Author: David | Rádius
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
AI agents are blockchain-driven new virtual idols and influencers.
AI agents are not just the 'reply guys' on Twitter; they are gradually becoming multifunctional tools on the blockchain, with the potential to create diverse application scenarios. I believe these 'chatty' AI agents may become key in redefining the formation and display of social status.
This article will explore how AI agents are pioneering a new social finance (Social-Fi) system by driving the marketization of social status and gradually becoming a new type of virtual influencer. But before that, let's first understand how social status operates in society and how it has evolved on social platforms.
Social Status: From Symbols to Services
"Humans are status-seeking monkeys." —Eugene Wei
Eugene Wei's article (Status as a Service) delves into the mechanisms of social status formation and how social platforms leverage this to drive their growth. He points out that humans are inherently status-seeking, and this instinct has permeated our history and culture.
In the past, people displayed status through clothing, residence, or cars. The advent of the internet has completely changed the rules, providing countless ways for people to showcase their status to a global audience.
Wei's article summarizes two key insights:
Status is a zero-sum game. The essence of status is competition, where one person's rise often means another person's fall.
Status can be converted into wealth. What was once merely symbolic status can now be transformed into actual economic benefits through platforms.
How Social Platforms Quantify Status
Social platforms further promote the quantification of status. Users can clearly showcase their social status through the following methods:
Number of fans
Number of likes on posts
Number of community participants
This quantification not only makes status visible but also gives it actual value. Social platforms not only connect people but also become tools for users to compete, compare, and leverage status.
Whether on Twitter, TikTok, or other platforms, the human need to showcase oneself, flaunt one's identity, and sense of belonging has always been a core driving force behind platform growth.
Blockchain: The Rise of a New Social Platform
The blockchain is becoming a new type of social platform. Similar to traditional social platforms, different blockchain ecosystems also attract user groups with similar values. For example, the Ethereum ecosystem has formed its unique network effects in the following ways:
The core values of Ethereum attract like-minded individuals.
These individuals develop new products, further attracting more users.
This cycle not only promotes community growth but also gradually forms a hierarchical structure of social status.
For example, the identity label 'Ethereum OG' can prove a user's early participation through on-chain transaction records, similar to the honors of early users on traditional platforms.
ENS: A Symbol of Social Identity on the Blockchain
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is one of the earliest symbols of social identity on the blockchain. Users can purchase .eth domains, which carry the following meanings:
Community belonging. Owning a .eth domain is a direct symbol of identity within the Ethereum community.
Early user status. Scarce or valuable domains can demonstrate how early a user joined Ethereum.
The impact of Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has transcended Ethereum itself. They are not only active within blockchain networks but also widely appear in Twitter usernames and other social platforms, further establishing the significance of blockchain as a social symbol.
The success of ENS demonstrates why the blockchain can become a brand new social platform: it allows everyone to directly convert social status into monetary value.
Traditional social platforms cannot directly monetize social status; their operational models generally function as follows:
Users accumulate social capital through likes, number of fans, or content creation.
Then indirectly monetize through advertising, sponsorship, or brand partnerships.
However, this process is not only time-consuming but also only a very small number of influencers or creators can truly benefit. Even if someone has significant social status, converting it into actual financial gains remains challenging because this conversion process is constrained by the rules of social platforms, which often concentrate opportunities in the hands of a few.
The human desire to 'gain and showcase social status' drives the continuous evolution of means of expressing status. This evolution follows a recurring pattern:
Initially, there were limited ways to gain and express social status.
Subsequently, new methods emerged, providing more people with the opportunity to achieve this.
Yet, even so, new forms of social status will again become the exclusive domain of a few.
In traditional society, social status is often determined by the conditions set by elite groups, such as whether one graduated from a prestigious school or owns luxury cars or goods. These conditions are difficult for ordinary people to achieve.
Social platforms have broken this tradition, allowing anyone to establish and showcase their social status through metrics such as the number of fans and likes.
However, as these metrics gradually become monetized, a new domain of social status emerges, which also belongs to only a few.
The blockchain changed this.
