Blockchain and AI: What’s Behind the Hype

## What Is Numeraire (NMR)?

Numerai is an [Ethereum](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/)-based platform allowing developers and data scientists to experiment and create machine learning models with improved reliability. The platform’s main goal is to bring decentralization to the data science field and allow developers to compete in creating effective machine learning prediction models. 

Founded in late 2015 in San Francisco, Numerai claims to be the first hedge fund to launch a cryptocurrency on the market. Unlike traditional hedge funds, however, Numerai relies on the data and predictions produced by tournament participants to participate in the stock market. They claim to be the first hedge fund to use machine learning so heavily in its investment strategy. 


### Who Are the Founders of Numeraire?

Richard Craib is the founder and CEO of Numerai. He graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2008 and later acquired one more bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and spent a year in UC Berkeley. His professional career started with founding Numerai and has taken him to a Forbes 30 under 30 designee position. 

Richard Craib is often cited for his innovative approach to hedge fund management and the revolutionary idea to rely so heavily on artificial intelligence for stock price prediction. Not only that, Numerai has created one of the largest global data science tournaments.


#### What Makes Numeraire Unique?

Numerai and the Numeraire token are unique in terms of the idea behind their creation. This is reportedly the first cryptocurrency to be created and released by a hedge fund. One of the main benefits of the NMR token is that it is awarded to data scientists whose models perform well in the Numerai tournament. This means that the token becomes more valuable as more people enter the tournament and start competing.

Not only that, but the models ventured for the tournament allow Numerai to actively participate in stock market trading based on the results revealed by participating projects. This innovative approach to stock trading makes Numerai one of the few hedge funds to rely significantly on AI-generated data predictions. 


#### Related Pages:

Read more about [Uniswap](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/uniswap/).

Find out more about [Tellor](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tellor/).

Learn more about [networks](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/network).

Have a look at the [CoinMarketCap blog](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/categories/blog).


#### How Many Numeraire (NMR) Coins Are There in Circulation?

The maximum supply of NMR is 11,000,000 tokens. The supply cap for Numeraire was initially 21 million tokens; however, the platform announced that it is going to cut this maximum by more than half in 2019. 

In a 2018 press release, Numerai announced that three million NMR tokens will remain locked until 2028, and will be released as a reward incentive for tournament participants. The Numeraire token did not undergo an initial coin offering ([ICO](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-an-ico)). Instead, Numerai decided to distribute 1 million NMR tokens among 12,000 platform users with the highest activity statistics. 

NMR tokens are burned on a weekly basis, as tournament participants who venture losing models and predictions lose their stake in the competition.


### How Is the Numeraire Network Secured?

As an [ERC-20](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/erc-20) token, NMR is secured by the Ethereum proof-of-stake ([PoS](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/proof-of-stake-pos)) consensus mechanism. This means that validators and block creators are selected based on the amount of NMR tokens they are currently staking. ERC-20 tokens are becoming increasingly popular as they offer higher versatility in terms of use. However, the Ethereum blockchain still provides the same level of protection as blockchains operating with other security protocols.

Unlike other popular consensus mechanisms like proof-of-work ([PoW](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/proof-of-work-pow)), PoS does not rely on high consumption of electrical or computing power to create new tokens. This makes the consensus much more scalable and easily incorporated in different use cases. 


### Where Can You Buy Numeraire (NMR)?

Numeraire is growing in popularity, as the hedge fund performs better, and more data scientists are participating in the weekly tournament. If you are looking to trade NMR, there are a number of exchanges now offering the token.

[Coinbase Pro](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/coinbase-pro/) has the highest trading volume for NMR/USD as of February 2021. Other relevant exchanges with high trading volumes include [Binance](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/binance/), [DigiFinex](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/digifinex/), and [Bilaxy](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bilaxy/).

[Read more](https://coinmarketcap.com/how-to-buy-bitcoin/) about buying crypto here.


