Surfing the Ocean Protocol on a Blockchain of New Paradigms

Through millions of years of biological design, humans have developed a resistance to paradigmatic change. It makes sense. Anything which we cannot anticipate or imagine is, by definition, a threat to the certainty of our line. With almost inscrutable consistency, uncertainty is the cause of our everyday stressors. The uncertainty of being late. The uncertainty of losing money. The uncertainty of getting sick. It’s not the hours lying miserably in bed that we fear (which will almost always resolve itself) but rather the not knowing if or when it will happen.

But why then do we still send (wo)men to the moon, work with large hadron particle colliders, or conduct any dangerous scientific experiments?

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changes so quickly, the only strategy guaranteed to fail is not taking risks” — Mark Zuckerberg

Ocean protocol is the genesis of two visionary technologies which harbor as much uncertainty as they do optimism: Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. Much like the enormous body of water for which it is named, the Ocean Protocol is a vast ecosystem deep enough to be fascinated by, but not so deep as to entirely fear. It is the first real innovation which I have heard of that truly intertwines AI and the Blockchain. Many startups have claimed to be separately using both AI and Blockchain technology to build their platforms — but this begs the question: “will you ever hit a home run by swinging with one bat in each hand?” Yes, each bat may increase the odds of making contact, but it takes two hands, seamed together, to really touch all four bases.

The First Risk: AI

According to the Lindy effect, championed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the “life expectancy of non-perishable things (like technology and ideas) is proportional to their current age.” That is, Artificial Intelligence has been around for roughly seventy years, so it should survive for at least another seventy. AI is here to stay, but the applications and its potential malevolence is what causes apprehension to some folks in the Artificial Intelligence community.

At present, there is no irrefutable evidence to convince those who believe in our impending Artificially Intelligent doom. But what if we could prove that the benefits of pursuing this technology far outweigh the detriments? If we could prove that a computer passing the Turing Test, or achieving self-awareness, is less corrosive to society than our avoidance of the technology altogether, then research and funding will come pouring in from both sides.

After all, where would we be if horses still cobbled through the streets of New York City?

Already, Aritificial Intelligence is responsible for immensely important algorithms which have had society level impacts. Take for example the 2016 US election. Without delving into either side of the political spectrum, it has become common knowledge that Facebook’s algorithm played a large part in lassoing certain demographics to vote and not vote for a particular candidate. It did this without intention other than to keep users happy and spending time on the platform. (..A topic for another article). What this influence shows, though, is that our Artificially Intelligent programs are already so deeply embedded into the social fabric of global culture that if man simply turned them off or refused to investigate them, they could spiral into exactly what cynics most fear.

Risk Two: B⃣l⃣o⃣c⃣k⃣c⃣h⃣a⃣i⃣n⃣

Right now, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency have become trendy topics in the field of entrepreneurship and finance. At its core, Blockchain has enormous potential. It could open up social scalability, create an unencumbered channel for sending and receiving remittances, remove our reliance on the financial sector, reinvent some types of engineering, and so much more. (Ex. self-driving Uber/Lyfts which pay their own bills using cryptocurrencies earned from riders. Posed by Andreas Antonopoulos.)

PwC Blockchain Analysis

Yet, the world is far less predictable than we often imagine it to be and there are various obstacles standing in the path of the technology. Currently, Blockchain has become inseparable with cryptocurrency, which is under fire from some of the largest corporations and regulators on the planet. Given the scale of its opponents, it’s safe to say, that if Bitcoin is able to thrive, even amid assault from Big Banks and governments, the platform is here to stay (the Lyndi effect would agree). Nevertheless, on the other hand, if these corporations are able to pound Cryptocurrency into the ground, it would be many years before the masses realize that Blockchain and Cryptocurrency could be mutually exclusive. That is, Blockchain could dismantle its bindings to the currency domain and continue applying itself to others.

Diving into the Ocean

The idea behind Ocean Protocol hinges upon the fact that modern society is irrevocably reliant on data. The computers we have in our pockets, backpacks, kiosks, grocery stores, airports — they all run on immense pools of data that have been gathered and looped into various bands of information. The problem with the separation of these collections is that the data available to a facial recognition device in LaGuardia International Airport has no access to photos that have been synched to Facebook. Or the Amazon Go Kiosk being unable to detect that there is an APB out for the man purchasing his groceries. At present moment, there are millions of different data pools lined up next to each other, but they are all divided by rigid barriers.

So what if we knock down these walls?

This is precisely what Ocean Protocol is hoping to accomplish in building the world’s largest and most efficient Data Marketplace in history. However, the problem with knocking down the walls and creating one fluid body of data is that it would difficult to reconcile owners to their data. With the need for privacy, regulation, and data sharing, that might render this one big data ocean a no-go.

There is, however, an alternative which still retains the essence of a Data Marketplace — and it relies on swinging the bat with two hands.

According to Trent McConaghy of BigchainDB, in order for this type of marketplace to exist “It needs to be decentralized. It needs to be at scale, not just some shiny toy technology. Private & decentralized at scale is hard. However, that’s exactly what we’ve been working on since 2015: an IPDB.” If you were wondering, an Interplanetary database is like Wikipedia, but for everything.

Describing the moment when his company realized they were in a position to turn this fiction into a reality McConaghy elaborates, “First, we have the scalable Blockchain database technology. Second, we have both AI and Blockchain expertise, key for designing data marketplace algorithms. Third, we know the customers’ worlds, both data suppliers (enterprises) and data buyers (AI companies). Finally, we’re going to build relationships with governments and data regulators.”

Backing up the claim

Unlike some other ambitious startups, BigchainDB is following up on its claims to build relationships with their biggest competitors — regulators. His company has teamed up with the Toyota Research Institute as well as DEX: The Data Exchange SG. This willingness to team up with research companies who may have vastly different motivations from his own reflects well upon Mr. McConaghy and should give him and his team a leg up on the inevitable friction that they will face.

There is no predicting how and when Artificial Intelligence and the Blockchain will truly become one entity; however, the logic behind their genesis is strikingly clear. The latter is a wonderful tool for fair marketplace trading. It’s fantastic at privacy, security, and scalability. The former is powerfully efficient and only becoming scarily more so. Individually, these radical technologies have reason for fear, but perhaps then we shouldn’t look at each in isolation. Perhaps we should unify the two as a system of checks and balances. Perhaps Blockchain is the security net we need to rope down Artificial Intelligence and keep it from spiraling out of control. Only time will tell.

If there is one thing to be sure of however, it’s that these are uncertain waters.

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Surfing the Ocean Protocol on a Blockchain of New Paradigms was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.