Combining AI agents and crypto tokens is more efficient than traditional methods and allows for better experimentation with new ideas.
Written by: yb_effect
Translated by: Block unicorn
In the past month, I've developed a habit of bookmarking any tweets related to AI agents I see while browsing X, so I can do a deeper dive later.
In the past two weeks, I've noticed a large number of agent announcements even unrelated to Truth Terminal / Zerebro's metadata.
For example:
Stripe released documentation on how to add payments to agent workflows.
Balaji retweeted Aravind Srinivas's tweet, requesting Perplexity browser to treat agents as first-class citizens.
OtCo demonstrated an agent that created a limited liability company in Delaware based on its own needs.
Circle released a detailed tutorial guiding developers on how to integrate USDC into various agents.
Satya Nadella demonstrated Copilot Workspace just a few days ago, which is the first integrated development environment (IDE) for agents.
Well, you might be thinking... this isn't anything special, right?
Of course, it's expected that these large tech companies are talking about agents. After all, who isn’t talking about it?
But that's exactly my point—it's the first time it feels like the crypto consumer circle we are in is discussing the same things as other tech industries. Maybe the presentation is different, but the core concepts definitely belong to the same category.
Of course, crypto always feels strange to the average person. But even in the tech world, the crypto industry is seen as that annoying 'brat'. Frankly, it’s not without reason! The various crazy news generated by this industry is hard to believe, and even many insiders have to admit that some trends are truly 'ridiculous'.
At least in the short term, the previous meta trends in the crypto industry had almost no intersection with other tech fields. For example, what does a top LLM engineer have to do with a 10K PFP project? And why would a scientist researching longevity care about new yield assets?
So far, the narrative in cryptocurrency has largely attracted artists and quantitative investors.
But now it finally feels like there is an opportunity to break this cycle!
Clearly, we are still a long way from this, but I personally do see a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel.
Here are three topics worth discussing in depth:
Relaxed cryptocurrency regulation
Accelerationist bubble
Crypto-driven iconic cases
Let's explore this in detail.
Relaxed cryptocurrency regulation
This week, SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler announced he would resign on January 20. If you have spent even a week in the crypto space, you will understand that this news is as significant as Harry Potter defeating Voldemort.
For the past four years, Gary Gensler has been almost the biggest 'bottleneck' in the US crypto industry.
He not only slowed down the pace of regulation but, more importantly, actively worked to attack this emerging industry. Linda's tweet illustrates this point—companies like Coinbase, Consensys, and countless others had to spend hundreds of millions lobbying and fighting in Washington.
It seems that the potential candidates for the SEC chair may take a completely opposite stance towards the crypto industry.
Whoever ultimately takes office, one thing is clear: the Trump administration has clearly signaled that they will work harder to embrace the crypto industry compared to the previous administration. Of course, to be honest, this threshold isn’t high.
In the article I published during election week (Where Did the $133 Million for Fairshake PAC Go?), I mentioned that Republican candidate Bernie Moreno raised $40.1 million in his Ohio Senate campaign, defeating Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown.
In the end, Moreno won, which is undoubtedly one of the major victories for the entire crypto field. He has long been a supporter of cryptocurrency, while Brown has been a major obstacle to crypto regulation in the Senate.
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that just discussing the possibility of the US establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve is already shocking! Three months ago, anyone bringing up this topic might have been considered dreaming. However, in the past few weeks, with the surge in crypto market prices and a spike in BlackRock ETF inflows, we have to seriously consider the realistic possibility of the federal government incorporating Bitcoin into its balance sheet.
Well, but how does this regulatory news relate to crypto technology crossing the chasm into wider tech adoption?
A key point is that developers from other tech fields always have concerns about the uncertainties in the crypto industry. They worry that integrating this seemingly unstable technology into their careers could bring massive legal risks, such as lawsuits or fines, making crypto technology seem impractical to them.
However, as the new government begins to embrace crypto technology and enact clear regulatory policies, this situation will change rapidly. Developers from other fields will gradually feel reassured to strategically explore the potential of crypto technology.
Vitalik sums it up well in the screenshot—it's the lack of regulatory clarity for serious projects that hinders more developers from entering the space. Those not active in the crypto ecosystem may form their perceptions of the crypto industry through millionaire headlines like Moodeng and Bonk. This isn’t the best way to persuade a talented engineer at Anthropic to work in cryptocurrency, right?
I hope that in the next four years, politicians who support crypto technology will do their utmost to make it simple and safe for non-crypto people to adopt this technology.
Accelerationist bubble
Last week, I read Packy's article (Trump Bubble), where he proposed that the next four years will be a time of venture capital, vision, and futuristic optimism.
