The crypto economy has introduced several ways for South Africans to earn passive rewards that can be seamlessly converted into ZAR for local spending or other investment purposes. While most people may already be familiar with aspects such as trading or Web3 niches like Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), there is an emerging vertical that is yet to be explored – Decentralized AI (DeAI).
So, what exactly is DeAI and how can one earn a passive income from this emerging crypto sector? As the name suggests, it represents the intersection of AI and blockchain technologies. The main goal of DeAI is to leverage blockchain’s decentralized, transparent and secure nature to enhance the building and deployment of AI systems.
Think of an AI innovation space that is not controlled by a handful of companies but rather diverse contributors across the world. For context, most of the cloud infrastructure and data used to train AI models is controlled by a handful of tech juggernauts. The most recent market stats show that AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft alone account for over 60% of the global cloud market share.
DeAI’s goal is to not only eliminate the centralized control of physical infrastructures but also create a data collection and preparation system that is incentive focused. In other words, a fair and transparent AI market where even the average South African can contribute to AI development through simple tasks and get rewarded in the form of crypto tokens or other types of digital assets that can be easily converted back to ZAR.
Currently, this is one of the most potential crypto niches, with the total market cap of AI coins sitting at $25.5 billion only while estimates by PWC show that AI will likely have contributed around $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
In the next section of this article, we will highlight three companies in the DeAI sector where South Africans can participate in supporting AI development in return for passive crypto rewards.
1. OORT
The first company is OORT, a decentralized AI data cloud that leverages global resources, from data contributors using smartphones and compute power, with the end goal of enabling trustworthy decentralized AI applications. OORT’s decentralized AI data cloud is a combination of Web3 and AI infrastructures; it currently features three main functionalities which include the OORT Datahub, OORT Storage & Compute and Deimos devices that operate like personal edge nodes, powering decentralized compute and data handling across the world.
Now to the big question; how can one earn passive crypto rewards through the OORT network? One of the simplest ways to earn crypto passively is through OORT’s Datahub, a Decentralized AI (DeAI) data collection dApp, that allows users to complete daily tasks related to data collection and preparation for AI training. In return, those who contribute accumulate points which are eligible for monthly lucky draws where winners are rewarded with USDT tokens.
What stands out about this particular DeAI project is the opportunity to become part of a globally decentralized community focused on providing high-quality, unbiased and diverse datasets. Although still a nascent project, OORT’s Datahub has already recorded over 307K signups and collected over 100K home tool repair images from its decentralized community of contributors. The dApp also recently launched on Binance Wallet, making it more accessible to both new and veteran crypto users.
2. Bittensor (TAO)
Bittensor is another popular DeAI project that is challenging the status quo of centralized AI. It operates as a decentralized AI network of models, allowing AI systems to work collaboratively and learn from each other over time. In doing so, Bittensor is giving anyone with specialized knowledge or resources to participate in DeAI for crypto rewards in the form of $TAO tokens.
So, how exactly does it work and how can one get started? Bittensor’s network of AI models supports 93 subnets which allow miners to run models, competing based on certain requirements. Some of the tasks that the subnets handle include model fine-tuning, text-to-speech, image and text generation. The catch is that the different subnets compete for monetary incentives ($TAO) which naturally enhances AI model performance.
As for getting started, there are several angles one can participate in Bittensor’s DeAI ecosystem. The first one is by becoming a miner (host AI models that are available in a particular subnet), you can also choose to become a validator and perform tasks such as assessing the quality of AI systems and finally one can stake $TAO tokens to become a delegator in the network.
It is also worth mentioning that $TAO is currently the leading AI coin with a total market capitalization of $2.89 billion according to Coingecko’s real-time metrics.
3. Grass
This innovative DeAI project enables users to earn passive crypto rewards for sharing their unused bandwidth. Instead of leaving one’s unused bandwidth for providers like Telkom, MTN and Vodacom to ‘manage’, Grass is designed to tap into this unused bandwidth and leverage it to gather and process data that is publicly available on the web. It goes a step further to anonymize the collected data and sorts it out for AI model training enhancement.
Notably, the process of getting started on Grass’ DeAI ecosystem is quite seamless as long as one has internet connectivity. The first step is to download the browser extension or Grass App, after which one can proceed to register an account. Once this is up and running, the next step would be to activate the node through the Grass icon, enabling one’s idle bandwidth to operate as a node tasked with collecting public data.
The rewards are in the form of Grass points, with $GRASS designed to act as the utility token of the network. Besides converting back to ZAR, participants can choose to accumulate the GRASS tokens which can help them participate in other key functions such as governance voting.
Conclusion
As mentioned in the introduction, centralized AI is currently dominated by a few companies whose interest cannot be fully trusted. Luckily, the advancement of DeAI and opportunities for the average person to contribute in AI development is bound to change this landscape. Getting started while passively earning crypto is one of the simplest and most lucrative ways any South African can make an impact in AI development.
