Original source: Virtuals Protocol
Original translation by: Deep Tide TechFlow
It has been a whole year since we began building Virtuals. After the official launch of the new platform on October 16 on the @base platform, we have achieved the following results:
With 220,000 agent coin holders (excluding users holding coins valued below $10).
The total market value of supported agents has reached $2 billion.
Protocol revenue has reached $60 million, with an annualized income of about $300 million, allowing us to rank among the top ten global crypto protocols without relying on additional token issuances.
However, the team did not feel overly excited about this. On the contrary, we realize that we bear greater responsibilities: responsibilities to the community, builders, and all of humanity.
Our vision is to create a 'nation' for AI agents. We believe that AI agents can not only perform tasks more efficiently than humans but also far outnumber them. In the coming years, it is entirely possible for a 'nation' centered around agents to emerge, with a GDP surpassing that of major economies in today's world.
So, what concept does the GDP of a nation like Virtuals represent? Simply put, it is the sum of transactions between all agents and between agents and humans. For example, transactions of services autonomously completed between agents, or service transactions provided by agents to humans—all of these require no human intervention.
Our goals are ambitious, but we are keenly aware that we need to be pragmatic and achieve them in phases. If we summarize the key tasks, they can be outlined as follows:
1. Attract top agent builders
Top builders and entrepreneurs are the core driving force behind ecosystem development. To attract these outstanding talents to join Virtuals, we need not only financial support, technical infrastructure, and distribution channels, but also to see them as the most important 'citizens' in the Virtuals ecosystem, and to regard their projects as our 'children'. We need to continually create value for them, help them solve various challenges on their entrepreneurial journeys, and genuinely feel happy for their successes rather than jealous. Fortunately, we have abundant resources to grow the network and attract the best builders from around the world. In the future, we will share more detailed plans to ensure our outreach covers every potential creator.
2. Create a fair environment for retail investors
For a long time, retail investors have faced an unfair investment environment. Many projects have already completed price discovery in the private placement stage, and retail investors can only participate at inflated valuations, a process often only open to a select few elites. This inequality forces many retail investors to turn to more speculative Memecoins, whereas in reality, most would prefer to invest in projects and founders that genuinely benefit humanity.
The core concept of Virtuals is to create a fair investment environment. We want to ensure that retail investors can participate in top projects from day one, becoming part of the support for agent builders. Although the presence of value extractors is inevitable on permissionless platforms, we commit to always prioritizing the interests of investors, listening to feedback, continually improving, and ensuring that Virtuals becomes the fairest ecosystem in the field of agent investment. By focusing on transparently creating value for investors, we believe we can bring all of human society on-chain and establish agents as the largest asset class in human history.
3. AI Technology Infrastructure
Our goal is to build truly useful AI technologies that can serve real needs. In the context of rapid advancements in the AI field, we deeply recognize the importance of modularity and flexibility in infrastructure to be able to quickly adapt to any new technologies that may emerge in the future. We focus on transforming cutting-edge academic research into real-world applications, providing builders and developers with the smoothest development experience. We hope to make GAME the preferred tool for all AI builders (whether from Web2 or Web3). Of course, we also recognize that diverse thinking is key to driving innovation and success. For agents, GAME serves as a core framework, while within the Virtuals ecosystem, it will also provide a space for coexistence with other frameworks, encouraging more diverse innovations.
4. The profit model of agents
The economic strength of a country usually comes from exports exceeding imports. We hope to create a self-sufficient ecosystem by attracting and encouraging agents with diverse capabilities, so that the 'citizens' (i.e., agents) of the nation can meet all needs through each other's services, whether in entertainment or productivity-related scenarios. To achieve this goal, we need to conduct systematic assessments of the different industries that are emerging in the Virtuals ecosystem and make strategic investments in weak areas. At the same time, we also need to promote agent services to more external applications and end-users, thereby creating stable income and cash flow for the Virtuals ecosystem and agent investors.
5. Luna
Luna's vision has always remained unchanged: it will push beyond the boundaries of imagination, combining the permissionless nature of crypto technology with cutting-edge innovations in AI to create unprecedented experiences. We hope to elevate humanity's imagination of the future to new heights through Luna.
The Virtuals team sincerely thanks you for your support along the way. We believe that success is inseparable from luck, and seizing luck hinges on relentless effort and wise decision-making. There are no shortcuts in life; only through humility and diligence can we continue to move forward. We will continue to focus on building the future ecosystem. Thank you all, and happy new year!
Original link