Deep Funding Town Hall Meeting Report

Date: June 12, 2025

Attendees:

Priscilla (Icebreaker Host), Maria Carmo, Rafael (Deep Funding Host), Ayo O, Victor (Deep Funding), Gilvania Vilela, Justin Diamond, Guillermo Lucero, Ubio Obu, Musonda Bemba, and other community members.

Meeting Overview:

The Deep Funding Town Hall was an engaging session aimed at fostering community participation, providing updates on ongoing initiatives, and showcasing awarded projects and new ideas. The meeting featured an interactive icebreaker, an introduction to Deep Funding for new attendees, and detailed presentations from community members on their projects and proposals. A strong emphasis was placed on collaboration and the decentralized nature of Deep Funding’s mission.

Key Discussions and Presentations:

Icebreaker: $1 Million for Your Community

The Town Hall commenced with an icebreaker led by Priscilla, who prompted attendees to imagine what they would do if granted $1 million to benefit their community. Maria Carmo proposed an initiative to educate her community on crypto self-custody and marketplace usage by providing wallets with ADA. Rafael, the Deep Funding host, indicated he would invest the funds in his startup, asserting its inherent community benefit through crypto solutions. Priscilla herself shared an aspiration to establish a skill training center for youth in her community, providing essential life skills post-high school. Victor expressed a desire to improve community water access, addressing a significant local need.

Introduction to Deep Funding

Rafael then delivered a comprehensive overview of Deep Funding, defining it as a decentralized grants program committed to funding projects that align with SingularityNET’s mission of creating a democratic, decentralized, and beneficial AGI. He underscored Deep Funding’s core values—openness, creativity, collaboration, and kindness—and extended a broad invitation for all who resonate with these principles to participate. Rafael elaborated on the various avenues for community engagement, including proposing and voting on ideas, participating in the review process, engaging in discussions during Town Halls and Open All-Hands events, and joining Deep Funding’s operational circles. He also encouraged attendees to utilize the community website for booking presentations, tracking events, and applying for active roles within the circles.

Agrotech Community Hub Presentation

Maria Carmo, joined by her team members Charmaine and Daniela, presented the Agrotech Community Hub, established as Deep Funding’s official presence in Brazil. The hub’s mission is to bridge Brazilian innovators in agribusiness with AI funding opportunities, critically addressing the language barrier in a country where only 5% of the population speaks English. Maria detailed existing partnerships with Liga Agro for FIA Business Schools and the National Observatory of Blockchain, both aimed at broader outreach and recognition. She also announced new partnerships underway with significant entities like the Congress National Women Agribusiness, Embrapa (Brazilian Research Agribusiness), the Brazilian Association of Agribusiness, and AgriHub. The hub’s objectives include providing workshops and orientations, fostering community growth, facilitating international connections for Brazilian entrepreneurs, and accelerating projects. Maria highlighted ambitious targets for 2025-2026, aiming for over 100 projects in Deep Funding, coverage across 5 Brazilian regions, and 25 workshops, aspiring to establish Brazil as a global reference for AI agribusiness products. She emphasized that Brazil’s agricultural prominence and BRICS membership offer a strategic opportunity to attract international attention and funding for local entrepreneurs. Gilvania Vilela, a professor from the University of Pernambuco, Brazil, commended Maria’s work and inquired about the Blockchain Observatory’s scope, confirming its general focus on blockchain.

Decentralized Physics Simulations (Hedgework) Presentation

Justin Diamond, a Ph.D. in computer science, presented Hedgework: Decentralized Physics Simulations. He identified the challenge of fragmented and isolated physics simulations in fields like drug discovery, leading to unshared data and redundant efforts. Hedgework proposes to address this by building a decentralized protocol for advanced physics simulations, integrated with AI, leveraging the SingularityNET ecosystem. Key components include utilizing Nunet (a SingularityNET spinoff) for decentralized compute, developing core algorithms for multi-scale molecular simulations, and integrating AI and generative modeling for intelligent analysis. A tokenomics and incentive layer is planned to reward contributions of computing power, data, and algorithms. Justin elaborated on why SingularityNET is an ideal platform, citing the burgeoning biotech/drug discovery market, increased marketplace utilization, synergy with other SingularityNET projects, and its role as a proof of concept for decentralized AGI. He updated that the project is currently focused on integrating containerized services into the SingularityNET marketplace, with a platform and potential token launch targeted for 2026. During the Q&A, Gilvania Vilela asked about database accessibility and platform development, to which Justin explained federated learning for privacy-preserving data access and confirmed a platform would be developed. Rafael inquired about user acquisition strategy, which Justin clarified would be driven by tokenized incentives for compute providers and model developers. Ubio asked about the real-world applicability of drug simulations, and Guillermo questioned the funding round (Round 1) and current development stage (marketplace integration). Justin also mentioned his small team of two is looking to expand.

