Original title: Crypto Enabled Accelerationism Bubble
Original author: yb effect, crypto Kol
Original translation by: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editor's note: This article points out that as cryptocurrency technology is gradually accepted by mainstream tech fields, with the relaxation of cryptocurrency regulations, the expansion of the accelerationism bubble, and the continuous emergence of iconic cases driven by cryptocurrency, early DePin, DeSci, and the popularity of AI are already showing trends and opportunities. In the future, more innovators will use crypto + technology for project financing and development, and the next four years may indeed be the explosive moment for the real application of cryptocurrency technology.
Below is the original content (for ease of reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):
Last month, I developed a habit of saving tweets related to AI agents whenever I came across them on Twitter, for later in-depth research. At the same time, I noticed an interesting phenomenon: many updates and releases about agent technology are even unrelated to the meta-trends of Truth Terminal or Zerebro.
For example:
Stripe has released documentation on integrating payment functionality into agent workflows.
Balaji retweeted Aravind Srinivas's request for the development of a Perplexity browser that treats agents as first-class citizens.
OtCo demonstrated a process for an agent to create an LLC in Delaware for its own needs.
Circle launched a detailed tutorial explaining how developers can integrate USDC into various agents.
Just a few days ago, Satya Nadella showcased a demo of Copilot Workspace, the first integrated development environment (IDE) centered around agents.
Well, you might be thinking... there's nothing special about this, right? After all, isn't it normal for big tech companies to discuss agent technology? Who isn't discussing it! But that's exactly where my point lies—this is the first time I feel that the cryptocurrency consumer bubble we are in is discussing the same topics as the entire tech industry. Perhaps the styles are different, but they definitely belong to the same category. Cryptocurrency has always seemed 'weird' to ordinary people. Even within the tech circle, cryptocurrency is often seen as that annoying little brother. And this view is not without reason! The crazy headlines our industry has generated are far too many, and even most people in the industry admit that some trends are indeed too outrageous.
Previously, mainstream trends in the cryptocurrency space rarely overlapped with other tech sectors in the short term. For example, what is the connection between a top LLM (large language model) engineer and a project with 10,000 PFP (profile picture) images? Or, why would a scientist researching life extension care about new yield assets?
Overall, the narratives in the cryptocurrency space in the past have attracted more attention from artists and quantitative analysts. But now, there is finally an opportunity to break this cycle! Although we are far from that stage, I personally already see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Here are three topics worth delving into:
1. Relaxation of cryptocurrency regulation
2. Accelerationism Bubble
3. Iconic cases driven by cryptocurrency
Relaxation of cryptocurrency regulation
This week, SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler announced that he will resign on January 20 next year. If you've spent even a week in this field, you know this news is as impactful as Harry Potter defeating Voldemort.
Over the past four years, Gensler has been the biggest obstacle for the US cryptocurrency industry. He not only slowed down the regulatory process but also actively took action against this emerging industry. Linda's tweet accurately pointed this out—companies like Coinbase, Consensys, and countless others have been forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying and fighting in Washington.
Now it seems that the candidates likely to take over the chairmanship are about to make a complete turnaround.
Regardless of who ultimately takes this position, one thing is clear: Trump has made it clear that he wants to embrace cryptocurrency more actively than the previous administration, and frankly, this threshold is not that high.
In my election week post (Where Did the $133 Million of Fairshake PAC Go?), I mentioned that Bernie Moreno (Republican) received $40.1 million in donations to defeat Sherrod Brown (Democrat) in the Ohio Senate election.
In the end, Moreno won the election, which is undoubtedly a significant victory for the entire cryptocurrency space. He has long been a supporter of cryptocurrency, while Brown has been one of the major obstacles to cryptocurrency regulation in the Senate.
Finally, it's worth mentioning that the mere discussion about the US strategic Bitcoin reserve is already incredible! Three months ago, if someone had mentioned this, I would have said it was a dream. However, with the significant changes in cryptocurrency momentum over the past few weeks—rising prices, massive inflows into BlackRock ETFs, etc.—we have to seriously consider the fact that the federal government might really include Bitcoin in its balance sheet.
So how do these regulatory news relate to the crossover of cryptocurrency into broader technology adoption?
One important reason is that developers from other tech fields have long felt uncertain about the reliability of crypto technology. In the US, many believe that combining this highly volatile technology with their lifelong careers is too risky, especially with potential legal risks such as lawsuits and fines.
However, as the new government gradually embraces cryptocurrency and implements clear regulatory policies, this situation will soon change. Developers from other fields will begin to feel at ease and strategically explore applications of cryptocurrency.
Vitalik's summary is very on point, as mentioned in the screenshot— the lack of a clear regulatory framework has deterred many serious project developers, stifling the growth of this technology.
