In this episode, Soheil sits down with Rowan, former Director of On-Chain Business Development at Coinbase and Co-Founder of Sapien, to discuss his journey from launching Base as a scrappy six-person team within a major public company to recognizing the critical importance of data quality in AI training and the untapped potential of applying crypto-economic incentives to solve artificial intelligence's most fundamental safety challenges.

Rowan's path from Base to Sapien illustrates the evolution from blockchain infrastructure to AI safety. At Coinbase, he helped transform Base from a minimal-budget experiment into a thriving ecosystem that exceeded revenue projections by 10x, built on the OP Stack to create shared technical standards. The transition to Sapien addresses a critical gap in AI development: current industry practices rely on low-paid workers with centralized quality control, producing inferior results that scale poorly. Sapien's "Proof of Quality" protocol applies proof-of-stake economics to data creation, where contributors stake reputation and tokens against their work quality, enabling higher compensation while creating immutable records of data provenance.

The stakes extend beyond efficiency to existential AI safety concerns. Poor training data can cause autonomous vehicles to miss stop signs or robots to interact dangerously with their environment, making quality a life-and-death issue. Working with clients from automotive manufacturers to the United Nations, Sapien focuses on 3D and 4D datasets where AI meets physical reality. The vision encompasses immediate improvements – enabling global workers to earn $10 per hour rather than subsistence wages – while ensuring AI development follows a path toward human flourishing rather than catastrophic outcomes.

📣📣📣 Building something exciting & want to come on the show or collaborate with us? 

Email us at  👉👉 business@teachmedefi.de 👈👈 or DM us on X:

https://www.twitter.com/teachmedefi

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

Guest Links / Additional Material:

Rowan‘s Twitter: https://x.com/rowanrk6 

Sapien Twitter: https://x.com/JoinSapien 

Sapien website: https://www.sapien.io/ 

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

▸ Find us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@teachmedefi

▸ Find us on  𝕏: https://x.com/TEACHMEDEFI

▸ Find us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/TEACHMEDEFI

▸ Find us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@teachmedefi_official

▸ Find us on Podcast Streaming Sites: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/teachmedefi

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction and sponsor message

01:40 - Rowan's background and on-chain business development at Coinbase

04:30 - Base's origin story and OP Stack strategy

08:30 - Base's scrappy launch and early success

11:30 - AI safety concerns and the data quality problem

13:20 - Sapien's founding and Proof of Quality protocol

18:00 - Quality control through community validation

21:40 - Evolution from data labeling to 3D/4D datasets

27:30 - Autonomous vehicle data: Tesla vs. Waymo approaches

31:50 - Gaming community's role in 3D data annotation

36:00 - Economic model and token distribution

40:00 - Staking rewards and DAO structure

42:30 - Views on the decentralized AI landscape

45:00 - Six-month roadmap and credibility building

--------------

Disclaimer:

TEACHMEDEFI is a provider of entertainment and opinions. We are neither a broker/dealer nor an investment advisor. This is not a service for issuing or receiving financial or investment advice. None of our content constitutes a recommendation – or should be understood as such – to conduct transactions in securities, cryptocurrencies, or crypto-assets, or to engage in any of the investment strategies presented in our discussions or provided content. We do not provide personalized recommendations or views on whether a stock, cryptocurrency, crypto-asset, or investment approach is suitable for the financial needs of a particular individual.