The next frontier for crypto will be decentralizing AI

Opinion by: Zain Jaffer, co-founder of Vungle

Artificial intelligence is the latest frontier in the centralization vs. decentralization battle. As Bitcoin and Ethereum were built to resist government and corporate control, so are crypto AI projects pushing back against Big Tech’s growing dominance over AI models.

The question is: Can they compete, or are they just another layer built on top of the same centralized infrastructure they claim to disrupt?

AI, crypto and the decentralization dilemma

One of the core tenets that drives traditional fans of crypto is decentralization. It directly opposes the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Howey test, which defines investment contracts as relying on a “common enterprise” and the “efforts of others” for profit. Most securities are tied to centralized corporations, but Bitcoin, Ethereum and other sufficiently decentralized networks are designed to function without a central authority.

Why does this matter? Because of control. The Bitcoin white paper famously describes a “purely peer-to-peer” system that enables transactions without going through a financial institution. This Libertarian ideal (two parties transacting freely without interference) has driven crypto’s evolution. 

As AI becomes more and more mainstream, the same decentralization ethos is extending to it. Crypto advocates worry that AI, if left in the hands of a few tech giants, will become another walled garden controlled by companies like Google, Microsoft and OpenAI.

Crypto’s AI push

To counteract this, blockchain-based AI projects are emerging. Names like Tao, Virtuals (on Base) and AI16Z (on Solana) have launched decentralized AI models, hoping to disrupt the industry before Big Tech entirely takes over. Some are building their own large language models (LLMs) from scratch and training them independently from corporate AI giants.