In the coming year, we will see some individuals from different technology verticals truly embrace cryptocurrency technology and demonstrate the efficiency of the agent + token model in building large projects.

Written by: YB

Translated by: Shan Ouba, Jinse Finance

Over the past month, I have developed a habit: whenever I come across posts related to AI agents on X (formerly Twitter), I mark them for further research later.

In the last two weeks, I noticed that many announcements about agents are not directly related to Truth Terminal or Zerebro meta.

Some examples include:

1. Stripe released documentation on integrating payment features into agent workflows.
2. Balaji retweeted Aravind Srinivas, who suggested developing a Perplexity browser that treats agents as first-class citizens.
3. OtCo demonstrated the process of an agent creating an LLC for its own needs in Delaware.
4. Circle published a detailed tutorial guiding developers on how to integrate USDC into various agents.
5. Just a few days ago, Satya Nadella showcased Copilot Workspace—the first IDE that supports agents.

You might think, there's nothing special about this, right?

After all, it's not surprising for tech giants to talk about agent technology. Almost everyone is paying attention to this!

But that’s exactly my point—it's the first time I feel that the cryptocurrency consumer circle and the entire tech industry are discussing the same thing. Perhaps the forms are different, but the core is consistent.

The Relationship Between the Crypto Circle and the Tech Industry

The cryptocurrency circle has always seemed a bit strange to "ordinary people." Even within the tech community, cryptocurrency is like that "unpopular little brother." This impression is not unfounded: there have been too many crazy news stories from the crypto industry in the past, and even insiders have to admit that some trends are indeed a bit absurd.

In the past, the intersection of cryptocurrency trends with other tech fields was minimal, at least in the short term.

• For example, how much relevance could a top LLM (large language model) engineer have with a 10k PFP (profile picture) project?
• Or why would a scientist researching longevity care about new yield assets?

Overall, the narrative of cryptocurrency tends to attract artists and quantitative traders, while remaining relatively isolated from other tech fields.

But now, there is finally an opportunity to break this cycle!

Although we are far from reaching that point, I personally can see "the light at the end of the tunnel." Here are three topics worth discussing in depth:

1. Relaxation of crypto regulations
2. The accelerationist bubble
3. Crypto-driven paradigm cases

Let’s explore them one by one.

Relaxation of Crypto Regulations

This week, SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler announced he would resign on January 20. If you’ve spent even a week in the crypto space, you’ll understand the significance of this news, comparable to Harry Potter defeating Voldemort.

For the past four years, Gensler has been the biggest bottleneck for the U.S. crypto industry.

He not only delayed regulatory progress but also actively attacked this emerging industry. As Linda's tweet pointed out, companies like Coinbase and Consensys had to spend hundreds of millions lobbying and fighting the government in Washington.

Now, it seems that the person replacing him is moving in the completely opposite direction.

Whoever takes over this position, one thing is clear: the Trump administration is determined to support the crypto industry more than the previous administration. Frankly, this threshold is not high.

In my election week post "Where Did Fairshake PAC's $133 Million Go?", I mentioned that Republican Bernie Moreno received $40.1 million in donations in the Ohio Senate race, defeating Democrat Sherrod Brown.

Moreno's victory is one of the significant wins for the entire crypto industry. He is a long-time supporter of cryptocurrency, while Brown has been a major obstacle to crypto regulation in the Senate.

Moreover, just discussing the possibility of a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve is already shocking enough!

Three months ago, if someone brought up this topic, I would have thought they were dreaming. But in recent weeks, with the rise in crypto prices and the surge in BlackRock ETF inflows, the momentum in the crypto industry has changed dramatically. Suddenly, the idea that the federal government might include Bitcoin on its balance sheet has to be taken seriously.

So, how do these regulatory news affect the crossing of crypto technology into the broader tech field?

In the past, many developers from other tech fields were cautious about the crypto industry, one major reason being the uncertainty of the U.S. regarding crypto as a reliable technology.

Integrating such a volatile technology with their life’s research achievements seems unrealistic, as legal risks (like lawsuits or fines) are very real concerns.

But as the new government begins to embrace crypto technology and establish clear regulations, it won’t be long before people from other industries feel comfortable enough to strategically explore the potential of crypto.

Vitalik summarized this well in this screenshot: the lack of regulatory clarity for serious projects has suppressed developers' motivation to adopt crypto technology.

For those who are not actively building in the ecosystem, they might only learn about crypto through lowbrow news like Moodeng and Bonk millionaires.

Clearly, this is not the best way to promote crypto and is unlikely to persuade a genius engineer from Anthropic to dive into crypto technology, right?

Hopefully, in the next four years, politicians who support cryptocurrency will do their utmost to enable those outside the crypto space to adopt this technology simply and safely.

