Plato, the popular Eat2Earn platform, has taken a significant step forward by integrating with the NEAR Blockchain to bring advanced user-owned AI capabilities to its native crypto restaurant App. This groundbreaking move offers users full control over their data and interactions, aligning with the core principles of decentralization and user sovereignty.
The integration of user-owned AI within Plato’s platform aims to redefine the dining experience for everyday eaters in the dynamic food marketplace. By leveraging AI-driven features, Plato Eats dApp users can contribute to a comprehensive dataset centered on food, backed by purchase verification and participation from individuals across more than 90 countries. Incentivized through on-chain reputations and rewards, users have the opportunity to post reviews post-dining, enabling personalized recommendations via the AskPlato interface.
Robert Kao, co-founder of Plato, expressed excitement about the collaboration with NEAR, stating that Plato is aligning with NEAR’s vision of a web3-enabled AI ecosystem. The NEAR Foundation is developing the underlying AI infrastructure to support features such as data collection, crowdsourcing, and novel ways of monetization, ensuring the verifiability of training and inference processes.
Jarrod Barnes, Head of Founder Success at NEAR Foundation, highlighted the transformative capabilities of NEAR’s infrastructure in real-world applications, emphasizing the enhancement of the dining experience for users worldwide. With over 15 million restaurants supported globally and a user base of over 25,000 monthly users, Plato Eats dApp has seen remarkable growth in engagement, with a month-over-month user growth of 179% and a significant 395% growth in new dining sessions.
The integration with NEAR also paves the way for broader multi-chain integration within the Plato app, allowing users to swap USDC across multiple chains and access approved Web3 tokens for in-app purchases. This collaboration marks a significant milestone for both Plato and NEAR, showcasing the potential for innovative solutions in the food industry and beyond.
