One of the great promises of decentralized finance in its early days was that it would be the great financial equalizer, that open financial protocols, available to everyone, would usher in a new era of peer-to-peer finance and lower the barriers to credit for traditionally less affluent groups who often find themselves unable to access the investment channels open to the wealthy.
Even though four years have passed since the “Summer of DeFi” that sparked this rhetoric, DeFi still cannot be accepted by the majority due to its inherent poor user experience. Contrary to the initial promise, newcomers immediately encounter a steep learning curve, high gas fees, user interfaces designed to hinder participation, risky protocols, and unstable interoperability.
User interest in DeFi tends to fluctuate with cryptocurrency prices, suggesting that people will be interested when there is an opportunity, however, the incentives need to be large enough to make the user experience worthwhile.
At this stage, solving the problem at the application level seems futile, and the ecosystem has evolved into a Frankenstein-like state where Ethereum now supports a large number of layer 2 platforms, each with its own dApp section, connected by a series of chain bridges and interoperability protocols that must be navigated.
But what if it could simply be abstracted away? A new wave of innovators believes that DeFi represents the low-hanging fruit of AI’s natural language capabilities, and that a ChatGPT-based user layer could provide a more accessible interface that simply executes the user’s wishes in the background.
Combined with emerging technologies based on user outcomes, such as intent, there is an opportunity to remove a large portion of the friction of the user experience, and in doing so, open up more investment opportunities and potential for users.
Gurps Rai, CEO of droppGroup, which develops blockchain-based AI models and platform IP management solutions, elaborated:
“Personalization is another important benefit brought by AI. For example, using AI to analyze user data and provide personalized investment advice can not only improve user satisfaction, but also increase engagement and retention by providing customized financial advice that meets individual needs.”
He also pointed out several examples where AI is already embedded in DeFi, such as Numerai, a hedge fund that uses crowdsourced predictive models to manage its investments, and Harvest Finance, which uses AI to optimize yield farming strategies across multiple platforms.
However, Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist of the DFINITY Foundation, which develops the Internet Computer protocol, has a vision of achieving more comprehensive functionality to make investment management easier. The Internet Computer is building the infrastructure for "decentralized artificial intelligence" - using on-chain smart contracts managed by automated agents.
He explained how it would work: “The AI smart contract can act as a wallet with smart broker functionality, so for example, you can connect to the wallet on your phone and tell it, if BTC reaches $100,000, convert half of my BTC to USDC.”
This refers to future functionality, not something that is available now, and these “wallet smart contracts” can automatically react to trigger points at any point in time, as long as they are programmed to do so.
Another future use case could be combining AI smart contracts with automated market maker smart contracts used on DEXs to automatically change community incentives in a way that attracts maximum liquidity and minimizes slippage, which would further enhance the user experience as issues such as avoiding slippage and minimizing gas fees remain challenges for users.
Merging AI with blockchain technology to create something greater than the sum of its parts is still relatively unexplored territory, and solving DeFi’s user experience problems is far from the only use case being considered.
But if DeFi is to deliver any social or economic benefits beyond niche financial experiments, leveraging the emerging capabilities of AI may be the best way to transform the DeFi user experience from a deterrent to a selling point.
#AI模型 #DEFI2.0 #ICP🚀🚀 #DFINITY
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