The Accelerationist Bubble

Last week, I read Packy's article "The Trump Bubble," in which he proposed that the next four years will be a golden age of risk-taking, forward-thinking ideas, and futurist optimism.

I must clarify that I do not completely agree with this article—some parts seem overly excited, even exaggerated. But Packy does raise some strong points, especially about how we are about to experience a "shift in atmosphere" regarding how we view progress. The future world will become faster, crazier, and more experimental.

This phenomenon is referred to as the inflection bubble by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Harris.

The definition of an inflection bubble is: "Investors believe the future will be radically different from the past." For example: the .com bubble. When you believe the future will be significantly different from the past, you choose to invest in things you think will benefit the most from this change.

The reason I mention this is that I believe crypto technology, rather than traditional venture capital, has the potential to become the financial pillar of the next inflection bubble.

To align more with the theme of "the future of smart agents," I’ll let Truth Terminal explain.

If you don’t want to read the entire article, here are the key points to remember:

I’m not saying that 90% of meme coins currently have the conditions for success—rather, this form is still very new. Only when we see truly clever tokenomics designs can meme coins compete with what people traditionally consider "good investments."

As fields like energy, artificial intelligence, biosciences, and gaming begin to heat up, the combination of AI agents and crypto tokens could become a tenfold more efficient path for experimenting with new ideas.

Imagine this: suppose you are a seasoned nuclear engineering professional with decades of experience, wanting to realize a vision. You could spend months convincing venture capital firms, assembling a team, forming a community, etc.; or:

1. Write a white paper detailing your background, theory, plans, and vision;
2. Deploy a "brand agent" to spread the word for you on Twitter;
3. Raise initial funds through a token issuance;
4. Collaborate with agents to build a true fan community (e.g., social tipping);
5. Recruit team members from the community, possibly completing tasks through bounties.

I know you might think, "Are you crazy? Isn’t this just a rehash of the 2017 ICO craze?"

You’re not wrong.

But I can’t help but wonder, could it be that ICOs were just ahead of their time?

I believe the following changes will indeed make a difference:

• Improved crypto infrastructure;
• A pro-crypto regulatory environment;
• Increased market maturity;
• Institutional-level adoption.

While the above framework may still produce thousands of completely meaningless projects, how is that different from the "power law distribution" that the venture capital world always talks about?

In my view, there have yet to be high-potential builders from other tech fields who have truly realized their visions through crypto financing.

Certainly not in 2017, and perhaps in 2024, there will be some early DePin and DeSci projects attempting to do so.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, this is the first time I feel that the focus of crypto technology overlaps somewhat with the focus of other tech fields. Not just smart agents, but also topics like bioscience research, GPU allocation, and more.

pump.science has recently become one of the hottest topics in the industry, and I haven’t delved into it yet, but its popularity is not surprising.

There’s no doubt that there are speculative, legitimacy, and security issues within this model that will take time to resolve (hopefully, people in the crypto space can acknowledge this).

But it’s worth emphasizing that there is a general excitement about the concept of using crypto financing for non-crypto missions.

Since the early 2010s with Kickstarter, the feasibility of crowdfunding models has been proven. The advantages of gathering collective wisdom and support are far more efficient than decisions made behind closed boardroom doors. People are eager to participate!

However, perhaps the technology and social consensus required for this model still need time to develop. Now it seems we are on the brink of a perfect storm:

• Positive changes in the political environment;
• The increasing maturity of crypto and AI technologies;
• The massive creativity brought by the accelerationist bubble.

Yet, even so, I still believe that a key element is missing for this concept to be taken seriously!

Crypto-Driven "Benchmark Projects"

Recently, the rise of Onchain AI and Goat meta has successfully "attracted" some AI/LLM developers into the crypto space.

I bet no one could have predicted that Threadguy would interview Andy Ayery.

If you think about it calmly, it’s actually quite astonishing.

For example, someone like Nick Liverman (founder of Chaos), who has dedicated his entire career to projects in robotics and transhumanism, may have earned more in the past month than he has in the last ten years!

Another great example is Beff Jezos cheering for his friend Shaw. Shaw is developing ai16z and the Eliza framework, which are launch platforms for agent-based tokens. The focus here is not on Beff, but on the fact that seasoned professionals in the AI field have begun to establish connections with the crypto space through experiments by LLM developers on Onchain AI.

The core point I want to express is that in the coming year, we will see individuals from different technology verticals truly embrace crypto technology and demonstrate the efficiency of the agent + token model in building large projects.

Once we see a few successful models, others will excitedly try their own ideas; it’s just a matter of time.

Currently, all the token issuances and experiments we see are basically still in the "junior league."

But as soon as a few success stories emerge, the crowd effect will rapidly explode.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。