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Artificial intelligence (AI) is being quickly incorporated into business operations, but worries about possible legal repercussions are mounting. Raj Kapoor, Founder of the India Blockchain Alliance (IBA), spoke exclusively at AIBC Eurasia 2026 in Dubai, cautioned that businesses could suffer large financial losses if AI systems use unreliable data or break copyright and intellectual property regulations.
Kapoor highlighted that many risks remain unnoticed until legal action is taken, at which point the impact can be severe. He emphasised the need for stronger compliance and oversight as AI adoption accelerates across industries.
Walk into any tech conference and the question seems to find you before you even take your seat: is artificial intelligence coming for blockchain, or are the two quietly building something together? The debate has been loud and persistent, fuelled by AI’s dominance of headlines and investor attention. But Kapoor is quick to dismiss the idea. For him, the tension is overstated, and the narrative of rivalry misses the bigger picture of how the two technologies are increasingly positioned to complement, rather than compete with, one another.
“AI is the brain, blockchain is the spine,” he said. “They can’t work without each other. They have to coexist.”
Just as blockchain rose to mainstream consciousness on the back of Bitcoin’s rebellious energy, generative AI found its moment in the sun with ChatGPT. Both technologies, Kapoor pointed out, have been around far longer than most people realise.
“Machine learning and AI have been there for 40, 50, 60 years, almost. But ChatGPT, generative AI, and now agentic AI made it very palatable,” he said.
But beyond the hype, Kapoor sees intrinsic value in both and, more importantly, in how they complement each other. AI moves fast and processes at scale. Blockchain keeps it honest. “While AI can go random, blockchain keeps it in check.”
For businesses rushing to adopt AI, Kapoor has a word of caution wrapped inside an opportunity. Many companies jump onto the AI bandwagon without stopping to ask: Are we violating any laws, any copyrights, any intellectual property rights?
“They start creating AI products. And then all the millions of dollars they put into the system become zero because somebody’s filed a lawsuit,” he warned.
This is exactly where blockchain steps in. According to Kapoor, blockchain audits every step of the AI process, from where the data came from, to how it was used to train large language models, to the veracity of the information fed into the system.
“It’s like an auditor. It keeps that check,” he said. “If businesses incorporate both of these, they will be much better off because then one balances the other. There are checks and balances in place.”
Without that balance, he believes both technologies remain dangerously opaque. “It’s the Wild West for both of them. Both technologies don’t have many rules and regulations, clarity, both are opaque, people can have a ball.”
Source: AIBC World/YouTube.
Blockchain is one of the climate debate’s most contradictory technologies. A United Nations University-backed analysis found Bitcoin mining used about 173 terawatt hours of electricity in 2020–2021 and generated roughly 85.89 million tonnes of CO2, with 67 per cent of that electricity coming from fossil fuels. Yet the same underlying tech is also being used to support climate accountability, with the European Commission pointing to blockchain’s potential to improve emissions tracking, transparency and traceability across supply chains.
Ethereum shows how quickly the picture can change. After moving to proof-of-stake, the network cut its energy use by about 99.95 per cent, highlighting that blockchain’s environmental impact depends heavily on design choices. When the conversation turned to sustainability, Kapoor did not offer platitudes. He offered a project. The world’s seas and oceans, he said bluntly, are on a 12-to-15-year countdown if current trends continue.
His response? A citizen scientist platform called Sea. Earth, which he describes as a trifecta of blockchain, AI, and analytics. Blockchain ensures the data is tamper-proof and traceable. AI processes what would otherwise be hundreds of terabytes of information in minutes.
“Had this been there maybe 15, 20 years back, we would not have ice melting and weather patterns changing the way they are,” Kapoor reflected. “Maybe now there may be a way of stopping them.”
Kapoor’s concern for the planet does not stop at the ocean’s edge. Back home in India, the stakes are just as high, and the problems are far older. India has long struggled with systems that were never built for the scale they now serve. Land disputes drag through courts for decades. Documents get forged. Middlemen thrive in the gaps. Kapoor sees blockchain not as a futuristic fix but as an overdue correction, and he is already in the thick of it.
He points to three areas where the technology is beginning to move the needle, starting with the one that costs ordinary Indians the most. Land records have long been a legal minefield in the country, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and rural areas where documentation is thin and oral inheritance is common. According to India’s Supreme Court, property disputes account for an estimated 66 per cent of all civil cases in the country. The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index has historically ranked India at 154th in the “registering property” category.
“This has been happening for hundreds of years,” Kapoor said. “There is no clarity on who owns what. Somebody’s father has a farm, and he’s passed it on to his sons. There’s no transparency in titleship.”
The shift is already underway. Andhra Pradesh, in collaboration with blockchain firm Zebi, implemented a pilot project that reportedly reduced land disputes by 50 per cent and improved transaction efficiency by 30 per cent. More recently, the Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh announced the digitisation of over 700,000 land documents dating back to the 1950s, now secured on the Avalanche blockchain.
The idea is simple but powerful: a land passport, immutable and individual, sitting on a blockchain. “It’s just like your own passport. It’s yours. Nobody else’s. You can’t fake it.”
E-notaries are the second front. Through a project with Knapp Books Limited, Kapoor’s team is working to put India’s notary system entirely on the blockchain, a direct response to historical scams like the Telgi stamp paper fraud, in which government documents were forged and misused on a massive scale. This is part of a broader national push: India’s National Blockchain Framework, launched in September 2024 with an initial budget of ₹64.76 crore, provides a unified architecture for deploying blockchain solutions across government services, with land records, public distribution, and document verification all on the roadmap.
With more than 55 per cent of India’s economy rooted in agriculture, Kapoor sees blockchain as the missing link between a farmer’s field and a consumer’s table. According to Future Market Insights, India is projected to grow at a 45 per cent CAGR in blockchain agriculture adoption over the next decade.
Meanwhile, according to market data cited by Straits Research, the global blockchain agriculture and food supply chain market was valued at just under $400 million in 2024 but is expected to reach over $8 billion by 2033, a trajectory that reflects just how seriously governments and agribusinesses are beginning to treat traceability as a non-negotiable. For India, where a mango’s origin or a grain’s authenticity can mean the difference between a fair price and a fraudulent one, that shift cannot come fast enough.
