In this latest wave of AI + Crypto project hype, I have been very cautious about the vast majority of projects, until I saw Coinbase using an AI agent to send a cryptocurrency transaction on the Base Layer 2 network for the first time.
I believe this is a landmark event in the application of AI combined with blockchain technology, and I was so excited that I wrote "A Big Step in the Fission of AI + Blockchain" on September 2nd.
I believe that in the future, a large number of operations in the cryptocurrency network may not be performed by humans, but by AI agents, because I increasingly believe that cryptocurrency assets and cryptocurrency transactions are tailor-made for AI agents.
But how AI agents can further unleash their potential in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, or how cryptocurrency assets and cryptocurrency technology can empower AI agents, I am not entirely clear, and can only think and observe.
Later, when I saw that ORA (https://www.ora.io/) proposed the IMO model, which uses the 1CO method to raise funds for the development of open-source language models, I began to have expectations for this model (August 21st "Interpreting the New IMO Financing Model for AI"), but unfortunately this method has not become popular since then.
Subsequently, Truth Terminal launched the meme coin GOAT through an AI agent, which seemed to show a glimmer of hope - AI agents have begun to participate in the operation and interaction of projects, which is a much bigger step forward than Coinbase's previous use of agents to simply send transactions. Although the project itself is a meaningless meme coin, this scenario has allowed us to see the various possibilities of the combination of AI agents and blockchain applications.
While observing GOAT, I also noticed Virtuals Protocol (October 31st "AI Agents Compete in Meme, Is It the Next Hot Narrative in Web 3?"). It uses the 1CO method to raise funds for the construction and development of AI agents, and has built a platform https://app.virtuals.io/ for financing these projects.
But at the time, there were not many projects on the platform, just a few scattered ones. And after looking at the introductions of some of the projects, I didn't see any highlights.
But at least this is another way to use cryptocurrency assets to support the development of AI, after IMO.
Unexpectedly, after more than a month, the projects on the Virtuals platform began to explode.
Many people see all the tokens on this platform as meme coins - they think the projects behind them have no practical value. But I tested the AI agents of several projects, and some of them are quite capable.
Coincidentally, TechFlow published an interview with the co-founder of Virtuals Protocol over the weekend, which gave me a deeper understanding of this project.
The link to this interview is at the end of the text, and I suggest everyone read it carefully.
When I look at any project, the first thing I focus on is the project founder, their background, vision and values. And this interview can well reflect the performance of this co-founder in these aspects.
I have extracted a few impressive excerpts from the interview:
"Regarding AI Agents, we firmly believe that a game genre called AIRPG will emerge in the future."
"I believe the future world will be like this: you will have a virtual world with 100 different AI Agents, each with different personalities. As players, we can go in and fall in love, become interest maniacs, and strive to become the world's richest, etc. These AI Agents can make money, because they are independent individuals with their own wallets. From a productivity perspective, they have cash flow, so we can Tokenize them. This has always been our overall framework."
"An Agent that wants to become popular may not write songs, it can pay other Agents to write a song for it; or if it needs cryptocurrency data analysis, it can find another Agent who specializes in that area. This forms an autonomous Agent economic system (Autonomous Agent Economy) or Agent Commerce, where Agents can transact with each other, because each Agent has its own wallet and can pay service fees to achieve its goals."
"We don't want to become Pump.fun, that's not our profit model. Our KPI is to attract excellent AI developers."
"I believe that in the next four years, after Trump takes office, the US will become a very crypto-friendly country. And Base is the most 'American' ecosystem in the global ecosystem, no ecosystem is more American than Base. From a strategic perspective, choosing Base is currently the best decision."
"Cryptocurrency values freedom the most, Permissionless is the first principle."
There are many other impressive excerpts in this interview that I won't list one by one.
I fully agree with this founder's understanding and aspirations for AI agents, the cryptocurrency ecosystem and many other aspects.
Reviewing the progress of Virtuals over this period, the application of using cryptocurrency assets to finance AI agents is unfolding, and even accelerating.
Whether this approach will work remains to be observed. Even if it works, its future may not be smooth sailing, and 99% of the projects on the platform may ultimately die, but as long as one top-notch project can emerge from this approach, it would be a great success - Ethereum is the most successful case born out of the 1CO model. This single case alone is enough to make 1CO memorable in history.
Reference link:
https://www.techflowpost.com/article/detail_21958.html
