AI Model Makers Can Now Monetize Their Work Through NFT Platform Zora

Zora’s Expansion into AI: Bridging the Gap between Crypto and Artificial Intelligence

In a recent episode of the Chain Reaction podcast, Dee Goens, co-founder of Zora, an NFT-based social network platform, discussed the startup’s foray into the rapidly growing artificial intelligence market. With a strong presence in the crypto-sphere, Zora is now looking to leverage the potential synergies between blockchain technology and AI.

Zora’s Growth and Impact

Over the past month, Zora has witnessed impressive user engagement, with nearly half a million monthly transacting users and creators earning over $1.3 million by sharing their content on the platform. Built on the Optimism layer-2 blockchain, which aims to expand the Ethereum ecosystem, Zora has facilitated over $300 million in secondary sales and boasts 1 million unique collectors since its inception in 2020.

The Intersection of Crypto and AI

Goens and his co-founder, Jacob Horne, believe that crypto and AI are two complementary technologies that can mutually benefit each other. As Goens explained:

Crypto wants information to be on-chain so that it can be valued and add value to the system. And then AI wants information to be on-chain so that it can be freely accessed and utilized by the system. So we’re on this kind of collision course where we want to put more stuff on-chain, in order to effectively add value, create value.

In essence, AI requires access to more information to train its models and grow, while crypto aims to put information on-chain to expand its ecosystem. Zora is positioning itself as a platform that facilitates the transition of AI onto blockchains, enabling both technologies to thrive.

AI-Powered Minting on Zora

Zora recently introduced the ability for creators to use AI to mint their creations on its platform. This innovative feature allows users to generate images based on text prompts and mint them on the blockchain shortly after. Goens emphasized the significance of this development:

This is a zero to one moment, one of the first passive income streams for the creators of large language models like Stability AI. We’re really excited to usher in an era where model creators, not just the creators of the output, but the model makers themselves, also have a way to reap the rewards of creativity that they’re helping to produce.

The Future of Blockchain and AI Integration

Looking ahead, Goens sees an opportunity for blockchains to assist in verifying, authenticating, and proving ownership of creations, encompassing models, data, information, and the origin of the media itself. While he believes that crypto could survive without AI, he argues that AI needs blockchains to strengthen its narrative around verification and authentication.

I’m excited to see the models on-chain and see more open sourcing of these models, so that we can all have the opportunity to investigate and inspect them in a way where we can make an informed decision. That opens up an opportunity for us to put our money where our mouth is.

As Zora continues to push the boundaries of NFT-based content creation and monetization, the integration of AI and blockchain technology promises to unlock new possibilities for creators and collectors alike.