Today us prosecutors seek a three-year Prison sentence for Chang Pang Xiao Block plans to launch a full Bitcoin Mining system and the founder of Canonical crypto explains why he's Bullish on the merging of AI and Blockchain Technology welcome to cnbc's crypto World I'm TAA mck crypto prices turning Lower this morning with Bitcoin dropping Back to The $64,000 level by noon Eastern that crypto currency was down 2.8% in the past 24 hours meanwhile Ether dipped more than 1.5% to 3173 and Salana dropped 4% to $151 okay let's talk about the top Stories us prosecutors are seeking a Three-year prison sentence for binance's Former CEO Chang Pang Xiao in a Memorandum filed in Washington Federal Court prosecutors said that CZ should Serve a sentence higher than suggested Under guidelines due to the gravity of His crimes xia is accused of willfully Failing to implement an effective Anti-money laundering program something That's required by the bank secrecy act He's also accused of allowing binance to Process transactions tied to unlawful Activity including for individuals Skirting sanctions next Jack dorsy Payments company block is developing a Full Bitcoin mining system the company Announced yesterday that it finished the
Development of a standalone 3 nanometer Bitcoin mining chip and is now working With a semiconductor manufacturer on Finalizing the design Block says the chip will meet mining Needs to thrive through the current Having cycle the company's ultimate goal Is to democratize Bitcoin mining which Dorsy tweeted about in 2021 at the time He argued that the more decentralized Mining is the more resilient the Bitcoin Network becomes at the same time block Platforms square and cash app are also Reportedly launching the option for Merchants to convert their dollars to Bitcoin all right for our main story While crypto and AI have competed for VC Funding dollars many believe the Combination of the two technologies Presents huge promise and after the Latest Bitcoin having some blockchain Miners are even considering a pivot to AI using some of their existing Infrastructure crypto world's Talia Kaplan spoke with Anand a the founder of Canonical crypto an early stage fund Investing in crypto and web 3 Infrastructure about the potential tied To the two technologies plus he shares His outlook for VC funding in the Space the combination of crypto and AI Has been getting a lot of Buzz recently According to vanc crypto aai revenues Are projected to reach 10.2 billion
Dollar by 2030 do you agree with that Projection uh such a great question kick It off I I think and I was talking to The team at vanck about this I think That's on the low end of where we might End up if uh if I remember correctly From that report they were projecting Something like 6 trillion in AI driven Productivity uh over by by 2030 and if Decentralized AI serves as the backbone For everything that needs to get built On top with AI I believe those numbers Are the very low end of the Spectrum in Terms of what we might expect but we're Starting to see some really cool Tech And infrastructure getting built so We're expecting to see that uh you know We'll expect to see that play out really Well interesting so last month okx Ventures released a report about the Potential of crypto and Ai and the Report says the merging of the two Technologies is giving rise to new Applications and Innovations Encompassing areas like model training AI agents metaverse gaming and robots as A service in a nutshell what is your Outlook for crypto and Ai and do you see A lot of potential tied to the merging Of the Technologies absolutely uh if you look At the progression of AI to date uh it's Been largely driven by centralized Entities right so the amount of
Innovation and horsepower whether it's Access to data access to Talent OR Access to resources has been largely Controlled by a select few uh on the Other hand when we look at decentralized Blockchainbased networks we really Thrive on certain ethos and principles Like Decentralization um uh transparency Auditability Etc so as we look forward While we are starting to build out the Infrastructure in a very collaborative Manner today there's just so much need To get built if you look at some just Like pointed use cases today right data Provenance Talia you and I are having This conversation at some point this Data might get used to train a model how Does CNB C how do we get credit for Something like that or we look at Training of models for medical purposes For legal purposes or for finance those Can't be trained on public data they Need to be trained on private they you Be trained in private data and we have Primitives for things like this in the World of blockchain like fully Homomorphic encryption we have zero Knowledge for attestation of proofs Etc So uh I'll pause there but I'm really Bullish on where we can take all the Work that's been done in the world of Blockchain Primitives and really putting That to work when it comes to
