Title: Crypto Enabled Accelerationism Bubble
Author: yb effect, Crypto Kol
Compiled by: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editor's Note: This article points out that as cryptocurrency technology is gradually accepted by the mainstream technology field, and as cryptocurrency regulation is relaxed, the accelerationism bubble is expanding, and more and more iconic cases driven by cryptocurrency are emerging. The early enthusiasm for DePin, DeSci, and AI has already shown trends and opportunities. In the future, more innovators will use cryptocurrency + technology for project financing and development, and the next four years may be the time when cryptocurrency technology is truly applied.
The following is the original content (edited for easier reading):
Last month, I developed a habit of saving any tweets related to AI agents, so I can study them in depth later. At the same time, I noticed an interesting phenomenon: many updates and releases about agent technology, even unrelated to the metatrends of Truth Terminal or Zerebro.
For example:
Stripe released documentation on integrating payment functionality into agent workflows.
Balaji retweeted a request from Aravind Srinivas to develop a Perplexity browser that treats agents as first-class citizens.
OtCo demonstrated a process where an agent creates an LLC in Delaware for its own needs.
Circle published a detailed tutorial on how developers can integrate USDC into various agents.
Just a few days ago, Satya Nadella demonstrated the Copilot Workspace, the first IDE (Integrated Development Environment) centered around agents.
Okay, you might be thinking... there's nothing special about this, right? After all, it's normal for big tech companies to discuss agent technology. Who isn't talking about it! But that's exactly my point - this is the first time I feel that the cryptocurrency consumption bubble we're in is discussing the same topics as the entire tech industry. The style may be different, but it definitely falls within the same category. Cryptocurrency has always seemed "weird" to the general public. Even in the tech circle, cryptocurrency is often seen as the annoying little brother. And this view is not without reason! The crazy headlines generated by our industry are really too many, even most of the people in the industry admit that some trends are just too outrageous.
Previously, the mainstream trends in the cryptocurrency field rarely overlapped with other tech fields in the short term. For example, what's the connection between a top LLM (Large Language Model) engineer and a 10,000 PFP (Profile Picture) project? Or why would a scientist researching life extension care about new yield assets?
In general, the past narratives of the cryptocurrency field have attracted more attention from artists and quantitative analysts. But now, there's finally a chance to break this cycle! Although we're still far from that stage, I personally have already seen the light at the end of the tunnel.
There are three topics worth exploring in depth:
1. Relaxation of cryptocurrency regulation
2. Accelerationism bubble
3. Iconic cases driven by cryptocurrency
Relaxation of cryptocurrency regulation
This week, SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) Commissioner Gary Gensler announced that he will resign on January 20th next year. If you've been in this field for even a week, you know this news is like Harry Potter defeating Voldemort.
Over the past four years, Gensler has been the biggest obstacle to the U.S. cryptocurrency industry. He not only slowed down the regulatory process, but also actively took actions to crack down on this emerging industry. Linda's tweet precisely points out this - companies like Coinbase, ConsenSys, and countless others have been forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying and fighting in Washington.
And now it seems that the potential candidates to succeed the chair position may be about to make a complete turnaround.
Regardless of who ultimately takes the position, one thing is clear: Trump has already explicitly stated that he will be more proactive in embracing cryptocurrency than the previous administration, and to be honest, the bar is not that high.
In my post Where Did Fairshake PAC's $133 Million Go? during the election week, I mentioned that Bernie Moreno (Republican) received $40.1 million in donations to defeat Sherrod Brown (Democrat) in the Ohio Senate race.
Ultimately, Moreno won the election, which is undoubtedly a major victory for the entire cryptocurrency field. He has long been a supporter of cryptocurrency, while Brown was one of the key obstacles to cryptocurrency regulation in the Senate.
Finally, it's worth mentioning that the mere discussion of a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve is incredibly mind-blowing! Three months ago, if someone had mentioned this, I would have said they were dreaming. However, with the significant change in the momentum of cryptocurrency in the past few weeks - price increases, massive inflows of BlackRock ETF funds, etc. - all of this forces us to seriously consider the fact that the federal government may actually include Bitcoin on its balance sheet.
So how are these regulatory news related to cryptocurrency crossing the chasm into broader technology adoption?
One key reason is that developers in other tech fields have long been uncertain about the reliability of cryptocurrency technology. In the U.S., many believe that combining this highly volatile technology with their lifelong careers carries too much risk, especially the legal risks they may face, such as lawsuits and fines.
However, as the new government gradually embraces cryptocurrency and provides clear regulatory policies, this situation will soon change. Developers in other fields will start to feel more at ease and strategically explore the applications of cryptocurrency.
