Token2049 is soooo this decade
Token2049 is a crypto initiative that has stormed Singapore and Dubai. As its name suggests, the event brings together the crypto community to muse over the technology and position of digital assets 25 years from now. Some observations,
- Despite the 25 year future prediction horizon, the events seem very much rooted in the present and past crypto-land initiatives. Rehashed Defi, rehashed exchanges, rehashed NFT’s etc where the rehash covers up the security flaws of the so-called pioneers, for example, segregating assets in real-time cold wallets. While very much needed it is like the dustman that follows an elephant.
- On the plus-side, the events have a 24/7 party people atmosphere that is reminiscent of the hedge fund boom of the opening decade of the millenium. This was a golden era where Wii volleyball could be enjoyed with bikini clad models at the events. This all but vanished when the computer-driven traders pushed out the barrow-boys from the proprietary trading desks. But the Joy of Finance has moved to crypto-land where the mistakes of old no doubt become the mistakes of the future.
But one cannot escape the longreach of AI into the pitchbooks of the crypto launches. My main point here is that AI is confusing knowledge with intelligence. A TikTok commentator argued that computers are starting to think for themselves. He gave the example of a Captcha puzzle being sent to a human to solve. The human asked if the computer was a human, it replied ‘yes’ rather than ‘no’. Somehow, this was proof that the computer was intelligent…go figure? Surely, the computer was programmed to respond in the manner that maximised the chance of cooperation from the human interrogator. It’s not illegal to lie. ChatGPT fabricates stuff all the time to fill voids, because that is what it is told to do – it does lie pretty well, however, and few of us have the KNOWLEDGE to challenge its assertions. However, just because it has access to incredibly fast computer power and the ability to sprint through the entire internet doesn’t mean that it has the INTELLIGENCE… to, for example, make the next version of ChatGPT. Humans will never be able to match a computer’s knowledge but they still rule the roost weighting those yes/no probabilities.
As for Token2049, there will be no advances in true-AI here, but it could contemplate what is missing in the world of Finance and how to respond to these issues with digital solutions. Rather than just repeating the mistakes of traditional Finance, why not build a better Financial system? Of course, don’t let this stand in the way of a good party…
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