In the digital economy, AI agents are transitioning from traditional tool roles to significant economic drivers. They can autonomously analyze data, optimize decisions, and drive user engagement and revenue growth by executing complex tasks. These agents are widely used in gaming, social media, financial services, etc., creating rich personalized and interactive experiences. Their rise marks a shift of AI from passive service to active participation, injecting new vitality into the digital economy.
Blockchain technology plays a key role in this process. Through a decentralized architecture, blockchain provides a secure, autonomous, and transparent operating environment for AI systems. It allows agents to manage digital assets on-chain, facilitating autonomous operations and immutable records, while ensuring a trust foundation for multi-party collaborations through smart contracts. This combination not only enhances the functionality of AI agents but also offers new business models and incentive mechanisms for developers and users.
Virtuals Protocol is an important platform for promoting the development of AI agents and decentralized applications. By introducing a co-ownership model, Virtuals Protocol transforms AI agents into community assets, enabling users to jointly participate in the development, operation, and revenue distribution of the agents.
1. What is Virtuals Protocol?
Virtuals Protocol is a protocol for high-depth integration of AI and the metaverse, set to launch in 2024, aiming to completely transform virtual interactions by creating ultra-personalized and immersive experiences.
At the core of Virtuals Protocol is the integration of advanced AI agents into digital environments such as gaming, the metaverse, and online interactions, utilizing a distributed architecture to enhance creativity, diversity, and trust, ensuring that virtual participation is innovative and equitable.
Virtuals Protocol will further enhance the sense of connection and immersion through generative AI and multimodal outputs (text, sound, and visual effects), making each virtual experience a unique journey. This approach not only elevates the user experience but also creates new economic opportunities for developers, creators, and users within the ecosystem.
The co-ownership model of Virtuals Protocol is a highlight, allowing users to invest in and co-own AI-based virtual assets, such as AI companions and virtual influencers. These assets are highly valuable on platforms like Roblox and TikTok. In this way, Virtuals Protocol encourages shared responsibility and community ownership, distributing benefits to all participants.
2. How Does Virtuals Protocol Work?
Virtuals Protocol operates on a decentralized ecosystem that encourages the creation and use of AI agents (VIRTUAL). These agents integrate various core modules, including cognitive core, voice and sound core, and visual core, enabling complex multimodal interactions.
Virtuals Protocol is an advanced framework designed to manage and coordinate the use of AI agent functionalities in various consumer applications. It is equipped with robust infrastructure that supports external applications' interaction with AI agents through an 'agent prompt interface.' This interface acts like a bridge, enabling smooth communication and task execution for AI agents. Developers can integrate the capabilities of Virtuals Protocol into their applications through a series of APIs and SDKs, achieving dynamic AI-driven functions. This bidirectional interface not only facilitates real-time data flow but also allows AI agents to execute complex tasks, respond to user interactions, and perform computations efficiently.
Through these functions, VIRTUAL can act like characters in IP, performing specific tasks and even serving as digital versions of individuals, enhancing the entertainment and practicality of virtual spaces. The ecosystem includes two main levels:
Protocol Layer: Provides fundamental AI models and algorithms for developers to access and build upon. Contributors provide data and development models, while validators ensure the quality and authenticity of these inputs.
DApp Layer: Focuses on the practical applications of AI models, allowing decentralized applications to seamlessly integrate VIRTUAL. Developer-friendly software development kits (SDKs) simplify the process of integrating advanced AI functionalities into various DApp environments.
Economic incentives play an important role in supporting the development of the Virtuals Protocol ecosystem. The efforts of contributors and validators are rewarded with VIRTUAL tokens, ensuring a continuous influx of high-quality data and models. Meanwhile, the protocol repurchases VIRTUAL tokens using the revenue generated from DApps, maintaining the stability and long-term development of token value.
3. Core Technology of Virtuals Protocol
Generative AI: Generates text, sound, and visuals, bringing deeper and more meaningful experiences.
Multimodal Output: Enhances the immersion and vividness of virtual interactions through cross-media functionalities.
Distributed Ecosystem: Ensures high quality and reliability of data and resources through a decentralized architecture and parallel mechanisms.
4. Founding Team and Financing Information of Virtuals Protocol
The co-founder of Virtuals Protocol comes from BCG and Imperial College, and has long been engaged in the cryptocurrency field. The AI team consists of PhDs from prestigious universities such as MIT, Harvard, and Cambridge. More importantly, this team has persevered through the bear market. Since its transformation from a gaming guild in December 2021, it unexpectedly accumulated AI talent and infrastructure by experimenting with a venture studio model throughout 2022, ultimately fully transitioning to consumer AI combined with cryptocurrency in December 2023, accompanied by a brand overhaul.
5. Token Economics of Virtuals Protocol
$VIRTUAL token is the core currency of the Virtuals protocol, used for all agent token transactions. It operates on the Ethereum Layer 2 Base chain. If users want to purchase VIRTUAL Agents tokens within the ecosystem, they need to first exchange for VIRTUAL and then use VIRTUAL for the purchase. The First will launch $VIRTUAL today, allowing users to trade directly on the platform, avoiding complicated trading processes.
The total supply cap of $VIRTUAL is 1 billion tokens, all of which have been fully unlocked. The distribution includes 60% in public circulation, 5% allocated to the liquidity pool, and 35% stored in the ecosystem treasury. This treasury is managed by a DAO, with a maximum annual emission cap of 10% over the next three years.
As the utility and governance token of the Virtuals Protocol ecosystem, it possesses multiple functions, including encouraging contributions, supporting development decisions, and managing protocol funds. By staking VIRTUAL tokens, token holders can influence AI agent projects that receive development support, ensuring resource allocation aligns with community interests.
The distribution structure of VIRTUAL is: 60% for public circulation, 5% for the liquidity pool, and 35% reserved for the ecosystem's finances. The ecosystem's funds are managed by the Virtuals Protocol DAO, supporting community-driven projects and requiring governance approval for expenditures, ensuring sustainable development and reasonable resource allocation. The use of VIRTUAL tokens establishes a self-sustaining economic system, empowering AI agents while enabling holders to participate in the development and governance of the protocol.
Whenever a new AI agent is generated, corresponding tokens (agent tokens) are issued and paired with VIRTUAL tokens, creating a market for agent ownership. Agent token holders, as co-owners, can participate in the governance and revenue distribution of the agent. This mechanism effectively addresses the income distribution problem for AI developers and data contributors while reducing the complexity for application developers implementing AI agents.
6. Future Value Analysis of VIRTUAL
Virtuals Protocol achieves decentralized co-ownership of AI agents, turning these agents into revenue-generating assets owned by the community. Users can easily deploy AI agents using the protocol's development stack (including SDK and Interference API) and profit within the virtual economy.
This market-driven and co-ownership model aligns with Virtuals Protocol's mission to promote innovation and inclusivity in the AI and gaming industries. As the ecosystem develops and more users participate, Virtuals Protocol has the potential to become a leader in the integration of AI and the metaverse.
Its future value is reflected in several aspects:
Market Demand: With the rapid development of generative AI and the metaverse, the demand for efficient, secure, and user-friendly AI agent solutions will continue to grow.
Ecosystem Expansion: The protocol attracts more users through IAO (Initial Agent Offering) and the co-ownership mechanism of agent tokens, injecting continuous vitality into the ecosystem.
Decentralized Innovation: Ensures the long-term sustainability of the protocol through community governance and decentralized incentive mechanisms.
Repurchase Program: Supports token buyback and burn through DApp revenue, providing long-term support for token value.