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iExec is the leading provider of blockchain-based decentralized computing. Blockchain is utilized to organize a market network where people can monetize their computing power as well as applications and even datasets.

It does this by providing on-demand access to cloud computing resources. IExec can support applications in fields such as big data, healthcare, AI, rendering and fintech. IExec was founded on Oct. 16, 2016, with the goal to reinvent cloud computing through the creation of a new cloud computing paradigm.

As such, iExec relies on the XtremWeb-HEP, an open-source desktop grid software that implements features such as multi-applications, fault-tolerance, multi-users, deployment of virtual images, private infrastructure, data management, security and much more.

iExec RLC

Ocean Protocol

Cortex

SingularityNET is a blockchain-powered platform that allows anybody to easily "create, share, and monetize" AI services, thanks to its globally-accessible AI marketplace.

Through the SingularityNET marketplace, users can browse, test and purchase a huge variety of AI services using the platform’s native utility token — AGIX. Moreover, the marketplace represents an outlet AI developers can use to publish and sell their AI tools, and easily track their performance.

With the benefits of LLMs and generative AI are increasingly exciting, their limitations are also becoming increasingly apparent. The convergence of structured knowledge with neural networks is emerging as the key to overcoming their shortcomings.

Uniquely positioned at the heart of this convergence, SingularityNET will prioritize the integration of Knowledge Graphs (KGs) and comprehensive Neural Symbolic tools for LLMs, with the goal of empowering developers to create the next generation of AI systems on the SingularityNET Platform.

SingularityNET is strategically positioned to become the Knowledge Layer of the Internet, leading the evolution of the emerging AI landscape while also laying the foundations for the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) of tomorrow.

The team behind SingularityNET pioneered the development of an AI known as Sophia, which is described as the "world's most expressive robot". SingularityNET’s goal is to enable Sophia to be able to fully understand human language, and continue developing “OpenCog” — an AI framework that is hoped to eventually achieve a state known as “advanced general intelligence,” i.e. human-level artificial intelligence (or beyond).

The platform was first announced in 2017 and completed an initial coin offering (ICO) in December the same year, raising $36 million in just one minute.

SingularityNET

Founded in 2017 and launched via IEO on Binance in March 2019, Fetch.AI is an artificial intelligence (AI) lab building an open, permissionless, decentralized machine learning network with a crypto economy. Fetch.ai democratizes access to AI technology with a permissionless network upon which anyone can connect and access secure datasets by using autonomous AI to execute tasks that leverage its global network of data. The Fetch.AI model is rooted in  use cases like optimizing DeFi trading services, transportation networks (parking, micromobility), smart energy grids, travel — essentially any complex digital system that relies on large-scale datasets.

Fetch.ai

The Graph is an indexing protocol for querying data for networks like Ethereum and IPFS, powering many applications in both DeFi and the broader Web3 ecosystem. Anyone can build and publish open APIs, called subgraphs, that applications can query using GraphQL to retrieve blockchain data. There is a hosted service in production that makes it easy for developers to get started building on The Graph and the decentralized network will be launching later this year. The Graph currently supports indexing data from Ethereum, IPFS and POA, with more networks coming soon.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of The Graph.

To date, over3,000 subgraphs have been deployed by thousands of developers, for DApps like Uniswap, Synthetix, Aragon, AAVE, Gnosis, Balancer, Livepeer, DAOstack, Decentraland and many others. The Graph usage has been growing at over 50% MoM and hit over 7 billion queries during the month of September 2020.

The Graph has a global community, including over 200 Indexer Nodes in the testnet and more than 2,000 Curators in the Curator Program as of October 2020. To fund network development, The Graph raised funds from community members, strategic VCs and influential individuals in the blockchain community including Coinbase Ventures, DCG, Framework, ParaFi Capital, CoinFund, DTC, Multicoin, Reciprocal Ventures, SPC, Tally Capital and others. The Graph Foundation also successfully completed a public GRT Sale with participation from 99 countries (not including the U.S.). To date as of November 2020, The Graph has raised ~$25M.