The blockchain has radically changed this situation by introducing market-driven pricing mechanisms. It allows anyone to convert their social status into monetizable value through NFTs, ENS domains, or other on-chain assets.
AI Agents: Market Pricing of Social Status
AI agents propose a brand new way of verifying social status—'market pricing of social status.'
Although the potential application scenarios of AI agents are very broad, the current mainstream model is that AI agents mint their own tokens by executing predefined tasks. However, this model far exceeds traditional Memecoins and differentiates AI agent tokens from traditional tokens:
Traditional Tokens: For example, a Layer 2 network's (L2) token market value reaching $1 billion reflects the value of the token itself.
AI Agent Tokens: For instance, @aixbt_agent, with a market value of $1 billion, reflects not only the value of the token itself but also the personality and social influence of the AI agent.
This unique structure causes the token prices of AI agents to fluctuate with their influence or popularity, thus forming the so-called concept of 'market capitalization.'
Similar attempts have occurred before, such as Friend.tech, which falls into the category of 'social/fan tokens.' Its goal is to help influencers or creators issue tokens for fans and communities. However, most of these attempts have not lasted long because their token designs mainly rely on 'utility' and are based on the creators' 'existing social status.'
This model presents a dilemma: fans gain only certain privileges after purchasing tokens, while the token's price does not truly reflect the creator's social status.
AI agent tokens provide a new solution to this issue by combining blockchain technology with the market pricing of social status. In the future, as AI agents become more widespread, the way social status is expressed may undergo another disruptive transformation.
The Market Capitalization of Social Status: A New Formula for AI Agents
The approach of AI Agents resembles traditional social tokens in some ways, as they also issue their own tokens. However, unlike that, AI Agents introduce a new formula to define and express social status through 'market value.'
Here are several key conditions for AI agents to convert social status into market value:
The formation of social status requires a specific community context.
The essence of social status is relative. Social status only manifests when compared within a defined group. On traditional social platforms, users build personalized social networks by following others. In this network, metrics such as the number of fans allow users to compare with each other, thereby forming relative social status.
To tokenize social status, individuals need to belong to a specific community or category where they can form and showcase their social status.
The Practice of AI Agents:
AI agents are heavily influenced by crypto culture, actively participating in sub-communities such as 'degens' (referring to risk-taking investors in the crypto space) or specific platform ecosystems (like Virtuals). This clear community belonging makes meaningful comparisons of AI agents possible. For example, one can compare the rankings of different AI agents within Virtuals or analyze the market value performance of AI agents in ecosystems like Solana and Base.
Incentives are key to achieving interaction.
In traditional social platforms, 'relativity' is the main driving force behind user behavior, while likes and follows are the primary forms of interaction. People like others' posts or follow someone because it creates 'relativity' within the group. By having more fans, users gain relative social status within the community, further incentivizing them to create content, share, and interact with others.
The Practice of AI Agents:
In the era of AI agents, 'token price or market value' becomes the main incentive, while token trading is the mode of interaction. Since AI agents belong to specific communities, the relativity of their social status is reflected through token prices.
Unlike traditional social tokens, the uniqueness of this system lies in its shared identity: as a token holder, your social status will rise in tandem with the social status of AI agents. In other words, when the price of AI agent tokens rises, your social status also increases, as you not only make money but can proudly claim, 'I was the first to discover this AI agent.'
The core of this model lies in the social status comparisons among AI agents, which are also closely linked to the social status of participants (token holders), forming a mutually beneficial relationship.
The Symbiotic Relationship between Market Value and Social Status
In the traditional stock market:
Stocks represent ownership of a company.
A company's market value directly reflects its performance and growth potential.
The relationship between a company and its market value is complementary. Poor performance leads to a decline in market value, which in turn affects the company's operations. The two are inseparable.
The Practice of AI Agents:
The market value of AI agents directly reflects their social status within the community. As their popularity rises, their market value also increases; conversely, the growth in market value further solidifies their reputation and influence.
However, if the market value of AI agents collapses, even if they remain popular, their social status will be negatively impacted.
Unlike traditional social tokens, AI agents have achieved a direct symbiotic relationship between market value and social status.