I must clarify that I don't completely agree with the points in the article—some parts feel overly excited and exaggerated. But Packy does present some valuable insights, pointing out that we will experience a shift in the atmosphere regarding how we think about progress. Things in the future will feel faster, crazier, and more experimental.
As Byrne Hobart and Tobias Harris put it, this phenomenon is called the tipping point bubble.
Tipping point bubble: 'Investors believe the future will be substantially different from the past.' You can think of it as the internet bubble. If you believe the future will be different from the past, then you will invest in those things you think will benefit the most from this difference.
I mention this because I believe blockchain, rather than traditional venture capital, may become the financial pillar of the next tipping point bubble.
In the spirit of agents of the future, I will let Truth Terminal explain why.
If you don’t want to read what comes next, here’s the takeaway you need to remember:
I'm not saying I believe 90% of meme coins currently have succeeded—in fact, this format is still very new, and we won’t see meme coins that can compete with what people traditionally consider 'good investments' until we start seeing some truly smart token economics.
As the excitement in energy, artificial intelligence, biosciences, and gaming heats up, it may be the case that combining AI agents and crypto tokens is more efficient than traditional methods and allows for better experimentation with new ideas.
Imagine this. If you are a nuclear engineering expert with decades of experience in the energy sector, wanting to realize your vision, you might spend months persuading venture capitalists to accept your idea, assembling a team, forming a community, and so on.
But you can also do this:
Draft a white paper detailing your background, thesis, plans, vision, etc.
Deploy 'brand agents' on Twitter to help spread your ideas.
Raise initial funds through token issuance.
Collaborate with agents to build a real fan community (i.e., social tipping).
Develop your team from this community, and you can also utilize bounty mechanisms to incentivize contributions.
I know what you might be thinking right now! What I've just described is exactly the 2017 ICO frenzy. And I want to say, you are absolutely right in your thinking. But I feel that maybe it was just that ICOs came too early.
In my opinion, some changes, like improved crypto infrastructure, a supportive regulatory environment for crypto, market maturity, institutional adoption, etc., are indeed significant!
That said, the framework mentioned above will certainly generate thousands of meaningless projects. But how is that different from what venture capitalists have always referred to as 'power law'?
My view is that we have yet to see true high-execution founders from other tech fields genuinely trying to achieve their visions through crypto-driven financing.
Absolutely not in 2017. And in 2024, perhaps there will be some early DePin and DeSci projects.
But as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, for the first time, it feels like there is some overlap between the focus in the crypto space and what other tech fields are concerned about.
Not just agents, but even topics like bioscience research, GPU allocation, etc.
I haven't delved into pump.science yet, but I'm not surprised it's already become one of the hottest topics in the field. There's no doubt that issues around speculation, legitimacy, and security surrounding it need to be addressed over time (I hope anyone in the crypto space will acknowledge this). But the key point to emphasize is that there is general excitement about the concept of crypto financing for non-crypto tasks.
The key insight is that the crowdfunding model for ideas has been validated since the early days of Kickstarter in the 2010s. The wisdom and support of the crowd far outweigh closed-door meetings. People want to participate!
However, perhaps it's precisely because of the time needed for the technology and social consensus required by this model to develop. And now, it seems that a perfect storm is forming: positive changes in political management + the increasing maturity of crypto and AI technology + the accelerationist bubble leading to a surge of creativity.
However, even so, I believe that something is still missing for this concept to be taken seriously!
Crypto-driven iconic cases
One of the coolest things about recent on-chain AI and GOAT metadata is that it has 'attracted' some AI/LLM developers into the crypto space.
I bet no one could have predicted this interview between Threadguy and Andy Ayery.
If you step back and think about it, it's really amazing.
People like Nick Liverman (founder of Chaos) who have devoted their entire careers to projects involving robotics and transhumanism, and they might have made more money in the past month than in the last ten years!
It's cool to see Beff Jezos promoting for his friend Shaw, who is building the ai16z and Eliza framework as a launchpad for agentic tokens. The focus here isn't on Beff, but rather on people delving deep into the AI space, who are actually experimenting with on-chain AI through LLM developers and even have some background knowledge about the crypto field.
The key point I want to express is that in the coming year, we will see some people from different technological verticals officially embrace crypto and demonstrate the efficiency of the agent + token model in building large-scale projects.
Once we see a few successful operational cases, others will be eager to try launching their own ideas; it's just a matter of time.
Currently, all these token issuances and experiments we see are just small-scale activities.
It just takes a few success stories, and others will flock to it.
That's it for today's article. I know the past week has been crazy, but I still hope everyone gets a chance to relax and connect with nature this weekend!