The Graph

Synthetix is building a decentralized liquidity provisioning protocol that any protocol can tap into for various purposes. Its deep liquidity and low fees serve as a backend for many exciting protocols on both Optimism and Ethereum. Many user-facing protocols in the Synthetix ecosystem, such as Kwenta (Spot and Futures), Lyra (Options), Polynomial (Automated Options), and 1inch & Curve (Atomic Swaps), tap into Synthetix liquidity to power their protocols. Synthetix is built on Optimism and Ethereum mainnet. The Synthetix Network is collateralized by SNX, ETH, and LUSD, enabling the issuance of synthetic assets (Synths). Synths track and provide returns on the underlying asset without requiring one to directly hold the asset. This pooled collateral enables an array of on-chain, composable financial instruments backed by liquidity from Synthetix. Some of the most exciting upcoming releases from SNX are Perps V2, which hopes to enable low-fee on-chain futures trading through the usage of off-chain oracles, and Synthetix V3, which aims to rebuild the protocol to achieve its earliest goal, being a fully permissionless derivatives protocol. Learn more about Synthetix on their blog or by joining the SNX Discord.

The platform aims to broaden the cryptocurrency space by introducing non-blockchain assets, providing access to a more robust financial market.

Synthetix

Balancer is an automated market maker (AMM) that was developed on the Ethereum blockchain and launched in March 2020. It was able to raise a $3M seed round by Placeholder and Accomplice. Balancer protocol functions as a self-balancing weighted portfolio, price sensor and liquidity provider. It allows users to earn profits through its recently introduced token ($BAL) by contributing to customizable liquidity pools.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Balancer(https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-balancer.

The protocol operates a few types of pools:

Private pools give the owner governance over the pool, and make the person the sole contributor of liquidity to the pool. Also, all the parameters are mutable by the owner.

Shared pools are for those who want to become liquidity providers (LPs). The LPs are rewarded with the Balancer Pool Tokens (BPTs).

Smart pools are similar to private pools but are controlled by a smart contract. They also reward using BPTs and allow anyone to contribute liquidity to the pool.

Balancer

Launched in 2017, Livepeer is the first live video streaming network protocol that is fully decentralized. The platform aims to become a viable blockchain-based, economically efficient alternative to centralized broadcasting solutions for all new and existing broadcaster companies.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Livepeer.

As stated in the official Livepeer whitepaper, the live video streaming and broadcasting industry is growing at a rapid pace, and the company is looking to ride this wave and introduce decentralization to the environment. Livepeer aims to streamline the broadcasting process by allowing producers to submit their work on the platform, taking care of reformatting and distributing the content to users and streaming platforms.

Livepeer

Band Protocol is a cross-chain data oracle platform that is able to take real-world data and supply it to on-chain applications, while also connecting APIs to smart-contracts to facilitate the exchange of information between on-chain and off-chain data sources.

By supplying reputable, verifiable real-world data to blockchains, Band Protocol unlocks a range of new use cases for developers to explore — since they can now use any type of real-world data as part of their decentralized application (DApp) logic, including sports, weather, random numbers, price feed data and more.

Band Protocol initially launched as an ERC-20 project on the Ethereum blockchain in September 2019, but transitioned to the Cosmos network in June 2020 with the release of Band Protocol 2.0. The new protocol is built on BandChain using the Cosmos SDK. Oracle nodes on BandChain not only relay data but are also involved in block production/validation, giving them a dual role.

BAND is the native token of the Band Protocol ecosystem and is used as collateral by validators involved in fulfilling data requests, as well as the main medium of exchange on BandChain — being used to paying for private data.

