Although overshadowed by the buzz around generative AI in 2023, work on the next generation of Web3 apps and technologies continues.
Some say that Web3, with its decentralized databases and blockchain-based apps, offers exciting solutions. It promises enhanced privacy and security, giving back control and ownership of data.
In theory, at least, Web3 tools and technologies, secured by encryption, are beyond the control or censorship of any single entity, including tech giants and governments.
Here, experts in the field share their predictions for blockchain in 2024:
Business leaders will realize the value of AI and blockchain as complementary technologies:
Last year, more than half of business leaders equated blockchain with crypto, but now a vast majority (84%) say their understanding of blockchain has improved. This number will continue to grow as people look for better ways to work with AI. Our recent survey found that nearly half of organizations recognize blockchain as a solution that can drive AI’s transparency and data security, and 71% view the two technologies as complementary. In 2024, as more businesses understand the value of blockchain, the technology will emerge as the critical guardrail that AI systems have been lacking to date, enabling more responsible AI standards and innovation. —Mrinal Manohar, co-founder and CEO of Casper Labs
Blockchain will see new applications in energy transformation, decarbonization, and the fight against “greenwashing”: A decade ago, hybrid cloud introduced unprecedented new efficiencies to businesses; today, hybrid blockchains are poised to do the same. By enabling data and document storage on hashes, blockchain will become a must-have for businesses looking to reduce their data and compute footprint, while still maintaining tamper-proof records in a highly secure environment. Blockchain will also help companies turn the corner in combating carbon credit fraud, empowering them with tamper-proof and highly-serialized systems that provide unmatched auditability into energy consumption data. —Mrinal Manohar, co-founder and CEO of Casper Labs
Blockchain plays the hero in securing data lineage: As AI/ML models play key roles in critical decision-making, whether supervised by humans or in a completely autonomous fashion, model provenance/lineage becomes crucial. The foundational technology that powered blockchain to provide immutability of records, digital identities, signatures, and verifications leveraging cryptography will become a key aspect of enterprise AI to provide tamper proof model provenance. –Yeshwant Mummaneni, chief engineer, cloud, Altair
GenAI kills quantum and blockchain: The unstoppable combination of GenAI and Quantum Computing, or GenAI and Blockchain? Not! GenAI will be stealing all the talent and investment from Quantum and blockchain, kicking quantum even further into the distant future and leaving blockchain stuck in its existing use cases of fraud and criminal financing. Sure, there will be plenty of projects that continue to explore the intersection of the different technologies, but how many of them are just a way for researchers to switch careers into GenAI and blockchain/quantum startups to claw back some of their funding?—Kjell Carlsson, head of data science strategy and evangelism at Domino Data Lab