Vitalik's summary is very accurate, as mentioned in the screenshot - the lack of a clear regulatory framework has deterred the development of many serious projects, hindering the growth of this technology.
And those who are not actively developing within the ecosystem often form impressions of cryptocurrency through some exaggerated headlines, such as "someone became a millionaire through Moodeng or Bonk". Obviously, this selling point is not enough to convince top engineers like Anthropic to participate in the technical development of cryptocurrency, right?
Hopefully, over the next four years, politicians who support cryptocurrency will make their best efforts to make it simpler 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 futuristic optimism. Although I don't fully agree with his views - some of the content is a bit exaggerated and flamboyant - many of the points he raised are worth deep consideration, such as the new way we are looking at change.
This phenomenon is referred to as an "inflection bubble" by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Harris.
The definition of an inflection bubble is: "Investors believe the future will be significantly different from the past." For example, the dot-com bubble. People believed the future form would change significantly, so they invested in what they thought would benefit the most from this change.
The connection with cryptocurrency
The reason I mention this is that I believe cryptocurrency (rather than traditional venture capital) is likely to become the financial pillar of the next inflection bubble.
Using the future of decentralized agents as an example, I will have Truth Terminal explain this phenomenon. If you don't want to read the full text, here are the key points you need to understand:
I'm not saying that 90% of the current MEME coins will succeed. On the contrary, this form is still very new, and MEME coins will only have the potential to challenge assets traditionally considered "good investments" when we start to see smarter token economic designs.
As the enthusiasm for industries such as energy, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and gaming continues to rise, there may be a scenario where combining AI agents with cryptocurrencies can increase the efficiency of trying new ideas by 10 times.
Imagine if you are a veteran nuclear engineer who has worked in the energy industry for decades and want to realize some of your foresight, you may need to spend months convincing venture capital firms to invest in your idea, build a team, and establish a community, etc.
Or you can do this:
1. Write a whitepaper that details your background, arguments, plans, and vision.
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 tipping).
5. Grow your team from this community, and you can also leverage bounty mechanisms.
This is practically describing the ICO craze of 2017, but I can't help but feel that ICOs may have just appeared too early. In my view, some changes such as improvements in crypto infrastructure, a supportive regulatory environment for crypto, market maturity, and institutional adoption have indeed had an impact!
That said, the above framework will still produce thousands of meaningless projects. But how is this different from the "power law" that venture capitalists are always talking about?
Here's my take: we haven't yet seen true high-caliber builders from other tech domains truly try to realize their visions through crypto-driven financing.
In 2017, there was clearly no such case. By 2024, perhaps only some early DePin and DeSci projects will slightly reflect this trend.
But as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, for the first time, I feel that the focus points in the crypto domain are starting to overlap with those in other tech domains.
Not only AI agents, but topics like biotech research and GPU resource allocation are also beginning to intersect with discussions in the crypto domain.
I haven't studied pump.science in detail, but I'm not surprised it has become one of the hottest topics in this field. Indeed, the crazy speculation, legality, and security issues surrounding it need to be resolved over time (I hope the crypto community can acknowledge this). But the key point to emphasize is that everyone is generally excited about the concept of applying crypto financing to non-crypto missions.
The key here is that the crowdsourcing model for ideas has been validated since the early days of Kickstarter in the 2010s. Having the wisdom and support of the masses is far superior to a closed board of directors. People are eager to participate! But the reality is that perhaps this technology and social consensus need time to develop. And now, it seems the perfect storm is gathering: positive changes in political governance, the increasing maturity of crypto and AI technologies, and a wealth of creativity fueled by the accelerationism bubble.
However, even so, I believe there is still a key factor missing for this concept to be taken seriously!
Crypto-Empowered Personalities
One of the coolest things about the recent hot topics of Onchain AI and Goat is that they have attracted some AI/LLM developers to enter the crypto domain. I bet no one could have predicted the interview with Andy Ayery's Threadguy.
People like Nick Liverman, the founder of Chaos, who have dedicated their entire careers to projects like robotics and transhumanism, may have earned more in the past month than they have in the past decade!
It's also cool to see Beff Jezos cheering on his friend Shaw, who is building the ai16z and Eliza framework, a startup platform for agent coins. It's not just Beff's involvement, but some people deeply rooted in the AI field are starting to pay attention to what's happening in the crypto domain through the experiments of LLM developers on Onchain AI. This is a great phenomenon, indicating that the intersection of AI and crypto is deepening.
The key point I want to convey is that in the next year, we will see some people from different tech domains truly embrace cryptocurrencies and demonstrate the efficiency of agent and token models in building large-scale projects. Once we see a few successful operating models, others will start to excitedly try to launch their own ideas. Currently, all these token issuances and experiments are still in the "minor league".
Just a few successful stories, and everyone will flock to it.