Band Protocol

UMA was founded in 2018 by Allison Lu and Hart Lambur, two ex Goldman Sachs traders, with the goal of making global markets universally fair, accessible, secure and decentralized.

The team drew inspiration from traditional finance derivatives to define an open-source protocol to allow anyone, anywhere, to design and build trustless financial contracts.

Compound is a DeFi lending protocol that allows users to earn interest on their cryptocurrencies by depositing them into one of several pools supported by the platform.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Compound.

When a user deposits tokens to a Compound pool, they receive cTokens in return. These cTokens represent the individual’s stake in the pool and can be used to redeem the underlying cryptocurrency initially deposited into the pool at any time. For example, by depositing ETH into a pool, you will receive cETH in return. Over time, the exchange rate of these cTokens to the underlying asset increases, which means you can redeem them for more of the underlying asset than you initially put in — this is how the interest is distributed.

On the flip side, borrowers can take a secured loan from any Compound pool by depositing collateral. The maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio varies based on the collateral asset, but currently ranges from 50 to 75%. The interest rate paid varies by borrowed asset and borrowers can face automatic liquidation if their collateral falls below a specific maintenance threshold.

Since the launch of the Compound mainnet in September 2018, the platform has skyrocketed in popularity, and recently passed more than $800 million in total locked value.

Compound

Storj, pronounced as “storage,” is an open-source cloud storage platform. Basically, it uses a decentralized network of nodes to host user data. The platform also secures hosted data using advanced encryption.

In a white paper published in December,2014, Storj was first introduced to the world as a concept. It was to be a decentralized peer-to-peer encrypted cloud storage platform.

Two years later, an updated white paper was published. Here, a decentralized network  — connecting users who need cloud storage space with those who have hard drive space to sell — was described. The platform was launched in late 2018.

People with hard drive space and good internet connectivity can participate in the network. They become a unit in the network, called a node. Space providers are rewarded by Storj tokens.

Storj

Maker (MKR) is the governance token of the MakerDAO and Maker Protocol — respectively a decentralized organization and a software platform, both based on the Ethereum blockchain — that allows users to issue and manage the DAI stablecoin.

Initially conceived in 2015 and fully launched in December 2017, Maker is a project whose task is to operate DAI, a community-managed decentralized cryptocurrency with a stable value soft-pegged to the US dollar.

MKR tokens act as a kind of voting share for the organization that manages DAI; while they do not pay dividends to their holders, they do give the holders voting rights over the development of Maker Protocol and are expected to appreciate in value in accordance with the success of DAI itself.

The Maker ecosystem is one of the earliest projects on the decentralized finance (DeFi) scene: the industry that seeks to build decentralized financial products on top of smart-contract-enabled blockchains, such as Ethereum.

Maker

Mask Network is a protocol that allows its users to send encrypted messages over Twitter and Facebook. It essentially acts as a bridge between the internet and a decentralized network running on top.

Mask Network was initially launched in July 2019, with its first use case of allowing Facebook and Twitter users to encrypt posts on the social media platforms. It then raised $2 million in a funding round in November 2020, co-led by HashKey and Hash Global, and a further $3 million funding round in February 2021 with participation from Digital Currency Group and Fundamental Labs.

Now, Mask Network offers the ability to fund Gitcoin grant campaigns directly from Twitter, as well as plans to offer peer-to-peer payments and decentralized storage functionality. It is a decentralized portal that also allows users to use DApps like crypto payments, decentralized finance, decentralized storage, e-commerce (digital goods/NFTs) and decentralized organizations (DAO) over the top of existing social networks without migrating, creating what is referred to as a decentralized Applet (DApplet) ecosystem.

Mask Network

ZEN is the governance and utility token for Horizen, a zero-knowledge-enabled network of blockchains powered by the largest node infrastructure in the industry. Blockchain interoperability is enabled by the Zendoo protocol, which uses SNARK-verification and allows for complete flexibility in sidechain type, consensus, and speed. Cryptographic verification of networked chains offers massive scale, and the network currently supports up to 10,000 sidechains with a throughput limit of 10,000,000 TPS.

