The nematode (WORM) is the simplest yet complete biological nervous system model, consisting of 302 neurons.
Written by: angelilu, Foresight News
Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, tweeted a call for WORM on November 19 at 15:51, causing the WORM price to rise 60%, from $0.05 to $0.08. It is important to note that Arthur Hayes' calls can be verified; he previously expressed optimism about PENDLE but sold on-chain, and after multiple calls for MOTHER, there were instances of price declines instead of increases. However, this does not prevent us from simply understanding the WORM project itself.
According to Dex Screener data, the WORM token was created 26 days ago (on October 24), with a price of $0.076 at the time of publication, a market cap of $74.9 million, and a highest price of $0.092. Although positioned by Hayes in the DeSci track (or due to its meaning related to nematodes in research), it seems that the project has also tapped into the AI agent track, aiming to break through the limitations of traditional anthropomorphized AI agents and shift towards AI agent biology.
DeepWorm
WORM is the DeepWorm token. According to the official documentation, DeepWorm aims to build a digital brain living on-chain, capable of making self-informed decisions by deploying its biological neural network on-chain, executing permanently on-chain, and being impossible to kill.
DeepWorm has 302 neurons, identical to the nervous structure of nematodes, supported by the TEE infrastructure of Marlin Protocol, with the ultimate goal of achieving verifiable on-chain neural computation. On-chain verification uses the infrastructure of the Marlin protocol, and each neural computation is cryptographically verified.
Meaning of Nematode
DeepWorm's choice of the nematode (Worm) as a model is also quite profound; the nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans) is the simplest yet complete biological nervous system model, consisting of 302 neurons.
Nematodes have made multiple contributions to research, with at least two Nobel Prizes related to them. Nematodes were the first organism to have its genome mapped; based on existing knowledge of nematodes, virtual worm brains can be created in computers to observe their reactions, and nematodes are expected to become the first virtualized organism.
Additionally, in the November 2023 issue of (Nature) magazine, scientists achieved significant breakthroughs in understanding human brain functions using nematodes. A team led by the UK Research and Innovation agency created the first map showing how each neuron in the tiny worm's nervous system communicates wirelessly.
Role of WORM
The first tweet from DeepWorm was published on October 24, with the mission to build digital life simulating the biological worm nervous system, which is basically consistent with the current development path.
The role of the WORM token in DeepWorm is as an input signal source for the neural network. The operational mechanism of DeepWorm's on-chain decision-making can be roughly divided into:
Input Layer: Using the token contract as the main body of the worm, taking transaction hash values from buys, sells, transfers, etc. as environmental input signals;
Processing Layer: Processing input signals through three layers of intermediate neurons, generating continuous activation values to simulate biological neural activity.
Output Layer: Motor neurons decide the movement direction based on processed data; in an infinite grid, they can choose to move up, down, left, or right, using the softmax function to calculate the final movement direction.
Note: The Softmax function is a mathematical tool that converts multiple values into a probability distribution, commonly used to calculate user preference probabilities for different products, to rank recommendation weights for multiple options, and other scenarios.
The V1 version application released by DeepWorm contains the movement trajectory and historical movement coordinates of the Worm, but as of publication, the 'most recent input' was 14 hours ago, and the historical record was 22 hours ago.
The team will take a snapshot of token holders.
Furthermore, the official DeepWorm X account stated after Arthur Hayes' call (November 19, 15:58) that it would distribute 2.4% of the tokens in the developer's wallet to WORM holders, with a snapshot to be taken within 24 hours.
The Chang mentioned here is suspected to be the founder of DeepWorm. Historical tweets show that he previously worked at Scroll and is currently working for the Ethereum yield protocol Dinero (formerly Redacted Cartel).
Notably, the official DeepWorm X account previously posted a Chinese post titled 'DeepWorm: Made in Shenzhen', suspected to be a project by a domestic team.
