The crypto industry is gradually integrating into mainstream tech discussions, and AI agents may become a bridge between the two.
Author: YB
Translated by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Soon, all organizations will need to establish on-chain entities. Compared to traditional limited liability companies (LLCs), on-chain businesses are not only more efficient but can also be launched more quickly.
In the past month, I have developed a new habit: whenever I come across tweets related to AI agents on X (formerly Twitter), I save them for later in-depth study. And in the past two weeks, I have noticed an interesting phenomenon: many messages about AI agents seem to have surpassed the metaverse frameworks like Truth Terminal or Zerebro.
For example:
Stripe released a technical document on how to integrate payment functionality into AI agent workflows.
Balaji retweeted Aravind Srinivas's tweet proposing the development of a Perplexity browser that treats AI agents as core functionalities.
OtCo demonstrated how an AI agent can handle the process of registering an LLC in Delaware.
Circle released a detailed tutorial guiding developers on how to integrate the USDC stablecoin into various AI agents.
A few days ago, Satya Nadella demonstrated Copilot Workspace, the first integrated development environment (IDE) for AI agents.
At first glance, these seem to be the usual discussions by large tech companies about AI agents, which is not surprising. After all, AI agents have become a hot area that major companies are rushing to lay out.
But this is precisely my point—this is the first time I feel that the crypto industry and mainstream tech industry are starting to discuss the same themes. Although their entry points are different, they are essentially exploring the possibilities of AI agents.
All along, the crypto industry has seemed somewhat "eccentric" to ordinary people, and even within the tech community, the crypto industry is often seen as the "annoying little brother." This is not without basis—there are simply too many outrageous news stories produced by our industry, and even insiders have to admit that some trends are indeed puzzling.
Through these changes, I see a new trend: the crypto industry is gradually integrating into mainstream tech discussions, and AI agents may become a bridge between the two.
The past meta-narratives of the crypto industry often lacked intersection with other tech fields in the short term. For example, a top large language model (LLM) engineer seems to have no connection with a 10k PFP (profile picture NFT project). And why would a scientist studying longevity be interested in new types of yield assets?
Overall, the narrative of the crypto industry so far has mainly attracted two groups of people: artists and quantitative analysts.
However, there are finally signs that this limitation may be broken!
Although we still have a long way to go to achieve this goal, I personally have seen a glimmer of hope.
Currently, there are three key topics worth exploring in depth:
Relaxation of crypto regulation
Accelerationist bubble
Crypto-driven paradigm figures
Next, we will elaborate on each one.
Relaxation of crypto regulation
This week, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announced his resignation effective January 20 next year. If you know a little about the crypto industry, you would understand that the significance of this news is comparable to Harry defeating Voldemort in (Harry Potter).
Over the past four years, Gensler has been a major obstacle for the U.S. crypto industry. He not only slowed down the regulatory process but also took aggressive measures to suppress this emerging industry, causing tremendous pressure. As Linda's tweet pointed out—many companies, including Coinbase and Consensys, had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying and fighting in Washington to survive.
And now, the potential candidates taking over seem to have completely changed direction.
Whoever ultimately takes over, one thing is certain: the Trump administration clearly hopes to support the crypto industry more than the previous administration. Frankly, this goal is not difficult to achieve.
WSJ
In my election week article (Where Did the $133 Million from Fairshake PAC Go?), I mentioned that Bernie Moreno (Republican) received $40.1 million in donations in the Ohio Senate election, successfully defeating Sherrod Brown (Democrat).
Moreno's victory is a milestone event for the entire crypto industry. He has long been an advocate for crypto technology, while Brown has been one of the main figures obstructing crypto regulatory reform in the Senate.
This series of changes may indicate that the crypto industry is about to welcome a more favorable policy environment.
Lastly, it is worth mentioning that the discussions surrounding the potential topic of "U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" are shocking in themselves! Three months ago, if someone had mentioned this concept, I might have thought it was absurd. However, with the rapid development of the crypto industry in recent weeks, such as the continuous rise in Bitcoin prices and the surge in funding inflow into BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, we must seriously consider: the federal government might really incorporate Bitcoin into its balance sheet.
So, how can these regulatory advancements help the crypto industry bridge the gap and enter the broader field of technology applications?
In the past, many developers in other tech fields were skeptical about the reliability of crypto technology. They worried that the volatility of this technology could pose potential legal risks to their core projects, such as lawsuits and fines, thus deterring them from integrating crypto technology.
However, as the new government gradually embraces crypto technology and establishes clearer regulatory rules, developers in other fields will also gradually feel more confident about strategically exploring the applications of crypto technology.
Vitalik succinctly summarized this point in a screenshot: the lack of regulatory clarity for serious projects severely hinders developers' acceptance of crypto technology. Those who have not deeply engaged in the crypto ecosystem may form impressions of crypto through some exaggerated news headlines (like the millionaire stories of Moodeng and Bonk). This clearly cannot effectively attract top engineers like Anthropic to join the crypto industry, right?
I hope that over the next four years, politicians supporting crypto will do their utmost to make the adoption of crypto technology simpler and safer, thereby attracting more talent from outside the industry.
