Ethereum Could Decentralize AI, Says Former Core Developer Eric Connor

Ethereum Could Be AI’s Key to Decentralization, Says Former Core Dev

A former Ethereum core developer, Eric Connor, believes Ethereum may hold the answer to one of AI’s most pressing challenges: centralization. In a post on X dated April 15, Connor outlined how Ethereum’s transparent and decentralized infrastructure could help fix AI’s growing “black box” issue.

Ethereum Offers an Alternative to Big Tech’s AI

Connor argues that AI is rapidly becoming omnipresent in every aspect of modern life but is still constrained by black-box algorithms and centralized frameworks. Ethereum, on the other hand, offers open smart contracts and verifiable contracts, decentralized infrastructure, token incentives, and micropayment systems with integration.

These traits would bring accountability into AI model training, what it is trained on, and how decisions are made—topics now veiled behind proprietary processes. “Ethereum already has the ethos with openness, collaboration and trust minimization,” Connor wrote.

Resistance From Big Tech Is Expected

Although Ethereum has promise, Connor conceded that big AI players will not adopt open-source models willingly. “They profit from secrets and control,” he claimed. However, greater demand for fairness, transparency, and ownership of data may cause a tide shift in favor of decentralized sites like Ethereum.

Building for the Future of AI

Connor emphasized proactive growth: tooling, research, and actual-world implementation that makes Ethereum interesting for AI developers. Adopting Ethereum could go well beyond finance if it is successful, into the broader tech ecosystem.

Connor left the Ethereum community in January to focus on AI projects due to concerns over the leadership vision of the network.

Agentic AI Is Already Emerging on Ethereum

The Ethereum blog recently caught on to its growing relevance to agentic AI—a new class of independent software agents that can learn, choose, and communicate with blockchains.

Projects like Luna, a wallet-holding virtual influencer that resides onchain; AIXBT, a crypto market analytics AI; and Botto, a decentralized artist that employs AI and community suggestion, are already demonstrating real-world use cases.

Other businesses, such as Bankr and HeyAnon, are bringing blockchain to humans via chat interfaces, in which users can conduct transactions and manage wallets by natural language.

As blockchain meets AI, Ethereum could find itself at the edge of a new technology horizon—one defined by decentralization, rather than centralization, but by transparency, collaboration, and self-governance.