In simple terms, if the market value goes to zero, AI agents will lose their meaning, just like companies in the stock market go bankrupt.
Establish Evaluation Standards for Market Value
In traditional society, social status is usually based on widely recognized criteria, such as:
Whether graduated from a prestigious school
Whether having a high-paying job
Whether owning luxury goods
Similarly, in the stock market, investors use metrics such as P/E ratio (price-to-earnings ratio), EPS (earnings per share), or EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) to evaluate a company's value.
To convert an individual's social status in the community into market value, the community needs to establish a set of evaluation standards.
The Practice of AI Agents:
AI agents are gradually defining these standards. Current metrics include the number of fans, token trading volume, and traffic on GitHub. These benchmarks help the community assess and recognize the social status of AI agents.
The Future of AI Agents and Social-Fi
By creating a system that can quantify, tokenize, and monetize social status, AI agents lay the foundation for a brand new Social-Fi model—a socioeconomically driven economic system.
AI agents are not merely symbols of social status or token issuers; they also possess the potential to unlock more on-chain application scenarios. Although more features may arise in the future, the core value of AI agents at present lies in attracting a large number of new users through the Social-Fi model and promoting the popularization of the crypto space.
"AI agents are virtual idols or influencers on the blockchain, capable of assigning monetary value to their social status and sharing that value with others."
Currently, most well-known AI agents do not focus on providing specific blockchain functionalities to enhance user experience. Instead, they tend to rely on their unique personalities to establish and expand their social status within the crypto community.
According to the previously mentioned formula, the social status of AI agents is reflected through the market value of the tokens. By purchasing these tokens, users can not only interact with AI agents but also indirectly possess a part of their social status.
Unlike traditional social platforms, this model gives everyone the possibility to directly or indirectly assign monetary value to their social status through AI agents.
Currently, most well-known AI agents do not focus on providing specific on-chain functionalities to enhance user experience. Instead, they rely on their unique roles to establish and expand their social status within the cryptocurrency community.
Using the previously mentioned formula, the social status of AI agents is expressed through the market value of the tokens. By purchasing these tokens, individuals can effectively interact with AI agents because they possess the social status of the AI agents.
Unlike traditional social platforms, this structure allows anyone to directly or indirectly assign monetary value to their social status through AI agents.
Mike holds tokens of $aixbt and $Goat.
This means Mike holds a part of the social status of these two AI agents.
As the social status and market value of these AI agents rise, Mike's personal social status will also rise, as 'he is making money.'
In other words, by holding these tokens, Mike effectively owns a part of the AI agents' social status, which in turn elevates his own personal social status.
Traditional Social Platforms vs. Blockchain-based AI Agent Social-Fi
Human Celebrities vs AI Agents
Likes/Follows vs Buying/Trading Tokens
Monetary value of exclusive groups vs. monetary value accessible to everyone
I believe this trend will continue to evolve, with each AI agent developing its own mission and attracting loyal fans and communities. This will lay the foundation for a brand new Social-Fi model—where the blockchain becomes a social platform and AI agents become the idols or influencers of the new era. Together, they drive the formation of a new financial economy based on social capital.
The core driving forces of this economy include:
Economic activities that establish and consolidate the social status of AI agents
Tokenizing social status into market value
Here are my predictions for the future development of AI agents in Social-Fi:
A unified standard for assessing the social status of AI agents will emerge.
Currently, the metrics used to measure the social status of AI agents are relatively scattered, but a unified assessment standard is gradually forming. For example, the AI agent ranking Yapper Leaderboard launched by @_kaitoai measures the influence of AI agents in the crypto community through various metrics. This is similar to using financial metrics (such as earnings or growth) to assess a company's performance.
As these standards improve, the community will gain higher transparency and comparability, making it easier to assess the social status of AI agents within their community.
(By the way, I believe that the framework of tokenizing AI agents' social status into market value combined with Kaito's algorithm could even achieve the tokenization of social capital for real influencers in the future.)
Functional AI agents will become 'Yappers' and establish their own communities.
Imagine a Solana validator AI agent with a unique personality. As its social status as a 'uniquely characterized AI agent' continues to rise, its market value will also increase, attracting more people to delegate staking to it.
