Erik Voorhees, a prominent cryptocurrency figure and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift, has launched a privacy-focused artificial intelligence platform called Venice.
Venice provides services such as generative conversations and image creation, but does not hold user data. Venice also aims to omit all forms of censorship from its platform. Voorhees serves as the company’s CEO, while Teana Baker-Taylor, a former vice president at stablecoin issuer Circle, has taken on the COO role.
Voorhees is the company’s sole investor and tells The Block that Venice has no need for external financing. The company currently employs six people.
Voorhees points out that while privacy and user sovereignty underpin Venice, it is not a cryptocurrency app. However, the platform uses blockchain for permissionless payments in addition to web3 infrastructure for local browser storage and end-to-end encryption. “Venice will leverage the Morpheus decentralized AI network at launch, and anyone who already holds MOR tokens will have access to a free Pro account,” Voorhees added.
Baker-Taylor previously served as Circle’s Vice President of Policy and Regulatory Strategy for Europe, Middle East and Africa from May 2022 to February 2024. She was also the UK Director of cryptocurrency exchange Binance and the UK General Manager of the cryptocurrency exchange. She has positions such as com.
“I believe that privacy is a human right that is being threatened not only by governments, but also by commercial models that leverage our data for their own gain,” Baker-Taylor told The Block. “Policymakers oversee how we spend our money. Our thoughts and expression of our ideas should not be the next thing for governments to rule or corporations to profit from. At Venice, we respect our users and You don’t want to spy on them, you can’t use their data or ideas or sell it to third parties.”
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