The iPhone 16 Crypto - Coming this Fall?

Will September’s forthcoming iPhone 16 be the turning point for blockchain and crypto for the masses? Short answer: no. Also, what the hell does blockchain / crypto have to do with forthcoming iPhones and iOSs? Short answer: not much. (And does anybody even care about blockchain and crypto anymore? Short answer: eyeroll, though they should.) But something is sort of happening - right under our watchful (rolling) eyes.

TLDR: the forthcoming iPhone+iOS might provide a glimpse of what an integrated AI experience could be; and blockchain+ zero knowledge proofs could eventually underpin the future infrastructure to maintain data privacy to make this scale. Hear me out….

iOS18 was announced in early June with the requisite pomp and circumstance; and so was Apple Intelligence (i.e., AI), Apple’s moniker for artificial intelligence (i.e., AI). Tim&Co. allocated a fair amount of discussion to privacy - user data privacy, to be specific. Eyeroll…..

BUT there’s something about how Apple focused on user data privacy and how they’re doing it. Specifically, Apple alluded to its own Apple Private Cloud (notably no “i”) Compute with Apple servers and Apple silicon that will store this data and keep it safe in its very Apple-y way so any AI, generative or otherwise, can’t infiltrate and steal and create Skynet or HAL9000 or Borg or some metadystopic mash-up of all of them run by O’Brien / O’Connor (cross medium literary / cinema reference to 1984, thank you very much).?

BUT is that really any different from what AWS and Microsoft and GCP and CoreWeave (et al) do with user / customer data? Not really. Nevertheless, what AI (i.e., Apple Intelligence) will do is give people (the aforementioned masses) a taste of what a truly integrated artificial intelligence (i.e., AI) experience will look and feel like when data is shared between apps and Apple and Siri’s logic and so forth and so on.

BUT where Apple made the very real and earnest point was about not exposing user data to potential risk or potential Apple or 3rd party shenanigans. And if we just trust (only) Apple to manage different apps and datasets talking to each other, Apple will make sure to keep that data safe and not exposed to other people that own those and other apps and datasets - like, practically magic. There’s a sliver of the population that hates and fears Apple and will never trust it to remain neutral. (You know this sliver - their messages show up green on your iPhone.) But for the most part, the masses trust Apple.

BUT to have different datasets talking to each other and making decisions on each other’s data on a (much) grander scale so that together they can deliver better experiences (see: Her or J.A.R.V.I.S.; or Rosie or Vicki…) and products and services that harness the true power or AI (be it AI; i.e., Apple Intelligence, or AI; i.e., artificial intelligence) and still maintain some semblance of privacy and security, there needs to be a way for these applications and datasets to interact without compromising said data. Enter: zero knowledge proofs (ZKPs); crypto maxis, this is your cue to (smugly) drool.

BUT in our AI discussion above it could mean that these AIs are making decisions and generating content based on your (owned) data, but without actually having any access to or storage of that data - ever.? Crazy? Yah. Possible? Maybe. ??♂??

BUT will this solve all of the privacy issues and is blockchain / crypto even necessary as part of a solution? Honestly, I don’t know.?

BUT if the answer is something akin to “yes,” then making this blockchain and crypto based next gen infrastructure a reality will require some, nay, lots of things to align. What’s next? Easy - ask your kids. (Answer coming soon.)