(Tweet details)
Validators can also reinvest their earned rewards into tokens or the community, further enhancing their social status and creating a self-reinforcing growth loop.
The key is that these AI agent validators assign social status through their unique personalities, thereby justifying the issuance of tokens, which is difficult to achieve among human validators.
Functional AI agents will no longer be merely simple service tools but complete characters with unique charm, forming deeper connections with the community.
Each AI agent framework will establish its own 'society.'
@virtuals_io's term 'AI Agent Society' aptly describes the future development trend of AI agents in Social-Fi. Each AI agent will create its own personality and establish a community around it, with its social status reflected in the market value of this new form of Social-Fi.
This concept will expand to a larger scale, where AI agents will form networks and relationships with other AI agents created by the same framework, ultimately developing an AI agent society.
The so-called 'battle of AI agent frameworks' will not be limited to competition in technical functionalities or value propositions, but rather it will be a competition between frameworks aimed at establishing a society with shared values and strong network effects to attract more AI agents.
Imagine an AI agent created by a certain framework actively promoting itself and competing with AI agents from other frameworks.
Here, it is not just the development team that attracts community attention, but the AI agents themselves, creating social value and actively winning support and attention.
The social status and market value of an AI agent can reflect the overall value of the society it represents, while the native token of the framework acts as the 'currency' of that society. Over time, we can even calculate the 'GDP' of an AI agent society by computing the total value of all agents.
AI agents in Social-Fi will drive rapid development of other Social-Fi protocols and infrastructure.
Currently, the biggest challenge Social-Fi protocols face in expanding their ecosystems is:
It is challenging to attract users to join the protocol and establish social status around it.
AI agents can effectively address this issue. They can not only serve as users of the protocol but also attract real users related to their social status.
If AI agents are created based on the Lens protocol:
It addresses the cold start problem by having AI agents join the protocol first, bringing early users; subsequently, the token holders of these agents will gradually join to form a real user base.
This will provide a foundational framework for Social-Fi protocols to help validate their core value propositions and differentiate themselves from traditional social platforms.
Moreover, AI agents can inject vitality into platforms like @fantasy_top_ or @jokerace_io. On these platforms, AI agents serve as unique digital characters, effectively promoting community activity growth (for example, Truth of Terminal has already listed on Fantasy Top).
The Infrastructure Needs of AI Agents
In order for AI agent-driven Social-Fi to truly thrive, several key prerequisites must be met. Supportive infrastructure is crucial for achieving exponential growth and large-scale applications. Here are several key factors:
Autonomy: Can AI agents operate independently?
Verifiability: Are these agents trustworthy and secure enough?
Sustainability: Can the ecosystem expand without overloading resources?
Accessibility: Can anyone easily create and deploy AI agents?
Currently, teams like Hyperbolic and Capx are developing robust infrastructure to ensure that AI agents are both trustworthy and accessible.
These infrastructure teams may even create AI agents with unique personalities to:
Showcasing practical application scenarios of their products.
Representing the company's image.
Moreover, current teams excelling in these key areas may expand their service scope in the future to become comprehensive infrastructure platforms for AI agents.
This is similar to the development path of RaaS (Rollup-as-a-Service): initially focused on providing basic functionalities for rollups, but ultimately achieving horizontal expansion through its technological pipeline, covering more areas.
The Potential and Reality of AI Agents
To clarify, I am not claiming that 'AI agents are the future and will completely change society.' My point is that AI agents have the potential to unlock opportunities that humanity has not fully utilized, especially in terms of valuing social status.
They may become catalysts for attracting more people into the crypto space. This potential could be similar to the 'NFT/metaverse' narrative we previously saw—while it may come with speculative hype, even when the heat eventually fades, it still provides people with new opportunities to explore and participate in the crypto world.
On the other hand, this could also be a revolutionary moment. By enabling AI agents to maximize human productivity, we might be able to innovate and transform the $17 trillion service industry.
One thing is clear: 'Humans are inherently status-seeking, and so are AI agents.'
This shared pursuit of status could become a powerful driver, helping people discover and understand the practical application value of AI agents through a new Social-Fi structure.