Numerai has given one million tokens of its cryptocurrency, Numeraire, to its 12,000 data scientist contributors to encourage them collaborate on creating and running an artificial-intelligence hedge fund. The currency is linked to the value generated by the fund, and its use is expected to produce a network effect of more collaboration and participation. “AI will be central in our future as we move from being just another consumer product into becoming part of society,” said Dan Morehead, chief executive officer at Numerai.
Numerai has given one million tokens of its cryptocurrency, Numeraire, to its 12,000 data scientist contributors to encourage them collaborate on creating and running an artificial-intelligence hedge fund. The currency is linked to the value generated by the fund, and its use is expected to produce a network effect of more collaboration and participation. Previously scientists were paid in bitcoin, which turned out to discourage collaboration as individuals had no incentive to bring others in to work on the system for fear of increasing competition for a finite pool of rewards.