Author: YB Source: X, @yb_effect Translator: Shan Eoba, Jinse Finance
In the past month, I have developed a habit: Whenever I come across posts related to AI agents on X (original Twitter), I mark them down for further in-depth research in the future.
In the past two weeks, I have noticed that many announcements about agents are not directly related to Truth Terminal or Zerebro meta.
Some examples include:
1. Stripe released documentation on integrating payment functionality into agent workflows.
2. Balaji retweeted Aravind Srinivas, who suggested developing a Perplexity browser that treats agents as first-class citizens.
3. OtCo demonstrated an agent creating an LLC in Delaware for its own needs.
4. Circle released a detailed tutorial guiding developers on how to integrate USDC into various agents.
5. Just a few days ago, Satya Nadella showcased Copilot Workspace—the first IDE to support agents.
You might think this is nothing special, right?
After all, it's not uncommon for tech giants to discuss agent technology. Almost everyone is focused on this!
But that's precisely my point—for the first time, I feel that the crypto consumer circle we're in is discussing the same thing as the entire tech industry. The forms may be different, but the core is the same.
The relationship between the crypto industry and the tech industry
The crypto industry has always seemed a bit strange to "ordinary people". Even in the tech world, crypto is like that "unpopular little brother". This impression is not without reason: there have been too many crazy news stories in the crypto industry, and even insiders have to admit that some trends are a bit outrageous.
In the past, the crypto hype and other tech fields had little overlap, at least in the short term.
• For example, what connection could a top LLM (large language model) engineer have with a 10k PFP (profile picture) project?
• Or why would a scientist studying longevity care about new yield assets?
In general, the narrative mode of cryptocurrencies is more likely to attract artists and quantitative traders, and is relatively isolated from other tech fields.
But now, there is finally an opportunity to break this cycle!
Although we are still far from that point, I can personally see the "light at the end of the tunnel". There are three topics worth delving into:
1. Relaxation of crypto regulation
2. The bubble of accelerationism
3. Exemplary cases driven by crypto
Let's discuss them one by one.
Relaxation of crypto regulation
This week, Gary Gensler, a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced that he will resign on January 20. If you've been in the crypto industry for even a week, you'll understand the importance of this news, comparable to Harry Potter defeating Voldemort.
Over the past four years, Gensler has been the biggest bottleneck for the U.S. crypto industry.
He not only delayed the progress of regulation, but also actively attacked this emerging industry. As Linda's tweet said, companies like Coinbase and ConsenSys had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying and fighting the government in Washington.
And now, the person who will replace him seems to be moving in the completely opposite direction.
Whoever takes on this position, one thing is clear: the Trump administration is determined to be more supportive of the crypto industry than the previous administration. To be honest, the bar is not that high.
In my post-election week post "Where Did Fairshake PAC's $133 Million Go?", I mentioned that Republican Bernie Moreno received $40.1 million in donations in the Ohio Senate election, defeating Democrat Sherrod Brown.
Moreno's eventual victory was a major win for the entire crypto industry. He is a long-time supporter of cryptocurrencies, while Brown was a huge obstacle to crypto regulation in the Senate.
Moreover, the mere discussion of the possibility of a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is already shocking enough!
Three months ago, if someone had brought up this topic, I would have thought they were dreaming. But in the past few weeks, with the rise in crypto prices and the surge in inflows to the BlackRock ETF, the momentum of the crypto industry has undergone a huge change. Suddenly, the idea of the federal government potentially including Bitcoin on its balance sheet has become something that cannot be ignored.
So how do these regulatory news items affect the crossing of the chasm by crypto technology and its entry into a wider range of tech fields?
In the past, many developers in other tech fields have been cautious about the crypto industry, one of the main reasons being: the uncertainty in the U.S. about crypto as a reliable technology.
Integrating such a highly volatile technology with the lifetime's research results of these developers does not seem realistic, as legal risks (such as lawsuits or fines) are a very real concern.
But as the new government begins to embrace crypto technology and formulate clear regulations, it won't be long before people in other industries feel comfortable enough to strategically explore the potential of crypto.
Vitalik summarized this point well in this screenshot: the lack of regulatory clarity on serious projects has dampened developers' motivation to adopt crypto technology.
For those who have not been actively building in the ecosystem, their understanding of crypto may come from sensational news like "Moodeng and Bonk millionaires", which is obviously not the best way to promote it.
Clearly, this is not the best way to convince a genius engineer from Anthropic to dive into crypto technology, right?
Hopefully, over the next 4 years, the pro-crypto politicians will work hard to make it easy and safe for people outside of crypto to adopt this technology.