AI so I recently interviewed the chief Scientist at chain link Labs who argued That the often touted uses for bringing Ai and blockchain together aren't Actually all that useful some of what he Calls misleading narratives include that Blockchain can combat misinformation Caused by generative Ai and that Blockchain can bring privacy to AI do You think these narratives can be Considered misleading are there any Concerns you have tied to the Convergence of AI and Crypto yeah I I look at it as a a glass Half full opportunity right I think with The sort of the blast radius of what We're encountering today uh it doesn't Feel particularly good whereas the kind Of Primitives we have in the world of Blockchain actually can serve legitimate Use cases right we have seen uh Situations where there have been Elections held in various countries and We have been able to use certain Primitives like zero knowledge to be Able to test to the source of certain Media types and ensuring that those Actually came from the sources that they Were that they truly actually came from How do we put these to work at scale Right so I would say the technology is There and it is really up to us to put To work now and bring them to the masses So while it's completely fair to be
Questioning these principles uh I think What is incumbent upon us now is to Build out these products and put them to Work because you know we've been Building them out for quite some time Now so I I definitely appreciate the Skepticism but I'm confident that the Technolog is going to play out as we Hope it will now you are a light speeed Venture partner and of course the Founder of canonical crypto an early Stage fund investing in crypto and web3 Infrastructure so so I'm curious to get Your take on what crypto VC Trends have Been gaining traction and how much of The VC interest is focused on the Convergence of AI and blockchain Technology yeah uh I have been Exclusively focus on this intersection Because I feel this technology is AI is Is one of those technologies that you Know we're not going to be we're going To be tell you and I in two years for Having this conversation we're still Going to be talking about this and I I I Think it is it's far too promising and Important for for there not to be Focused on it so that's been my area of Focus but there's this so much so much More that needs to get built you know Obviously with the kind of Tailwinds That have happening with ETFs with with Solana hitting certain high high Thresholds lately with various upgrades
Happening in the world of ethereum There's a lot of infrastructure that's Getting built in and around this but We're also starting to see certain Consumer Trends pick up farcaster for Example which is a web3 social Networking platform is having a moment They're having record usage on their Platform uh proud to have been an Investor from the earliest days there um But we start to see shoots like this Emerge whether it's social whether it's Gaming or true manifestations of Finance Coming to life um you know we're Starting to see some companies you know Now that scalability we feel like we' Hit that point where we can reliably use Blockchain networks for payments we're Starting to see trfi and and Blockchainbased finance come together so These are some interesting areas we Starting to see developments and Investments going into infrastructure Middleware developer tooling and at the Very top of the stack Finance gaming Social we're starting to see Investments Full there as well so are you noticing There's more interest in crypto now that Bitcoin hit a new all-time high above $73,000 in recent weeks and spot Bitcoin ETFs started trading here in the US have You seen a shift in sentiment from Investors that that is definitely Provider for awesome Tailwinds for
Activity from an investment perspective Coming back in which is also closely Tied to developer activity Founders Getting back into the fry and wanting to Build here as well so absolutely that's That's been uh you know that's been a Huge uh proponent for us um on the flip Side I I was reflecting on this uh you Know I uh in my career you know usually We try to make bets that are several Years out and the the pros and cons of Operating crypto are that sometimes Anchor a lot on price and you know when This tends to happen you know there's Like in you es and flows that happen With price and that's related to our Investment Trends as well but over a Long enough time Horizon right again We're having this conversation five 10 Years out these small episodic moments Will will feel like such small blips Relative to how much the price will have Appreciated and how grateful I think We'll all be that uh we were able to do Some incredible things on these you know What feel like nent platforms today so It is uh while a lot of it is predicated On price today over a long enough time Frame as more developers and more Founders come in we're going to see some Really cool Tech being built which is Really going to work for us in the Future okay that's all for crypto world Today we'll be back again tomorrow and
We'll see you then [Music]
