Author: Haotian
Many people are puzzled as to why $PHA suddenly became a sensation. To put it abstractly, even @PhalaNetwork may not have expected to become the chosen one so suddenly. Because the explosion of PHA has both contingency and necessity, and it is not something that any overt or covert plan can bring about. There are three key points:
1) Phala Network's hard work on TEE technology is the "necessity" that led to this event. Why is that?
TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) is not a new concept, but in the mainstream crypto technology narrative of the past few years, it has been a "niche" technology. For example, there have been many high-performance chains competing on the advantages of languages like RUST and MOVE, and there has also been a wave of ZK technology with ZK as the main theme. TEE and technologies like MPC, FHE, and Blind Compute have occasionally appeared in the differentiated positioning of individual projects, but they are completely different from the popular ZK.
In fact, while mainstream chains are focusing on the efficiency of block space usage (MEV, TPS, Gas, etc.), ZK technology is only applied to the most basic trusted state changes between layer1 and layer2, and the advantages of ZK technology in the underlying zkVM virtual machine and the evolution of zkSNARKs chain data structures have not yet come into play, let alone achieving large-scale mass adoption.
The main reason is that the previous technological narrative has been pursuing a pure "on-chain" environment, and ZK is the first step in separating off-chain computation and on-chain verification, but the ultimate goal is still to serve the "on-chain". The trusted execution environment of TEE is naturally the "pre-processing" process of the "off-chain" secure enclave environment.
It can serve the on-chain, and is also the result of the gradual expansion of the new narrative of pre-confirmation by leading projects like Unichain and Flashbot. In other words, without combining with the chain, TEE is simply a mature Web2 technology, but when combined with the chain, it can bring useful applications such as trusted pre-processing and isolated privacy computing.
Therefore, those who dare to apply TEE technology to the blockchain field must have the patience to withstand loneliness, and also have unique and wise insights. In this regard, PhalaNetwork undoubtedly has a mature TEE solution.
2) What Phala Network didn't expect was that a mysterious client called "ai16z" suddenly emerged and adopted its TEE solution, which is the biggest "contingency" factor in the explosion of PHA.
After seeing the news about AI-Pool's official Twitter account announcing the self-issuance of AI Agent tokens, I immediately posted a technical analysis of the TEE solution (TEE can enable AI to achieve autonomous custody of private keys and signing applications in a usable but invisible secure enclave environment), as well as the historic opportunity that Phala and ai16z's collaboration may have stepped on. (This is also an excellent entry point for most retail investors).
The super commercial IP status of ai16z in the AI Agent track is self-evident, and the fact that AI-Pool has adopted Phala's TEE solution at least indicates two things:
Phala's TEE solution has many mature business cases and has been chosen by ai16z;
Phala's TEE solution will be the first to benefit from the commercial grand vision of the AI Agent token issuance craze.
Understanding this, it is natural to understand what Phala can gain from the phenomenal event of AI-Pool's self-issuance of AI Agent tokens. A very natural logic is that as the AI Agent token issuance craze continues to drive, the private key management and remote authentication services provided by TEE will become an "essential" business, and the entire set of on-chain verifiable consensus adapted to the TEE off-chain environment will become a bonus, which can be said to be the new infrastructure of the AI Agent era.
So even if I don't really understand Phala Network, it doesn't matter. I think I understand better the market potential and incremental opportunities that may explode from AI Agent + TEE and AI Agent + Chain.
3) What really gave Phala Network the push was the currently hot AI Agent narrative. I have pinned multiple articles on my Twitter profile highlights revolving around the AI Agent narrative, and new followers can take a look. The subtext of those articles is "don't miss out, don't miss out, don't miss out".
Because AI Agent has evolved from AI MEME to the emergence of platforms like Virutual and Vvaifu, to the emergence of individual AIs like @aixbt_agent and Zerebro, to the emergence of frameworks and standards like ELIZA and ARC, until old chains like Phala are blown into the wind, everything is evolving rapidly, almost beyond everyone's imagination. Why?
For one reason, because this is a historic great opportunity, a main wave of the level of the DeFi Summer. The outburst of innovative gameplay, the hunger for hot money, and the opportunities created by information asymmetry in this process are destined to remain "scorching hot".
That's why I've been shouting the slogan so loudly, just hoping that more retail investors can grab the Alpha growth opportunities in it, and more project parties can get out of the "inability to deliver" dilemma of the old VC coin narrative.
A new narrative tornado is blowing, and the purpose is not just to blow dust in your face (chicken feathers), but to send you to the wind, to become that rich little piglet.
By the way, the subtext of this passage is that you don't need to worry about missing out on PHA, because Phala is just one of the players in the wind, the first to reap the trend dividends. Following the evolutionary logic and direction I have outlined, believe me, there will definitely be more opportunities to come.