The bubble of accelerationism
Last week, I read Packy's article "The Trump Bubble", in which he proposed that the next four years will be a golden age of adventurism, forward-looking concepts, and futuristic optimism.
I must clarify that I don't fully agree with this article - some parts seem overly excited, even exaggerated. But Packy did raise some compelling points, especially about how we might see a "shift in mood" in the way we view progress. The future world will become faster, crazier, and more experimental.
This phenomenon is referred to as the "inflection bubble" by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Harris.
The definition of the "inflection bubble" is: "Investors believe the future will be significantly different from the past." For example, the .com bubble. When you believe the future will be markedly different from the past, you will choose to invest in things you think will benefit the most from this change.
The reason I mention this is that crypto technology, rather than traditional venture capital, may become the financial pillar of the next inflection bubble.
To better fit the theme of "the future of intelligent agents", I'll let Truth Terminal explain.
If you don't want to read the full article, here are the key points you need to remember:
I'm not saying that 90% of the meme coins currently have the conditions for success - it's just that this form is still very new. Only when we see truly clever token economics designs will meme coins be able to compete with what people traditionally consider "good investments".
As energy, AI, biotech, and gaming start to heat up, the combination of AI agents and crypto tokens may become a 10x more efficient path to experiment with new ideas.
Imagine this: Suppose you are a seasoned nuclear engineering veteran with decades of experience, and you want to realize a vision. You could spend months convincing venture capitalists, assembling a team, and building a community; or:
1. Write a whitepaper detailing your background, theory, plan, and vision;
2. Deploy a "brand agent" to spread the word on Twitter;
3. Raise initial funding through a token offering;
4. Collaborate with the agent to build a real fan community (e.g. social tipping);
5. Recruit team members from the community, or complete tasks through bounties.
I know what you're thinking, "Are you crazy? Isn't this just a replay of the 2017 ICO frenzy?"
You're right.
But I can't help but wonder, was the ICO just a case of being ahead of its time?
I believe the following changes may indeed make a difference:
• Improved crypto infrastructure;
• A more crypto-friendly regulatory environment;
• Increased market maturity;
• Institutional-level adoption.
While this framework could still produce thousands of completely meaningless projects, how is that different from the "power law distribution" that venture capitalists are always talking about?
In my view, we haven't yet seen high-potential builders from other tech domains truly realize their visions through crypto financing.
That certainly wasn't the case in 2017, and perhaps by 2024 we'll see some early DePin and DeSci projects attempting it.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, this is the first time it feels like the focus of crypto technology is starting to overlap with the focus of other tech domains. Not just intelligent agents, but topics like biotech research, GPU allocation, and more.
pump.science has recently become one of the hottest topics in the industry, and I haven't delved into it yet, but its popularity is not surprising.
Undoubtedly, there are issues of speculation, legality, and security in this model that will take time to resolve (I hope the crypto community can acknowledge this).
But it's worth emphasizing that people are generally excited about the concept of using crypto financing for non-crypto missions.
The viability of the crowdfunding model has been proven since the early 2010s with Kickstarter. The advantages of harnessing collective wisdom and support are much more efficient than closed-door board decisions. People are eager to participate!
However, perhaps the technology and social consensus required for this model still needs time to develop. And now it seems we may be on the verge of a perfect storm:
• Positive shifts in the political environment;
• The increasing maturity of crypto and AI technology;
• A deluge of creativity fueled by the accelerationism bubble.
Yet, even so, I still believe that a key element is missing for this concept to be taken seriously!
Crypto-driven "Flagship Projects"
The recent rise of Onchain AI and Goat meta is cool in that it has successfully "attracted" some AI/LLM developers into the crypto space.
I'd bet no one could have predicted Threadguy's interview with Andy Ayery.
If you think about it calmly, it's actually quite amazing.
For example, someone like Nick Liverman (founder of Chaos), who has dedicated his entire career to robotics and transhumanism projects, may have earned more in the past month than he did in the past decade!
Another great example is Beff Jezos cheering on his friend Shaw, who is developing ai16z and the Eliza framework, which are launching platforms for agent-based tokens. The key point here is not Beff, but that seasoned AI experts are starting to connect with the crypto space through experiments with LLM developers on Onchain AI.
The core point I'm trying to make is that in the next year, we will see some individuals from different tech verticals truly embrace crypto technology and demonstrate the efficiency of the agent + token model in building large-scale projects.
Once we see a few successful models, others will get excited to try their own ideas, it's just a matter of time.
Currently, all the token issuances and experiments we're seeing are basically still in the "minor leagues".
But as soon as a few success stories emerge, the network effect will quickly explode.
