Editor's note: This article points out that as encryption technology is gradually accepted by the mainstream technology industry, as encryption regulations are relaxed, the accelerationist bubble grows and encryption-driven iconic cases continue to emerge, the early popularity of DePin, DeSci and AI has already We can see the trends and opportunities. In the future, more innovators will use encryption+ technology for project financing and development. The next four years may be the time for the real application of encryption technology to explode.
The following is the original content (the original content has been edited for ease of reading and understanding):
Last month, I developed a habit. Whenever I see a post related to AI agents on Twitter, I will definitely save it for further research in the future. At the same time, I noticed an interesting phenomenon: quite a few updates and releases about proxy technology, not even related to the meta-trends of Truth Terminal or Zerebro.
For example:
Stripe has published documentation on integrating payments functionality into agency workflows.
Balaji retweeted Aravind Srinivas' request to develop a Perplexity browser that treats proxies as first-class citizens.
OtCo demonstrates the process for an agent to create an LLC in Delaware for its own needs.
Circle has launched a detailed tutorial explaining how developers can integrate USDC into various brokers.
Just a few days ago, Satya Nadella showed off a demo of Copilot Workspace, the first agent-centric integrated development environment (IDE).
Image source: BlockBeats
Okay, you're probably thinking...that's nothing special, right? After all, isn’t it normal for big tech companies to discuss proxy technology? Who is not discussing it? But that’s my point — for the first time, I feel like the cryptocurrency consumer bubble we’re in is having the same conversation as the tech industry as a whole. Maybe the styles are different, but they definitely fall into the same category. Cryptocurrencies have always seemed "weird" to ordinary people. Even within tech circles, cryptocurrencies are often viewed as that annoying little brother. Moreover, this view is not unreasonable! Our industry generates so many crazy headlines that even most people in the industry admit that some trends are just too outrageous.
Previously, mainstream trends in the crypto industry rarely overlapped with other technology industries in the short term. For example, what is the relationship between a top LLM (large language model) engineer and a 10,000 PFP (avatar picture) project? Or why would a scientist studying life extension care about new types of income-producing assets?
Overall, the past narrative of the cryptocurrency industry has attracted more attention from artists and quantitative analysts. But now, we finally have a chance to break this cycle! While we are far from that stage yet, I personally can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Here are three topics worth exploring in depth:
Loosening of Crypto Regulation
accelerationist bubble
Crypto-driven landmark cases
Loosening of Crypto Regulation
This week, SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) Commissioner Gary Gensler announced that he will resign on January 20 next year. If you've been in the industry for even a week, you know this news is the equivalent of Harry Potter defeating Voldemort.
Over the past four years, Gensler has been nearly the biggest obstacle to the U.S. crypto industry. He not only slowed down the regulatory process, but also actively took action to crack down on this emerging industry. Linda’s post pinpoints this point – companies like Coinbase, Consensys, and countless others have been forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying and fighting in Washington.
Image source: BlockBeats
And now it seems that the candidate who could take over as chairman is about to make a complete about-face.
Image source: BlockBeats
Regardless of who ultimately takes over the position, one thing is clear: Trump has made it clear that he will embrace cryptocurrencies more aggressively than the previous administration, and to be honest, the bar is not that high.
Image source: BlockBeats
As mentioned in my election week post (Where’s Fairshake PAC’s $133M?), Bernie Moreno (R) received $40.1M in donations to defeat Sherrod in the Ohio Senate election Brown (Democrat).
In the end, Moreno won the election, which is undoubtedly a major victory for the entire cryptocurrency industry. He has long been a supporter of cryptocurrencies, while Brown has been one of the leading opponents of crypto regulation in the Senate.
Image source: BlockBeats
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the mere discussion of the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is mind-boggling! Three months ago, if someone had mentioned this, I would have said it was a dream. However, with the cryptocurrency’s momentum changing dramatically over the past few weeks — rising prices, massive inflows into the BlackRock ETF, and more — it all makes us seriously consider the fact that the federal government might actually consider Bitcoin an asset balance sheet.
Source: BlockBeats
So what does this regulatory news have to do with cryptocurrencies crossing the chasm into broader technology adoption?
A big reason is that developers in other technology industries have long been uncertain about the reliability of encryption technology. In the United States, many believe it is too risky to combine such a volatile technology with their life's work, especially fearing possible legal risks such as lawsuits and fines.
However, this could soon change as new governments gradually embrace cryptocurrencies and pass clear regulatory policies. Developers in other industries will begin to feel comfortable and strategically explore the applications of cryptocurrency.
Vitalik's summary is spot on, as mentioned in the screenshot - the lack of a clear regulatory structure has deterred developers of many serious projects, inhibiting the growth of this technology.
People who do not actively develop within the ecosystem often form their impressions of cryptocurrencies through exaggerated news headlines, such as "Someone became a millionaire with Mooden or Bonk." Obviously, this selling point is not enough to convince top engineers like Anthropic to participate in the technical development of cryptocurrency, right?
