A while ago I wrote about how AI might be trained on a data set and then used to form the basis of an alternative cryptocurrency for data mining. I.E. maybe you train the AI to recognize images of mountains and then use that as your proof-of-work algorithm to reward "miners" for finding related images on the Internet.

What I never imagined is that you might outsource the process of building that AI itself as a separate entity (maybe even a separate blockchain.) You could do the entire thing with commitments:

* Build a blockchain that is about rewarding data scientists for predictive models on data sets.

* Commit to a hash of a data set (the challenge to the network.)

* Hash enters chain.

* Release data set.

* Give them a dead line for a solution after which they commit to a hash of their solution / predictive model along with an ECDSA pub key for a reward.

* Solutions are released after N blocks.

* Top N solutions automatically receive rewards in this new cryptoasset.

* Zero trust would be required since it operate on outcomes that anyone can check.

* (This could also be done as an Ethereum smart contract instead of a blockchain.)

Scaling that would be quite hard though and you would need to use standard proof-of-work to avoid attacks.

IMO: What I find the most interesting about this article is that they're using masked data as the input which I think is the kind of futuristic cipherpunk vision a lot of people had in mind for Ethereum when it launched. Ethereum + AI + crypto + game theory is a match made in heaven and we probably haven't even scratched the surface of what's possible in this space. I can't wait to see the kinds of things people come up with in the future.

Edit: formatting.