2025 Featured Speakers
Connect with leading experts, researchers, and contributors from the blockchain and AI industries at the ML & Blockchain Research Summit. Discover valuable insights and innovations from the sector's foremost voices.
Summit 2025 Agenda
We're still fine-tuning our schedule to make sure everything is just right. Please note that the agenda may change slightly. Thank you for your understanding—stay tuned for the latest updates!
| Time (PST) | Topic | Speaker(s) | Abstract |
9:00 AM – 9:15 AM | Opening Remarks | A warm welcome to kick off the day, setting the vision for a future where decentralized systems and AI drive innovation. | |
9:15 AM – 9:45AM | Summit 2025 Keynote | To be announced | Summit 2025 Keynote |
9:45 AM - 10:15 AM | Coming Soon | Michele Catasta, Replit | |
10:15 AM - 10:45 AM | Privacy-Preserving AI Compute with Decentralized Verification | Raluca Ada Popa, Berkeley | With compute resources for AI being scarce, users are increasingly leveraging decentralized systems. However, users need to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of their data on these systems. In this talk, I will overview our approach of privacy-preserving AI computation with decentralized verification. Our techniques combine shared security based on restaking, hardware enclaves, and encrypted RAG retrieval. |
10:45 AM - 11:15 AM | Algorithmic Aspects of Decentralized Exchanges | Ashish Goel, Stanford | Given the decentralized nature of blockchain infrastructure, there has been great interest in decentralized exchanges for cryptocurrencies. In this talk, we will discuss some of the algorithmic issues that arise in the design of these exchanges. We will start by describing how batch exchanges which simultaneously clear multiple assets can address issues of low liquidity, and present an algorithmic framework for pricing and matching in this setting.We will then discuss Constant Function Market Makers (CFMMs), which provide liquidity between a pair of assets by maintaining a liquidity pool and doing algorithmic pricing. We present an optimization framework for optimum design of Constant Function Market Makers (CFMMs), and show how CFMMs can be integrated as participants in a batch exchange. |
11:15 AM - 11:45 AM | The Rise of Autonomous Commerce | Christoph Niemann, AWS | This presentation will explore the integration of AI agents with digital assets, focusing on leveraging Amazon Bedrock to create a powerful, private knowledge base for real-time crypto data access and transactions. The presenter will detail the architecture for building an intelligent Web3 agent that understands user intent, automates complex processes, and interacts with blockchain networks. Key technical aspects include the development of AI-driven systems as autonomous economic actors, such as crypto trading bots, smart wallets, self-managing DAOs, and IoT-enabled micropayments. This talk will demonstrate how to enable conversational, automatic trading and personalized insights while maintaining security and reliability in the digital asset landscape. By combining Amazon Bedrock with Web3 technologies, the presentation showcases how AI agents can revolutionize user experience in crypto interactions, making them more intuitive and efficient through natural language commands and automated wallet management. |
11:45 AM - 12:45 PM | Panel Discussion: AI for Blockchain | Moderator: Anand lyer, Lightspeed Venture Partners | |
12:45 PM - 1:15 PM | Towards an Agentic Internet | Erik Reppel, Coinbase | The explosion of agents has brought light to a fundamental problem of the internet: the highest value actions are hidden away from the public internet. In a human operated, narrow internet this has been an inconvenience, but now this fact is one of the largest limiters for truly autonomous agents. In his talk Erik will discuss how we get from where we are, to a fully composable, agent friendly internet, and crypto’s important role in making that transition. |
1:15 - 1:45 PM | The Roadmap to a User-Owned AI Model | Illia Potushkin, NEAR | “Attention Is All You Need” coauthor and NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin shares a vision for User-Owned AI, or AI whose value function optimizes users' wellbeing and privacy, not corporate profits. User-Owned AI provides a business model for open source AI while letting users and companies retain control of their data. Illia shares how blockchain and TEE together enable this future and shares the roadmap to a state-of-the-art, user-owned model that is transparent, decentralized, and upgradable. |
1:45 PM - 2:15 PM | The API Privacy Paradox: How LLM APIs Unintentionally Reveal Model Details | Xiang Ren, USC and Sahara AI | Model APIs serve as gateways to powerful large language models (LLM) while protecting proprietary details. However, subtle signals in API outputs — such as log probabilities and token rankings — can unintentionally reveal critical model attributes, including hidden layer sizes, parameter structure, and even embedding subspace. This talk presents how adversaries can exploit API outputs to infer these hidden properties and discusses mitigation strategies, from modifying API designs to rethinking model architectures. We also examine whether such leaks pose a security risk or offer opportunities for model verification and accountability. Ultimately, we aim to strike a balance between API transparency, trust, and security in LLM deployment. |
2:15 PM - 3:15 PM | Panel Discussion: Blockchain for AI | Moderator: Yuga Cohler, Coinbase | |
3:15 PM - 3:45 PM | Practical and Extensible Decentralised Identity Management | Salil Kanhere, UNSW | Professor Salil Kanhere (UNSW, Australia) explains Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) through CredChain, a blockchain platform for secure and selective credential sharing. He also introduces the Verifiable Credential-based Trust Propagation Protocol (VCTP), enabling individuals to act as trusted issuers. |
3:45 PM - 4:15 PM | Achieving Network Effects in the Open-Source AI Era | Jasper Zhang, Hyperbolic | Jasper will be explaining the rise of open-source AI and its implications on how growth and proliferation of novel technologies is achieved. He will also touch on how to create proper incentivization mechanisms in decentralized ecosystems and why compute should be user-owned and controlled. |
4:15 PM - 4:30 PM | Concluding Remarks | Rajarshi Gupta, Coinbase | Thank you all for joining us—let’s carry today’s insights forward as we build the future of AI and blockchain together. |
2024 Summit Highlight
Watch the 2024 Fireside Chat with Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, and Rajarshi Gupta, Head of ML at Coinbase.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will the event take place?
The event is scheduled for Thursday, May 8, 2025.
Is the event being held in person or virtually?
The event will be held virtually, allowing attendees to participate from anywhere.
How can I register for the event?
Registration for the 2025 event is now open—secure your spot today!
Is there a fee to attend the event?
No, attendance is free for the Coinbase Machine Learning & Blockchain Research Summit 2025.
What topics will be covered during the event?
We are finalizing the agenda and speaker lineup for the 2025 summit and will share details soon.
Who can I contact if I have more questions?
If you have any questions or require additional information about the Coinbase Machine Learning and Blockchain Research Summit 2025, please fill out this contact form. Our team will review your inquiry and respond as soon as possible. This is the fastest way to get assistance regarding the event.