Those who do not actively develop within the ecosystem often form impressions of cryptocurrency through some exaggerated news headlines, such as 'someone became a millionaire through Moodeng or Bonk.' Clearly, this selling point is not enough to persuade top engineers like those at Anthropic to participate in the technical development of cryptocurrency, right?
I hope that in the coming four years, politicians who support cryptocurrency will do their utmost to make it easier and safer for outsiders to adopt this technology.
Accelerationism Bubble
Last week, I read Packy's article (The Trump Bubble), which mentioned that the next four years will be the best time for adventure, vision-driven, and futurist optimism. Although I don't completely agree with his viewpoint—some content seems a bit exaggerated and flashy—many points he raised are indeed worth pondering, such as the new way we are beginning to view change.
This phenomenon is referred to as the inflection bubble by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Harris.
The definition of the inflection bubble is: 'Investors believe that the future will be significantly different from the past.' For example, the internet bubble. People believe that the form of the future will change dramatically, and thus invest in things they think will benefit the most from this change.
The relationship with cryptocurrency
I mention this because I believe cryptocurrency (rather than traditional venture capital) is likely to become the financial pillar of the next inflection bubble.
Taking the future of decentralized agents as an example, I will let Truth Terminal explain this phenomenon. If you don't want to read the full text, here are the key points to understand:
I am not saying that 90% of MEME coins will succeed right now. On the contrary, this form is still very new, and MEME coins might only challenge those traditionally seen as 'good investments' when we start seeing smarter token economic designs.
With the rising heat in industries like energy, artificial intelligence, biosciences, and gaming, a situation may arise where combining AI agents with cryptocurrency tokens could increase the efficiency of trying new ideas by tenfold.
Imagine if you were a nuclear engineering veteran who has worked in the energy sector for decades, wanting to realize some of your visions. You might need to spend months convincing venture capitalists to invest in your ideas, assemble a team, build a community, etc.
Or you could do this:
1. Write a white paper detailing your background, arguments, plans, and visions.
2. Deploy a 'brand agent' on Twitter to help spread your ideas.
3. Raise initial funds through token issuance.
4. Collaborate with agents to build a real fan community (e.g., social rewards).
5. Grow your team from this community, and you can also utilize bounty mechanisms.
This is almost describing the ICO frenzy of 2017, but I can't help but think that ICOs might have just come too early. It seems to me that changes such as improvements in crypto infrastructure, a supportive regulatory environment for crypto, market maturation, and institutional adoption are indeed influential!
That said, the aforementioned framework will still produce thousands of meaningless projects. But how is this different from the 'power law' that venture capitalists always talk about?
This is my perspective: We have yet to see true high-energy builders from other tech fields genuinely attempt to realize their visions through cryptocurrency-driven financing.
In 2017, this was clearly not the case. By 2024, perhaps only a few early DePin and DeSci projects can slightly reflect this trend.
But as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, for the first time I feel that the focus of the cryptocurrency space overlaps with that of other tech sectors.
Not only AI agents but also topics like bioscience research, GPU resource allocation, etc., are starting to intersect with discussions in the cryptocurrency field.
I haven't researched pump.science in detail yet, but I'm not surprised it has become one of the hottest topics in the field. Indeed, the crazy speculation surrounding it, legitimacy, and security issues need to be addressed over time (I hope people in the cryptocurrency space can acknowledge this). But the emphasis should be on the excitement people generally feel about the concept of applying cryptocurrency financing to non-cryptocurrency missions.
The key point here 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 a closed boardroom. People are eager to participate! But the fact is, perhaps this technology and social consensus need time to develop. And now, it seems that a perfect storm is gathering: positive changes in the political management, the increasing maturity of cryptocurrency and AI technologies, and the plethora of ideas brought about by the accelerationist bubble.
However, even so, I believe a critical factor is still missing to truly take this concept seriously!
Representative figures empowered by cryptocurrency
Recently, one of the coolest aspects of the hot topics around Onchain AI and Goat is that it has attracted some AI/LLM developers into the cryptocurrency space. I bet no one could have predicted this interview with Threadguy and Andy Ayery.
People like Nick Liverman (founder of Chaos), who have dedicated their entire careers to projects like robotics and transhumanism, may have earned more money in the past month than in the last ten years combined!
It's also cool to see Beff Jezos cheering for his friend Shaw, who is building the ai16z and Eliza framework, a launch platform for agent tokens. It's not just Beff's involvement, but some deep industry players in AI are starting to pay attention to what's happening in the cryptocurrency space through experiments by LLM developers on Onchain AI. This is a fantastic phenomenon, indicating that the intersection of AI and cryptocurrency is deepening.
The key point I want to express is that in the coming year, we will see some people from different tech fields truly embrace cryptocurrency and demonstrate the efficiency of agent and token models in building large-scale projects. Once we see several successful operating models, others will start excitedly trying to launch their own ideas. Currently, all these token issuances and experiments are still in the 'minor leagues.'
Just a few success stories, and everyone will flock to it.
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