Fruit fly brain simulation used for bitcoin trading makes $1 profit on first day with $100

A digital simulation modeled on a fruit fly’s neural network was used for bitcoin trading and made $1 in profit after one day of operation. However, a single profit does not prove real investment learning ability or automated trading performance.

On Sept. 11 local time, blockchain outlet U.Today reported that Coinbase software engineer Alex Warmus funded a system called Stonkfly, built on the wiring structure of a fruit fly brain, with $100 and began a bitcoin trading experiment. Warmus released initial results one day after the experiment began, when profit stood at $1.

Stonkfly does not involve a live fruit fly directly trading bitcoin. It simulates in a digital environment MaleCNS v1.0, a connectivity map of an adult male fruit fly’s central nervous system, and links it to cryptocurrency price data.

The trading process is also unusual. Stonkfly takes Coinbase’s public BTC-USDC market data and converts it into RGB images. It then feeds the images into thousands of sensory inputs corresponding to neurons that make up an insect visual system to generate buy and sell signals.

Signals based on profit and loss also mimic the fruit fly nervous system. When the portfolio makes a profit, it stimulates 15 PAM11 dopamine neurons, and when a loss occurs, it activates 2 PPL101 neurons associated with avoidance responses.