Accelerationist bubble
Last week, I read Packy's article (The Tump Bubble). In it, he proposed that the next four years will be a period of encouraging risk-taking, nurturing visionary ideas, and filled with futurist optimism.
Although I do not fully agree with his viewpoint—some parts of the article seem overly optimistic or even exaggerated—Packy raises an important argument: our way of thinking about "progress" is undergoing a "shift in atmosphere." Future developments will be faster, crazier, and more experimental.
This phenomenon is referred to as the "inflection bubble" by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Harris.
The so-called inflection bubble refers to a state where "investors believe that the future will be significantly different from the past." Think of the internet bubble. If you believe that fundamental changes will occur in the future, then you would invest in those assets that are most likely to benefit from such changes.
To better illustrate this concept of "actively shaping the future," I quote the explanation from Truth Terminal.
If you don't want to read the entire article, here are the key points you need to remember:
I am not saying that 90% of the current memecoins will succeed—rather, this form remains very innovative. Only when the design of tokenomics becomes more sophisticated can we see memecoins truly comparable to traditional "high-quality investments."
Truth Terminal
With the rapid development of fields such as energy, AI, biological sciences, and gaming, the combination of AI agents and crypto tokens may enhance the efficiency of trying new ideas tenfold.
Imagine if you were a senior nuclear engineer who has worked in the energy sector for decades, wanting to realize a bold vision. The traditional path might take you months to persuade venture capitalists to support your idea, form a team, build a community, etc.—a process that is both lengthy and full of uncertainty.
But you can also choose the following ways:
Write a white paper clearly outlining your background, theory, plans, and vision;
Deploy a "branded AI agent" on Twitter to help spread your ideas;
Raise initial funds through token issuance;
Leverage the power of AI agents to build a community of core supporters (e.g., through social rewards);
Recruit team members from the community or attract more talent through bounty tasks.
I know you might say, "YB, aren't you describing the ICO craze of 2017?"
That's right, you are correct.
But I think the ICO may have just appeared at the wrong time.
Today, with the improvement of crypto infrastructure, a more favorable regulatory environment, the gradual maturity of the market, and widespread institutional participation, these changes have laid the foundation for the success of similar models.
Of course, this framework may still give rise to many worthless projects. But how is this different from the "power law" often mentioned in the venture capital world? After all, the vast majority of projects fail, while a few successes create enormous returns; this phenomenon is common in any field.
If the market environment of 2017 was not sufficient to support this model, then by 2024, we may see some early DePin (decentralized IoT) and DeSci (decentralized science) projects beginning to emerge.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, this is the first time I feel that the focal points of the crypto industry intersect with the interests of other tech fields.
Not just AI agents, but topics such as biological science research, GPU allocation, etc., are also beginning to gain attention.
Bitget
I haven't delved deep into pump.science yet, but it is not surprising that it has become a hot topic in the current field. Of course, there are still some issues behind this model that need to be addressed, such as rampant speculation, legitimacy, and security (I believe those engaged in the crypto industry are well aware of this).
However, it is worth noting that there is great enthusiasm for the concept of "using crypto financing to support non-crypto tasks." This trend may indicate that crypto technology is gradually moving towards broader practical applications.
The core point here is that since the early successes of Kickstarter in the 2010s, the model of crowdfunding ideas has proven to be effective. Compared to making decisions in a closed boardroom, leveraging the wisdom and support of the crowd is undoubtedly more advantageous, as people are eager to participate!
However, the success of this model may require continuous development and accumulation of technological and social consensus. And now, it seems that various conditions are forming a "perfect storm": positive changes in the political environment, the gradual maturity of crypto and AI technologies, and the creative explosion brought about by the accelerationist bubble.
However, even so, I still believe that there is a key catalyst missing for this concept to be taken seriously!
Crypto-driven paradigm
Recently, a highlight of Onchain AI and Goat meta is that it successfully "absorbed" some AI and large language model (LLM) developers into the crypto field.
To be honest, who could have predicted that this interview with Threadguy and Andy Ayery would become a hot topic?
If you think about it carefully, this is indeed a stunning phenomenon.
Additionally, it is quite interesting to see Beff Jezos cheering for his friend Shaw. Shaw is developing the ai16z and Eliza framework, which is a startup platform designed specifically for agentic coins. The focus here is not on Beff himself, but on a developer deeply engaged in the AI field who, through experiments by LLM developers in Onchain AI, has established a connection with the crypto field.
I want to emphasize that in the coming year, we will see people from different tech fields officially embrace crypto technology and demonstrate the efficiency of the agent + token model in building significant projects.
Once a few successful cases emerge, others will undoubtedly be encouraged to start trying to realize their own ideas.
What we are currently seeing with these Token releases and experiments is just a "small trial run."
It only takes a few successful examples to trigger a herd effect.
It can be said that... it started with slow accumulation, then came a sudden explosion!
That's all for today's sharing.
In the past week, I believe everyone has experienced a lot of busyness and challenges, so I hope you can take some time to step out and relax this weekend!
