transform the way we conduct business today.

Blockchain + AI: The New Frontier

Many of the ICOs that are jumping onto the next business wave, are exploring the integration of blockchain technology with artificial intelligence – or AI. In this realm, possibilities are infinite. From applications in law enforcement to additional layers of integration with IoT and even digital marketing, blockchain + AI looks like the new frontier ahead. ICOs looking to integrate these technologies will transform the way we interact with our surroundings completely.

What is AI and How Can Businesses Integrate it With Blockchain Technology?

But, what is AI and how does it fit within this integration scheme that will fuel future businesses in every aspect? Simply put, AI is the development of systems that can perform tasks that require human intelligence. Artificial intelligence can be broken down into 3 distinct vectors according to Neil Jacobstein:

• Machine Learning.
• Curated Knowledge.
• Reverse Engineering of the Brain.

The first and second vectors are probably the ones ICOs and other blockchain projects will start integrating immediately to enhance their products and services.

Exploring Each Vector and its Potential for Blockchain Integration

This is due to the fact that they are the most widely available AI vectors, and also constitute the ones that can immediately enhance the work that ICOs and other blockchain projects are developing right now. To understand why vectors 1 and 2 are more likely to be used in the immediate future as opposed to vector 3, it is useful to understand the function they have within AI:

• Vector number 1, Machine Learning, is a system of hierarchical pattern recognition for the optimization of tasks.
• The second vector, Curated Knowledge, is the re-engineering of an expert’s problem-solving patterns that reduces a given problem to something a computer can solve. This vector is especially useful when knowledge is static.
• AI’s third vector, Reverse Engineering of the Brain, is about mapping brain functions and how they are carried out to emulate them.

Blockchain technology can be immediately integrated with vector 1 systems, and to a lesser extent, with vector 2 systems. The rising symbiotic relation between these 2 AI vectors and blockchain technology, is especially interesting considering that distributed ledgers produce troves of data and meta-data that could feed vector 1 and vector 2 systems automatically and openly, providing a myriad of opportunities for the systems to learn and improve with every task.

Revain Integrating Blockchain and AI

One example of this new crop of ICOs looking to benefit from the integration of blockchain and AI technology along vector 1, is Revain. This ICO is aiming to apply the benefits of integrating both technologies to keep online reviews as objective as possible. Revain will allow users to get feedback from their peers on other ICO projects, tokens, cryptocurrencies and more, using vector 1 AI systems to recognize patterns within the reviews and filter skewed reviews out. The information will then be stored on an immutable blockchain, allowing people to compare the reviews with the information they get from other sources to make more objective decisions.

At the same time, applied machine learning within the Revain platform will get better at identifying patterns in skewed reviews to filter them out more precisely and faster, as the information on the blockchain grows. The review platform itself will also be subject to constant improvement through user reviews and feedback on exiting reviews. Revain does not aim to replace human input with AI input; its objective is to enhance user input using AI filtering. This way, the more the platform is used, the better the AI component will become at filtering, and the more value users will be able to unlock from the information they will get.

The Future ICO is Here

Many other ICOs are also joining this integrative trend, pushing their projects beyond the benchmarks the markets are already used to. In a matter of months, the most appealing ICOs will probably have a blockchain component along with another technological component, be it AI, IoT or any other budding technology field. New business models, new products and new services will increasingly look at integration as their most efficient route to innovation, and a way to keep up with the pace of technological advancement. This new crop of ICOs will become the rule.