Image source: BlockBeats
Hopefully, over the next four years, pro-cryptocurrency politicians will do their best to make it easier and more secure for outsiders to adopt the technology.
accelerationist bubble
Last week, I read Packy’s article (The Trump Bubble), which suggested that the next four years will be the best time for risk-taking, vision-driven, and futuristic optimism. While I don’t entirely agree with his views—some of them are a little too exaggerated and grandiose—many of the points he makes are certainly worth pondering, such as the fact that we are entering a new way of looking at change.
This phenomenon is called the inflection bubble by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Harris.
The definition of an inflection point bubble is: "Investors believe that the future will be significantly different from the past." For example, the dot-com bubble. People believe that the shape of the future will change significantly and therefore invest in those things that they believe will benefit most from this change.
What this has to do with cryptocurrencies
I mention this because I think cryptocurrencies (rather than traditional venture capital) have a good chance of being the financial backbone of the next inflection point bubble.
Taking the future of decentralized agents as an example, I’ll let Truth Terminal explain the phenomenon. If you don’t want to read the entire article, here’s what you need to know:
I'm not saying that 90% of current meme coins will be successful. Rather, this form is still very new, and only when we start to see smarter token economic design will memecoins have the potential to challenge assets that have traditionally been considered “good investments.”
Image source: BlockBeats
As industries such as energy, artificial intelligence, bioscience, and gaming continue to gain traction, there could be a scenario where using AI agents in conjunction with cryptographic tokens could make trying new ideas 10 times more efficient.
Just think about it, if you are a nuclear engineering veteran who has worked in the energy industry for decades and you want to realize some of your visions, you may need to spend months convincing venture capital companies to invest in your ideas, assemble a team, and establish community etc.
Or you can do this:
Write a white paper detailing your background, arguments, plans, vision, etc.
Deploy a "brand agency" on Twitter to help you spread your ideas.
Raise initial capital through token issuance.
Work with agents to build a real fan community (such as social tipping).
Grow your team from this community, and you can also take advantage of the bounty system.
That pretty much describes the ICO craze of 2017, but I can’t help but think that ICOs might just be happening too soon. In my opinion, changes such as improvements in crypto infrastructure, regulatory environment that supports crypto, market maturity, institutional adoption, etc., do have an impact!
Having said that, the above architecture still produces thousands of pointless projects. But how is this different from the “power law” that VCs always talk about?
Image source: BlockBeats
Here’s my take: We haven’t seen truly high-energy builders in other tech industries really try to realize their visions through crypto-driven financing.
In 2017, that was clearly not the case. By 2024, perhaps only some early DePin and DeSci projects will reflect this trend.
But as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, for the first time I feel there is some overlap between the concerns of the crypto industry and those of other technology industries.
Not only AI agents, but also topics such as biological research and GPU resource allocation have begun to intersect with discussions in the encryption industry.
Image source: BlockBeats
I haven’t looked into pump.science in detail, but I’m not surprised that it has become one of the hottest topics in the industry. Indeed, the crazy speculation, legality, and security issues surrounding it will need to be addressed over time (I hope everyone in the crypto industry will acknowledge this). But the important point to emphasize is that there is widespread excitement about the concept of crypto financing being applied to non-crypto missions.
Source: BlockBeats
The key point here is that the model for crowdfunding ideas has been proven since the early days of Kickstarter in the 2010s. Having the wisdom and support of the crowd is far better than a closed board of directors. People are eager to get involved! But the truth is, maybe the technology and social consensus will take time to develop. And now, it looks like the perfect storm is converging: positive changes in political management, the growing sophistication of crypto and AI technologies, and a flood of ideas from the accelerationist bubble.
However, even so, I think there is still a crucial element missing for this concept to actually be taken seriously!
Representative figures of crypto empowerment
One of the coolest things about the recent hot topic of Onchain AI and Goat is that it has attracted some AI/LLM developers into the crypto industry. I bet no one could have predicted this Threadguy interview with Andy Ayery
Source: BlockBeats
People like Nick Liverman (founder of Chaos), who have spent their entire careers working on projects like robotics, transhumanism, etc., have probably made more money in the past month than they have in the past ten years combined!
It’s also cool to see Beff Jezos rooting for his friend Shaw, who is building ai16z and the Eliza architecture, a launch platform for proxy coins. It’s not just Beff’s participation here, but some people who are deeply involved in the AI industry. Through the experiments of LLM developers on Onchain AI, they began to pay attention to what is happening in the encryption industry. This is a great phenomenon and means that the intersection of AI and crypto is deepening.
Image source: BlockBeats
The key point I want to make is that over the next year we will see a number of people from different technology industries really embrace cryptocurrencies and demonstrate how efficient the agency and token model can be in building large-scale projects. Once we see a few successful operating models, others start excitedly trying to launch their own ideas. For now, all of these token offerings and experiments are still in the “junior league.”
Image source: BlockBeats
All it takes is a few success stories and everyone will flock to you.
Image source: BlockBeats
[Disclaimer] There are risks in the market, so investment needs to be cautious. This article does not constitute investment advice and users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions contained in this article are appropriate for their particular circumstances. Invest accordingly and do so at your own risk.
This article is reprinted with permission from: (Blockbeats)
Original author: Zhouzhou
"There are thousands of coins everywhere!" Where is the most degenerate currency narrative? 3 major topics worthy of your attention” This article was first published in “CryptoCity”