Coinbase CEO says AI should have its own crypto wallets

By Matthew Griffin Connected Society 8th September 2024

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Giving AI its own crypto wallet and or access to one would mean it can spend its own money and your own money – this could have huge implications for the global economy and payments.

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Today we’re seeing a new economy emerge – robots buying from robots, or in geek speak and to be more precise machines buying from machines and Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents buying from other AI agents. Cryptocurrency exchange To accelerate this trend Coinbase recently launched an AI accelerator grant program to award $3,000 to five projects focused on combining AI with crypto wallets.

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According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Large Language Models (LLMs) – the technology behind AI systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude – could accomplish finance-related tasks if properly equipped.

“LLMs should have crypto wallets. Let’s help AI agents get work done (on your behalf) and participate in the economy,” he said.

Coinbase engineering lead Yuga Cohler posted a demo of the “AI Wallets” feature to X on Aug. 12. In the demo, Cohler demonstrates a scenario where an organization is paying people to participate in human-feedback sessions to train an image recognition model.

The system prompts Cohler to choose the image he “thinks is best” from three pictures. Once he makes his selection and thus fulfills his task of helping train the AI, the model can send his payment directly to his cryptocurrency wallet.

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This scenario evokes a bit of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk wherein humans are paid for completing simple tasks online. However, there are a number of conceivable use cases for giving an AI system the ability to conduct and receive wallet transactions.

The Coinbase Developer Platform announced its $15,000 accelerator grant program to explore those use cases. According to the Coinbase website, the company is looking for a useful “bot” built using an LLM that can connect to Coinbase’s multiparty computation wallets.

Per Coinbase, the grant is designed to test the waters of AI-induced economic applications: “A major barrier to building useful applications with AI is that AI agents can’t get a bank account to send/receive automated payments. Building on chain fixes this.”

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Those interested in applying for the grants have until October 5th to submit their applications.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.