Zendoo makes Horizen a permissionless network of blockchains. Developers can deploy their blockchains within the ecosystem using a variety of SDKs. In 2023, the ecosystem team launched Horizen EON, a public proof-of-stake sidechain and an EVM-compatible smart contracting platform that allows developers to efficiently build and deploy dapps on the Horizen ecosystem, while benefiting from the Ethereum ecosystem. Since going live with Horizen EON, DeFi projects including SpookySwap, Ascent Exchange, and Yuzu have successfully integrated into the Horizen ecosystem. Get started on Horizen EON today!

Horizen's native cryptocurrency, ZEN, is a mineable PoW coin currently trading on major exchanges, including Coinbase and Binance. ZEN can be staked to participate in Horizen's nearly 50,000 full node network.

While ZEN was previously a privacy token, following ZenIP 42204 in June of 2023, the network removed its existing privacy features in favor of moving towards a vision of adaptability and responsible, scalable growth.

Horizen

0x is an infrastructure protocol that allows users to easily trade ERC20 tokens and other assets on the many different blockchains (including Ethereum) without relying on centralized intermediaries. It is a protocol for decentralized exchange.

0x achieves this decentralized exchange functionality using a collection of open-source, publicly auditable smart contracts that work together to produce a flexible, low-friction trading protocol that developers can easily weave into their products.

The protocol is used by companies building web3 apps such as wallets, DEXes, portfolio trackes, and others. It is a used by hundreds of developers for their projects. The protocol has facilitates over $200B in trading volume since its inception. One can track its usage in its dedicated https://explorer.0x.org/.

The protocol is powered by an ERC20 governance token known as ZRX. ZRX holders can participate in protocol governance, having direct power over protocol changes and its community treasury.

0x Protocol

SKALE, described as a modular blockchain network, is designed to bring scalability to Ethereum. SKALE is the only blockchain network capable of running an unlimited number of fast, on-demand, pooled-security Blockchains with zero gas fees to end users. These individual chains are known as SKALE chains and can be dapp-specific or shared.

The project’s website says it wants to enable people to build and run DApps in a “decentralized modular cloud built for real-world needs and configured for your requirements.” This emphasis on decentralization isn’t at the expense of security.

According to SKALE, those who build on this platform can run Solidity smart contracts “thousands of times faster at a fraction of the mainnet cost” — with games and content streaming services among the projects that already take advantage of its infrastructure.

SKALE

LRC is the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency token of Loopring, an open protocol designed for the building of decentralized crypto exchanges.

In 2020, the average daily trading volume of the entire cryptocurrency market fluctuated in the approximate range of $50-$200 million. Most of that trading is conducted on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges — online platforms operated by private companies that store users’ funds and facilitate the matching of buy and sell orders.

Such platforms have a number of downsides common to all of them, so a new type of exchange — decentralized— has emerged to try to alleviate these disadvantages. However, fully decentralized exchanges are not without their own flaws.

Loopring’s purported goal is to combine centralized order matching with decentralized on-blockchain order settlement into a hybridized product that will take the best aspects of both centralized and decentralized exchanges.

LRC tokens became available to the public during an initial coin offering (ICO) in August 2017, while the Loopring protocol was first deployed on Ethereum mainnet in December 2019.

Loopring

Arweave is a decentralized storage network that seeks to offer a platform for the indefinite storage of data. Describing itself as "a collectively owned hard drive that never forgets," the network primarily hosts "the permaweb" — a permanent, decentralized web with a number of community-driven applications and platforms.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Arweave.

The Arweave network uses a native cryptocurrency, AR, to pay "miners" to indefinitely store the network's information.

The project was first announced as Archain in August 2017, later rebranding to Arweave in February 2018 and officially launching in June 2018.