Itheum and Numbers Protocol Partner for Data Provenance & Authenticity: The Future of AI

5 min readJul 25, 2024

Addressing the Challenge of Data Authenticity in the AI Era

One of the critical issues and important problems to solve in today’s super rapidly evolving digital space is the authenticity and provenance of data, especially in the AI industry and content-consuming platforms. AI systems and models rely on huge amounts of data, and collecting the data is just one of the challenges, but ensuring the data is reliable and authentic is paramount. Detecting fake or manipulated content and data at internet scale and speed remains a significant challenge. Traditional methods of verifying data authenticity like watermarking or metadata verification are becoming obsolete due to the sophistication of manipulation software and the ease with which metadata can be altered.

A Partnership for the Future of Decentralized Data

We are excited to announce the partnership between Itheum, a decentralized platform enabling true data ownership via seamless data asset tokenization and data brokerage solutions, and Numbers Protocol, an open and decentralized protocol designed to ensure provenance for all types of creative works created by humans and AI. This collaboration was created to address the challenges of provenance and authenticity of the data and marks a significant milestone in Itheum’s V2 narrative: “Data for the AI Era,” focusing specifically on the gaming data for the AI industry.

Shared Vision and Values

Itheum and Numbers Protocol share a common vision of a decentralized digital ecosystem where content is created, owned, and distributed by individuals in a permissionless environment. Both entities are committed to upholding the principles of transparency, accountability, and fairness, which are essential in combating misinformation and fostering innovation while respecting intellectual property and public trust.

The Importance of Data & Content Provenance

Data and content provenance refers to the trustworthy facts about the origins of a piece of digital data, such as who created it and how, when, and where it was created or edited. Provenance information is crucial for addressing misinformation, as it provides a transparent record of a content’s origin and transformations. By integrating C2PA metadata, Itheum and Numbers Protocol will ensure that the authenticity and provenance of data are preserved, promoting trust and integrity in the digital ecosystem.

A History of Collaboration

The initial stages of the partnership between Itheum and Numbers Protocol were created through the shared membership of both protocols in the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity ( C2PA ). This alliance paved the way for their collaboration and led to Itheum joining the “Creative Origin — Ethical and Responsible AI Alliance” as a founding member. This alliance is dedicated to advancing ethical AI development and ensuring users maintain control and ownership of their creative content.

An important initiative in the AI Era is the Creative Origin Alliance, a coalition of protocols emphasizing the need for transparency, accountability, and fairness. The alliance advocates for the responsible use of AI, recommending open standards and open-source technologies to enhance user benefits. By promoting interoperability, security, and transparency, the alliance aims to restore trust in technology and ensure the integrity of digital media.

Alliance members are tasked with upholding the principles of the AI Act, which include maintaining high standards of robustness in AI systems and prioritizing the control and ownership of user data. This collaborative platform emphasizes a community-driven approach to developing protocols and technologies, ensuring innovation is accessible, transparent, and beneficial to all stakeholders.

What’s Coming: Future Milestones

The next significant milestone in the Itheum and Numbers Protocol partnership is the integration of Numbers Protocol to inject C2PA metadata into Itheum Data NFT assets. This will allow existing and new Itheum Data Creators to opt into C2PA metadata-based provenance protection for their Data NFTs. This integration will enhance the reliability of digital content and empower individuals to maintain control and ownership of their data and creative content.

Further milestones will include exploring the possibility of using Numbers Protocol-driven C2PA metadata injections on “bulk” dynamic data pools that will be collected and governed by Itheum’s Data Coalition DAOs. For example, The Itheum Gamer Passport, which will unlock behavioral gamer data, can be aggregated into pools of high-value data and have C2PA metadata injected into snapshots of the dynamic data being collected. Achieving a pragmatic solution for this will be highly valuable to AI companies that procure bulk data for training their AI models, as they will be able to transparently provide the provenance of the sourced data pools.

About Numbers Protocol

Numbers Protocol offers blockchain solutions for verifying and tracking digital content. Based in major cities globally, its flagship product, Capture, provides comprehensive tools for content verification, copyright protection, and monetization, supporting creators and businesses in securing their digital assets.

About Itheum

The Itheum Protocol provides omni-chain Data NFT infrastructure to power the AI economy with your data. Data NFTs resemble regular NFTs but enable unique interactions that generate real-world data. This data is aggregated and offered to the data-hungry AI industry for extra rewards. Besides Data NFTs, Itheum offers an on-chain reputation product called Liveliness, a hybrid of ‘proof of humanity’ and ‘proof of activity,’ which assesses the value of your data. Additionally, Itheum features “Data Coalition DAOs,” which are bulk data collection and curation DAOs that facilitate data trades with AI companies. Itheum is a comprehensive blockchain data infrastructure for both enterprise and retail, aiming to become the flagship data platform for the AI era.

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About Creative Origin Allianz

As we advance into the AI Internet era, driven by data and interconnectedness, transparency, accountability, and fairness are essential principles for combating misinformation and fostering innovation. Numbers Protocol, with its alliance partners (which includes Itheum as a founding partner), is forming a new decentralized alliance dedicated to ethical AI development, ensuring users retain control and ownership of their creative content. This initiative supports open standards and open-source technologies to enhance interoperability, security, and transparency, ultimately building a robust and credible digital ecosystem. By promoting decentralized governance, the alliance aims to restore trust in technology and uphold the ethical use of AI, aligning with the AI Act’s guidelines for a more inclusive and equitable AI future.