MEET OUR CODE_N CONTEST FINALISTS 2018: Cindicator headquartered in the United States

06/29/2018 | CODE_n Alumni, CODE_n18 Startup CONTEST, Interview

By combining the power of AI with the cerebral opinions and evaluation of human analysts, Cindicator, a CODE_n CONTEST finalist, is developing a Hybrid Intelligence infrastructure for the efficient management of investors’ capital in traditional financial and crypto-markets. This international startup has thus created a technological symbiosis of Man and Machines. We spoke to co-founder and CEO, Mike Brusov, who took us through Cindicator’s Hybrid Intelligence Forecasting.

Aishah: What is Cindicator all about?

Mike: Cindicator is a FinTech company that has been developing a hybrid intelligence platform since 2015. Its platform is used daily by over 105,000 highly motivated analysts in distributed locations. They make forecasts by answering questions on crypto and traditional markets. Their forecasts are collected and enhanced by a set of machine learning (ML) models and neural networks. As a result of this symbiosis of humans and AI, we create valuable analytical products that improve investment decision-making, despite high levels of uncertainty. These products are distributed exclusively to Cindicator’s token holders. The value of Cindicator’s hybrid intelligence indicators was validated in a recent experiment. We selected 45 traders from our community of 5,000 token holders to use hybrid intelligence indicators to execute 1,170 trades. Over the course of eight weeks, they generated a return of 21.53%, outperforming both Bitcoin and industry benchmarks.

Aishah: How did you come up with the idea?

Mike: Cindicator was launched in 2015 based on a hypothesis that a group of individuals could make more accurate forecasts than any individual expert. This approach was successfully validated in 2017 during a pilot project with the Moscow Exchange when the collective intelligence of 863 participants generated a return of 47% p.a. The Cindicator team ascertained that a small group of forecasters consistently delivers more accurate answers. To identify these “super-forecasters” and give more weight to their opinions, we devised more than 12 machine learning (ML) models. This resulted in indicators that were 50% more accurate compared to a simple average of all forecasts. In March, Cindicator’s community of analysts generated over 400,000 data points. These enabled us to launch our first neural network. This network identifies complex non-linear relationships between different ML models. Since it was introduced, the accuracy of indicators has increased to over 60%.

Aishah: What are you trying to solve?

Mike: Cindicator helps solve the problems faced when making decisions in extremely uncertain circumstances. Financial markets (especially the crypto market) are irrational, and this makes it difficult for investors and traders to make decisions. Moreover, market uncertainty usually results in substantial losses. Cindicator’s hybrid intelligence indicators currently focus on two investment strategies: discretionary trading and token sale investments. Market indicators support discretionary trading (whereby traders enter into short-term trades). Cindicator’s Token Sale Review (TSR) identifies the most promising token sales for long-term sustainability. Additionally, TSR helps investors to plan appropriate exit strategies.

Aishah: How is hybrid intelligence different from artificial intelligence? How do you see the market for what you are doing, who are your competitors and how do you think this area of the market will evolve?

Mike: Hybrid intelligence combines the insights of thousands of individual analysts with artificial intelligence. Only humans are capable of creative and lateral thinking, but at the same time we are all driven by our emotions. Machine learning helps to enhance collective wisdom by filtering out bias. At the core of the hybrid intelligence ecosystem lies our highly incentivized analyst community. This gives us a unique data set. Our analysts generate over 400,000 data points every month. We believe that hybrid intelligence valuable has a wide range of applications for making decisions when faced with high uncertainty, from the world of politics to corporate investments, scientific research, and many other areas. So instead of thinking about potential competition, we focus on potential partnerships. We are currently building a Cindicator Symbiotic Network, which will bring together sustainable companies and startups with the aim of adding value and strengthening our ecosystem. Only by working together can we create solutions that will address the major challenges we will all face as humans over the coming decades.

Aishah: Thanks for the interview Mike!

Meet Cindicator at the new.New Festival 2018 this fall, in Stuttgart!