Numeraire (NMR)
Numerai is an AI-driven, crowdsourced hedge fund based in San Francisco, established by South African technologist Richard Craib in October 2015. It operates using Artificial Intelligence powered by a network of anonymous data scientists. The ecosystem is supported by Numeraire (NMR), an ERC-20 token.
Overview
Numerai hosts a competition where data scientists develop models to predict financial market trends. Participants can stake Numeraire Tokens (NMR) on their predictions, with successful models earning rewards. Richard Craib emphasizes the staking of NMR to ensure only high-quality models are submitted. Numerai has been recognized with awards such as the 2016 Forbes Fintech 50. In March 2017, Numerai launched an API to facilitate global prediction submissions from machine learning models for hedge fund enhancements.
| Ticker | NMR |
| Category | Artificial Intelligence (AI) |
| Website | https://numer.ai/ |
| @numerai | |
| https://www.reddit.com/r/numerai | |
| Contract Addresses | |
|---|---|
| ethereum | 0x17...71 Copied! |
| energi | 0xd7...a2Copied! |
Numerai categories
Tournament
Numerai organizes a weekly tournament where data scientists receive encrypted datasets representing stock market data. These professionals build machine learning algorithms to detect patterns and submit their predictions to Numerai. Successful models earn rewards in Ether, while underperforming models result in the destruction of staked NMR.
Signals
Numerai aggregates the submitted models into a meta-model that influences its hedge fund's trading decisions. This approach leverages the collective intelligence of data scientists to refine trading strategies.
Numerai metamodel
The metamodel concept is based on using diverse, uncorrelated models to predict financial markets with high accuracy and low variance. The originality of each input signal is compared against others. At NumerCon 2023, Richard Craib elaborated on the principles guiding the metamodel's operation, emphasizing metrics such as CORR (correlation), FNC (feature neutral correlation), and TC (True Contribution). True Contribution evaluates the overall impact of predictions within Numerai's system, likened to a neural network.
Technology
Erasure protocol
In October 2018, Numerai introduced the Erasure Protocol, a set of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. This protocol rewards or destroys staked NMR based on prediction outcomes, creating a transparent record of prediction histories. Platforms using Erasure include Erasure Quant, a decentralized app for crowdsourcing predictions, and ErasureBay, an open information marketplace.
Dataset
Numerai's dataset comprises regularized financial data for its tournament, which allows participants to build machine learning models without financial expertise. The data is sourced from various providers and is continually updated. The latest version, V4.3, released in January 2024, includes 244 new features, totaling 2376.
Products
Numerai One
Numerai One is the flagship market-neutral fund, offering consistent returns across different market conditions. It maintains a diversified portfolio that is neutral in terms of market, country, sector, and factor.
Numerai Supreme
Numerai Supreme, launched in August 2022, builds upon the Numerai One framework to provide higher returns with increased volatility. It achieves this through a concentrated portfolio while maintaining market neutrality.
NMR token
NMR is a digital token used within the Numerai network, built on the Ethereum blockchain following the ERC-20 standard. Initially issued in 2017 without an ICO, one million NMR tokens were distributed to data scientists based on their contributions to Numerai Tournaments. The maximum supply is 11,000,000 tokens, with a portion locked until 2028 for rewarding tournament participants. Weekly token burns occur when participants lose their staked NMR in competitions.
Funding
On April 6, 2016, Numerai secured $6 million in a Series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures. In December 2016, it received $1.5 million in Seed funding from notable investors. In March 2019, Numerai raised $11 million from a token sale led by Paradigm and Placeholder VC. Subsequent funding rounds included a $3 million NMR token sale in June 2020 and a $10 million Series B round in February 2023, led by Richard Craib, FJ Labs, Shine Capital, and Union Square Ventures.
Team
The Numerai team is led by founder and CEO Richard Craib, with key members including CTO Anson Chu, COO Dan Spier, MD Rich Allen, and Director of Portfolio Management Rui Tang. The team also comprises experts in data analysis, science, and operations, such as Michael Phillips, Michael Oliver, Dennis X., Bryant Luu, and Ubajaka Chijioke.