From technological breakthrough to philosophical defiance, the topic of AI has always sparked intense debates ever since Alan Turing & John McCarthy advanced this branch of computer science. One might argue that this was caused by expectations overwhelmingly surpassing technological capabilities. However, the recent public release of ChatGPT has rekindled former sci-fi apocalyptical scenarios, even if it is (still) just a trained language model. Humanity gazed in awe as a simple input/output text interface could instantly disrupt fields such as software engineering or copywriting. Worst part? It also challenged (arguably) the most important human-specific trait: creativity (Midjourney). Data is the lifeblood of AI as it increases the model’s prediction accuracy: larger input sample translates into more outputs that help fine-tune weights during back-propagation cycles (the model ‘learns’). We were joined by Trent McConaghy, founder & CTO at Ocean Protocol, to discuss the advantages of implementing blockchain (& NFT) technology in data management and trading, what makes a particular data set valuable and what challenges derive from AI implementations and the data digital gold rush. Topics covered in this episode: Trent’s AI background & founding OceanThe evolution of Ocean ProtocolManaging third-party access to data NFTsMinting data NFTs & their metadataDiscovering & verifying data qualityAI generated data sets & intellectual propertyOcean marketplace user baseData farmingData curation & veOcean rewardsEpisode links: Trent McConaghy on TwitterOcean Protocol on TwitterOcean MarketplaceSponsors: Omni: Access all of Web3 in one easy-to-use wallet! Earn and manage assets at once with Omni's built-in staking, yield vaults, bridges, swaps and NFT support. https://omni.app/ -This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/481

2022 has proven time after time that centralised entities are prone to multiple points of failure, intentional or not. Decentralised finance (DeFi) addresses these, but the user experience has often been lacklustre compared to that from centralised finance (CeFi). Exchanges are the backbone of any market, but high throughput is required in order to ensure that both makers and takers can proficiently use them. Decentralised exchanges have long faced issues due to bandwidth constraints native to blockchains, but recent L2 scaling solutions have provided a considerable increase in terms of throughput. For example, dYdX is currently the largest consumer of STARKs, but growing institutional and retail interest in derivative financial products urges for an even better alternative. We were joined by Antonio Juliano, founder & CEO of dYdX perpetual exchange, to discuss about the upcoming transition to dYdX V4 and what challenges decentralised exchanges have to face amidst technological bottlenecks and upcoming regulations. Topics covered in this episode: Antonio’s background & timing productsdYdX product overviewPrice feed oraclesdYdX user demographics & UXDevelopment timeframes & taking risksOrder book vs. AMMBuilding a sovereign blockchain on CosmosThe challenges of decentralising order booksIBC integrations and composabilityCurrent state of scaling solutionsMigrating from dYdX V3 to V4 & token utilityDeFi vs. CeFiDeFi education & regulatory outreachEpisode links: Antonio Juliano on TwitterdYdX on TwitterdYdX exchangeThis episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Felix Lutsch. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/479