Meta Coders Lab Ideation RFP Presentation

Guillermo Lucero presented the Meta Coders Lab Ideation RFP, an educational program conceived within the Ambassadors Core Contributor Program’s Latam Guild. He highlighted the significant barrier to entry for learning Meta, OpenCog Hyperon’s technical language, due to a lack of introductory educational resources. The proposal aims to create a step-by-step tutorial and program for OpenCog Hyperon and Meta, initially targeting universities in Latin America. Guillermo explained that while an earlier version of the proposal didn’t fit existing funding pools, it garnered positive expert feedback emphasizing the strong need for such education, leading to its current submission as an Ideation RFP. The program is designed to cover key aspects of the Meta language, progressing from basic to complex concepts, with content available in both English and Spanish. Collaboration with the OpenCog Foundation tech team is a core part of the plan, potentially involving the Ambassadors Gamers Guild for gamification and rewards. The course material would be available for both asynchronous (recorded) and live sessions for problem resolution and feedback. Guillermo underscored the importance of this initiative for SingularityNET’s mission to attract more developers to work towards AGI as a common good, with Meta being a foundational language. During the Q&A, Rafael asked about partnerships and course format, confirming collaboration with the OpenCog Foundation and a hybrid asynchronous/live delivery. Ubio Obu expressed strong interest in collaborating, suggesting alignment with the Dev Outreach Circle and potential hackathon strategies, and invited Guillermo to follow up offline.

Homomorphic Encryption for Secure Functional Programming Presentation

Musonda Bemba presented her project on Homomorphic Encryption for Secure Functional Programming, drawing inspiration from Dr. Ben Goertzel’s work. Her project aims to extend homomorphic encryption—the ability to compute directly on encrypted data without decryption—beyond simple numbers to encompass logic and full functional programs. Musonda highlighted the urgent need for this innovation, citing the current “AI privacy crisis” where sensitive data is exposed once decrypted, and existing homomorphic encryption is limited. She explained how her approach, utilizing polynomial factors and Bounded Natural Functions (BNFs), addresses this gap, enabling secure verification of proofs and running typed logic in the cloud. She outlined significant use cases, including secure agents, encrypted smart contracts, logic as a service, and trustless governance, all aligning with SingularityNET’s mission for decentralized, intelligent, and secure systems. Musonda passionately argued for the necessity of building “encrypted intelligence before trust is lost,” positioning her proposal as the crucial “bridge” to secure, verifiable, and sustainable logic. In the Q&A, Rafael sought clarification on how AI would utilize this, with Musonda providing a practical example of personalized ads without accessing private messages. She also confirmed its compliance with tightening privacy regulations like GDPR, potentially facilitating secure data sharing. When asked about her background, Musonda shared her strong passion for mathematics, privacy ethics, and beneficial AGI as key motivations for her research, noting she is currently not in school but plans to study mathematics. Ayo also asked if Musonda was open to collaborations, which she affirmed.

Key Decisions Made:

• Security Protocol Reinforcement: Rafael emphasized that Mattermost is the only official communication channel and advised against responding to direct messages on other platforms, especially concerning sensitive information. The IT Circle will develop educational materials on self-protection against scams.
• Agrotech Community Hub Focus: Maria Carmo’s Agrotech Hub officially aims to connect Brazilian agribusiness innovators with Deep Funding opportunities, specifically targeting the Portuguese-speaking community and building high-level partnerships.
• Hedgework’s Integration Priority: Justin Diamond confirmed Hedgework’s immediate focus is on integrating containerized AI and physics services into the SingularityNET marketplace.
• Meta Coders Lab Approach: Guillermo Lucero’s proposal aims to create an asynchronous (recorded) educational program complemented by live sessions for OpenCog Hyperon and Meta, with an initial focus on Latin America and collaboration with the OpenCog Foundation.

Action Items:

• IT Circle & Security: The IT Circle will proceed with developing and disseminating educational materials to enhance community awareness and protection against scams, as highlighted by Rafael.
• Agrotech Community Hub: Maria Carmo and her team will continue expanding partnerships and executing regional workshops in Brazil, aiming for the stated targets for 2025-2026. Maria encouraged community members to help spread awareness of the hub.
• Hedgework Development: Justin Diamond and his team will continue integrating their containerized AI and physics services into the SingularityNET marketplace.
• Meta Coders Lab Collaboration: Guillermo Lucero will follow up with Ubio Obu regarding potential collaboration between Meta Coders Lab and the Dev Outreach Circle, exploring hackathon strategies and bringing OpenCog Hyperon/Deep Funding communities together.
• Presentation Sharing: Musonda Bemba to share her presentation link in the chat for attendees interested in reviewing it.
• Collaboration Opportunity: Ayo O (and others interested) can reach out to Musonda Bemba via Mattermost to explore collaboration on her Homomorphic Encryption project.
• Community Engagement: All community members are encouraged by Rafael to proactively participate by booking presentations, sharing their ideas or projects, and engaging in discussions in future Town Halls or Open All-Hands events.
• Next Governance Call: Community members are invited to join the Open All-Hands governance call next Wednesday at 2 PM UTC.