We’re thrilled to launch Exploring the AI Rainforest, a podcast dedicated to the thinkers, builders, and dreamers reshaping our world at the intersection of artificial intelligence, decentralized finance, verifiable data, and reputation systems. Each episode features deep conversations with guests pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, and our very first guest is the perfect embodiment of that spirit.

With over 300 academic papers and 5,000+ citations to his name, Dr. Piet Martens is no stranger to innovation. An astrophysicist by training, Piet spent decades researching solar physics, forecasting space weather, and building machine learning models to protect astronauts from high-energy solar radiation.

In this inaugural episode, we talk with Piet about:

• His early fascination with the space race and decision to pursue astrophysics

• The evolution of his research, from pen-and-paper equations to predictive AI models for solar flares

• A curated database of solar flare data now being used to protect space missions — including trips to the Moon

• The challenge of forecasting solar energetic particles with just one hour’s notice — and how that one hour can save lives

• His role in developing the Virtual Solar Observatory, one of the earliest large-scale open data tools in the field

More recently, Piet has ventured into decentralized finance (DeFi), contributing to the development of zScore, a new decentralized reputation and credit scoring model for blockchain finance. Inspired by his daughter’s work in blockchain development, Piet brings his experience in AI and data science to a space that’s still defining its standards of trust.

We discuss:

• Why credit scoring in blockchain is fundamentally different — and broken in many regions of the world

• How AI can surface meaningful behavioral patterns without relying on traditional finance gatekeepers.

• How zScore clusters wallet behaviors and assigns scores using unsupervised learning — without needing historical credit data as a baseline.

• Why this work is especially relevant in 2025, as DeFi matures and accountability becomes increasingly critical.

Piet’s story is one of constant reinvention — guided by curiosity, a love of physics, and a willingness to apply deep expertise in entirely new domains. He reflects on AI’s real limitations (and its overblown hype), why good data still matters more than flashy models, and what he hopes to keep working on after retirement — possibly from a café in southern Spain.

This is a rich, thoughtful conversation that connects space science, machine learning, and the decentralized future of finance. Whether you’re an AI researcher, a DeFi builder, or just someone fascinated by how science evolves, you’ll find something meaningful in this episode.

🎧 Listen now on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tTPp3lKsVFA

🔗 Subscribe to the podcast: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/67f829aba77ecf0ae5a8a651