AIs will organize using DAOs on public blockchains like Ethereum, says BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes

Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of crypto exchange BitMEX, believes artificial intelligence (AIs) will use decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to organize themselves. In a blog post, Hayes wrote:

“The DAO structure will allow AIs and humans to collaborate and serve as the organisational structure that allows the AI + human economy to grow and flourish.”

Since companies need to register with the government, they cannot exist or operate without compliance with the laws, Hayes explained. So, to “ensure it isn’t beholden to human laws, the AI cannot use any form of organization that depends on the state to function,” he wrote.

Therefore, AIs will only follow rules written in “transparent, public computer code” and immutable, like smart contracts used by DAOs and deployed on public blockchains, allowing anyone to inspect the code. Without such contracts it would not be possible to prove or even realize if an AI is violating the terms of a transaction, Hayes wrote.

Furthermore, Hayes predicted that AI-powered DAOs will use decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to raise funds by issuing tokens, overcoming the fundraising challenges faced by traditional companies. Therefore, the DAO capital markets will become the “first truly global markets” and DEXs that facilitate the trading of tokens created by DAOs will emerge as monopolies, he wrote, adding:

“The AIs who create DAOs cannot be coerced by the state, and therefore, exchanges that trade all flavors of tokens created by DAOs will likely become natural monopolies.”

A “handful of DEXs” will enjoy monopoly status over trading specific types of tokens. Investors who can identify such DEXs and purchase their governance tokens are likely to earn “beaucoup profits,” he believes.

He added that middleware layers would “help visualize the accounts of AI DAOs” and become crucial to the “well-functioning AI DAO capital markets,” he added.

However, Hayes said his prediction does not spell the end for centralized exchanges (CEXs). On the contrary, he believes that some people and entities will always prefer and remain loyal to CEXs.

Ethereum prices are set to ‘skyrocket’

According to Hayes, no blockchain, no matter how similar it is to Ethereum, “will ever eclipse Ethereum in terms of adoption and usefulness.” It is worth noting, however, that Hayes is a self-proclaimed Ethereum maximalist. 

Ethereum would be the most obvious choice for AIs to deploy DAOs since Ethereum Virtual Machines are the “most widely used,” Hayes claimed. As DAOs proliferate, Ethereum transactions will “grow exponentially,” largely driven by the increasing trading volumes on DEXs, which would boost ETH prices.

He noted:

“As a result, the price of ETH should skyrocket in anticipation if this AI DAO hypothesis is widely believed.”