SingularityNET

What is SingularityNET (AGIX)?

SingularityNET is a blockchain-powered platform expanding the frontiers of decentralized Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

With a core mission of developing AGI for a beneficial technological Singularity, SingularityNET uses emerging blockchain technology to create a fair distribution of power, value, and technology in the global commons.

Open-source technology is at the core of the blockchain industry, and SingularityNET holds that principle close by open-sourcing the creation of AGI and developing AI systems focused on making the world more compassionate, just, and sustainable.

Developers can publish their services on the SingularityNET network, where anyone with an internet connection can use them. The AGIX token is used to compensate these developers, whose services can range across myriad domains such as image, video, speech, text, time series, bio-AI, and network analysis.

When was SingularityNET Launched?

SingularityNET was announced in 2017 and raised $36 million in a single minute when it carried out an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) in December of that year. Since then, the SingularityNET technology has been steadily developing, with staking being introduced in March 2020 and SNEP (SingularityNET Enhancement Proposal) voting going live in October 2020.

Most notably, SingularityNET operates on the principle of remaining blockchain agnostic. This led to a collaboration with IOHK, the company led by Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, in September 2020. This collaboration was to make the SingularityNET token, then under the ticker AGI, multichain, and also create analogs of Ethereum’s Solidity smart contracts using Cardano’s Plutus programming language.

In May 2015, this vision became a reality. One billion tokens were minted on Cardano, adding to the 1 billion on Ethereum already, with users able to swap between the two. This required the creation of a new token, and AGI tokens were rendered obsolete and replaced by AGIX.

Who are the Founders of SingularityNET

One of SingularityNET’s co-founders is Dr. Ben Goertzel, an accomplished AI and robotics professional who has worked with Hanson Robotics and the OpenCog Foundation. He remains SingularityNET’s CEO and serves as its Chief Scientist as well. Goertzel is also the vice chairman of Humanity+ and retains the role of Chief Scientist at Mozi Health.

Dr. David Hanson, the second of the three SingularityNET co-founders, is also an experienced figure in robotics and is behind several robotics startups. One of these is Hanson Robotics. He is also known for his work at Human Emulation Robotics and the Initiative for Awakening Machines.

SingularityNET’s third co-founder is Simone Giacomelli. Formerly at crypto consultancy Cryptodex, Giacomelli has moved on from SingularityNET, dedicating his time to an R&D laboratory called Vulpem, which he founded in 2015.

How Does SingularityNET Work?

SingularityNET has several technologies under its belt, one of the most important being its AI tools. Users of the network can search, trial, and select from a growing library of AI algorithms created by a community of service providers.

This allows application developers to integrate AI services into their applications easily, and the SingularityNET publishing infrastructure provides a central hub for managing AI services as well as the tools for launching them.

Aside from being an AI marketplace and publisher, SingularityNET also provides a domain-specific language for AI. A deep, self-organizing network of AI agents running on the platform can dynamically outsource work to each other. This system design sees an AI network where the intelligence of the whole greatly exceeds the intelligence of its parts. SingularityNET also has a long-term project called OpenCog Hyperon. This aims to implement a complete, scalable, and open-source general AI system based on the principles of OpenCog. It is an open-source platform where different AI strategies and methods, such as Neuro Symbolic AI, Evolutionary Learning systems, Machine Learning, and others, can collaborate based on a shared knowledge metagraph.

What makes SingularityNET Unique?

SingularityNET as a project has plenty that sets it apart, but some of the public-facing examples of what AI can do have been some of the most headline-grabbing.

The SingularityNET “Social Robots for Good” is a collection of AI-powered robots spreading the message of “positive robotivity” and AI systems for a beneficial future. Called Sophia, Grace, and Desi, these robots have been deployed to tackle pressing issues such as loneliness and seniority.

How is the SingularityNET Network Secured?

SingularityNET is a multichain project, and its tokens are split evenly between the Ethereum and Cardano blockchains. This means that it is secured by both the Ethereum and Cardano blockchains.

Ethereum transitioned from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus in 2022. This landmark event meant that Ethereum miners were replaced by validators, and the network is now secured by a system of incentives rather than raw computing power.

Cardano, founded by one of the original Ethereum core team members, Charles Hoskinson, utilizes a DPoS (delegated proof-of-stake) consensus mechanism. Unlike Ethereum, Cardano smallholders can delegate their ADA to validators and increase their chances of producing blocks.

What is the Use of AGIX?

AGIX is the utility token used by SingularityNET across the platform for the management of transactions and decentralized governance. AGIX holders can vote on SingularityNET network changes via SNEP voting, and the token is used for payments for all platform and marketplace services. It is also possible to stake AGIX tokens to provide platform liquidity.

How Much AGIX is In Circulation?

SingularityNET has a circulating supply of over 1.17 billion AGIX tokens out of a total of 2 billion. Half of its initial supply was sold during the project’s 2017 ICO, while 20% was reserved for the early developer and partner incentives and 8% for the SingularityNET Foundation. The core team took away 18% of the initial supply, with this allocation now fully vested.

How Do You Buy AGIX?

AGIX is available on various exchanges, including decentralized ones on the Ethereum and Cardano blockchains. Using DEX platforms carries inherent risks, but if you choose a CEX, you’re placing a lot of trust in a centralized entity.

AGI holders have already seen what can happen to CEX platforms because 43 million AGI were among the tokens stolen in a September 2020 hack targeting the KuCoin exchange.

How Do You Store AGIX?

Storing AGIX tokens depends on which blockchain you want to use. If you want AGIX on Ethereum, you need to make sure you’re using an Ethereum-compatible wallet like Metamask. For AGIX on Cardano, you can run a full-featured client like Daedalus or opt for a lighter wallet option like Yoroi instead.

If you want to transfer AGIX tokens from Ethereum to Cardano or vice versa, you can use the SingularityNET Bridge.

Is AGIX a Good Investment?

SingularityNET is a project operating at the bleeding edge of technology, but it offers a compelling proposition because it also seems to have a conscience. Rather than focus exclusively on enterprise use and make corporate wheels spin even faster, the project targets human problems using advanced technology.

It is not alone in pushing the boundaries of AI. Still, with its human-first attitude and policy of fair compensation to all stakeholders, it’s easy to understand why SingularityNET has so many cheerleaders.