Original | Odaily ([@OdailyChina](https://x.com/OdailyChina))
Author | Nanzi ([@Assassin_Malvo](https://x.com/Assassin_Malvo))
A New Round of Technological and Business Model Inflection Points Has Arrived
Over the past century, various industries have experienced countless technological explosions, and each technological revolution has brought disruptive changes to the mode of production, while also redefining business models. Many giants have declined due to their inability to change the underlying logic in time, and countless new forces have also risen in response to the tide of change.
In recent years, the rise of AI technology has triggered a similar paradigm shift once again. From the breakthrough in deep learning to the widespread adoption of natural language processing, and then to the extensive application of generative AI in content creation, healthcare, finance and other fields, AI is penetrating into all aspects of society at a speed that surpasses previous technologies, and its potential to enhance human productivity and revolutionize business models cannot be ignored.
Since the explosion of ChatGPT, the Crypto industry has also seen the emergence of numerous AI-track projects, but most of them are project-centric, without a systematic ecosystem and application network. Startups find it difficult to stand out, and users and liquidity are scattered across numerous networks, with the development of the ecosystem layer still in its infancy.
In fact, as early as the beginning of 2023, BNB Chain has embarked on the journey of building an AI ecosystem with a forward-looking strategic vision, and multiple products including MyShell have completed a large amount of user accumulation and basic education. At the same time, BNB Chain has a large amount of accumulated capital, and the demand for excellent products in the AI boom is more urgent, with a higher probability and ceiling for project development to become a hit. After years of operation, the BNB Chain infrastructure has become increasingly mature, able to match user transaction needs and serve as a solid foundation for AI development.
How to seize the initiative in the new round of technological inflection points? The "AI First" concept has emerged, which does not treat AI as a tool or an additional element, but integrates it into every step of the business logic, decision-making process and product design as a fundamental way of thinking. BNB Chain not only provides development opportunities for projects, but also takes the lead in integrating the "AI First" concept into the AI development of the ecosystem, aiming to lead the development trend of AI with a higher-level and disruptive mindset.
The AI Wave Sweeps the Crypto Industry, Where is the Industry Heading?
In the early stage of the ChatGPT boom, the new projects born in the Crypto industry mainly focused on introducing AI tools in specific links, using AI to empower Crypto, such as the trading information tool Paal AI and the AI game Sleepless AI.
During the subsequent period of rapid AI development, the large-scale demand for data and computing power has led to the emergence of a series of Crypto-empowered AI projects, including Aethir in the computing power sector, io.net, Nimble Network and Aggregata in the data sector.
However, over the past two years, although countless AI projects have emerged, only a few have truly stood out and survived. In addition to the fact that AI technology itself is still in development, the lack of ecosystem-level cohesive cooperation and the development model of each project growing wildly have led to the unrealized potential of the projects and developers:
The explosive growth of L1 and L2 has led to the fragmentation of liquidity and the stagnation of user migration, which has also hindered the development of AI projects. The startup ecosystem chosen by the project, whether it has sufficient liquidity, a solid user base, and long-term cultural accumulation, is crucial to the growth speed of the project.
The development of projects targeting short-term demand has led to serious homogenization, with similar application scenarios and technical paths. Projects compete more in terms of capital and operations rather than technology, and teams with strong capital and operations are more likely to stand out, while technically excellent but underfunded and unsupported projects find it difficult to emerge. Although platforms like Virtuals have alleviated this problem to a certain extent, they still require sufficient capital, users, and trading infrastructure in the ecosystem to support them.
There is a lack of linkage between AI projects in different tracks, and the product efficiency has not been amplified. There is a lack of component-based product development like LangChain. Although products like Eliza and Eternal AI have begun to fill this gap, there is still room for long-term development and a need for higher-level aggregation.
From an ecosystem perspective, BNB Chain is fully embracing the AI wave, aiming to carve out a place in the AI field through strong financial support, deep technical empowerment, and accurate grasp of future trends. The broad stage it has built provides unprecedented growth opportunities for various projects.
Why Will BNB Chain Be the Fertile Soil for the Thriving AI Ecosystem?
Early Deployment of the AI Ecosystem
BNB Chain's layout in the AI field has a long history. In the sixth batch of Binance Labs incubation projects, it incubated AI projects such as MyShell and NFPrompt, which are built on BNB Chain and opBNB, bringing a large and solid user base to the BNB ecosystem. Take MyShell as an example, according to previous statistics, its on-chain activities had involved 540,000 addresses as of the third quarter of this year.
In the subsequent MVB VII, 6 out of the 13 projects were in the AI track, and in MVB VIII, there were 9 AI projects, with the attention continuing to rise. The sub-sectors are also constantly expanding. The three projects incubated in the sixth batch were more focused on applications and application development, while the recent MVB batches have included infrastructure projects in the data sector such as Nimble Network, Gata, AlayaAI, and Codatta, as well as the currently hottest AI Agent track projects like Holoworld AI and Aspecta. BNB Chain's focus and support cover all AI sub-sectors.
Embracing the Trend and Providing Strong Support
In addition to focusing on and prioritizing the development of AI even before the boom, BNB Chain is also gradually increasing its attention and support for this track. On December 21, BNB Chain and Binance Labs launched the application for MVB IX, and according to the official announcement, this period will focus on the AI track, including AI Agent, AI games, data labeling, DataDAO and other sub-sectors.
At the same time, Binance Alpha in the Binance Wallet has re-exposed some mature AI projects. Among the 38 tokens listed in the first six phases, 13 belong to the AI track, including the Agent protocol AICell and the AI infrastructure ChainGPT on BNB Chain, which have seen gains of 66% and 58% respectively after being listed on Binance Alpha.
Whether they are startup projects or mature projects, in BNB Chain's development strategy with AI as the core, they can all receive sufficient exposure and resource support, allowing the teams to focus on project development and fully unleash the product potential in a favorable environment.
Why Will BNB Chain Be the Fertile Soil for the Thriving AI Ecosystem?
In the previous section, we mentioned two mainstream directions of combining AI and Crypto: "AI tools participating in Crypto operation links" and "decentralized provision of AI basic resources". Recently, Virtuals and pump.fun have shown a third path of combining attention economy and AI development - projects launch project tokens in a high-exposure environment, showcase project results and disclose progress on various social and technical platforms, and then let the market freely price the projects.
In this way, startups can quickly accumulate capital and reputation by virtue of their technology, team background, and long-term concepts. But to fully unleash this financial characteristic, a few prerequisites are needed - a large number of end-users, long-term user mindset education and accumulation, and mature trading tools.
Here is the English translation of the text, with the specified terms preserved and not translated:Industry-leading user and capital pool: Only with a large number of end users can the exponential propagation effect of the "attention economy" be fully realized. Chains like Ape have also once attracted a wave of users by opening up pump-type platforms, but these on-chain users and funds are insufficient, and can only become a Ponzi structure and in-game capital PvP, which cannot play a role in driving product development and are difficult to become the foundation for the long-term development of the product. According to DefiLlama data, the BNB Chain TVL is $5.6 billion, ranking fifth in the entire network, higher than Base and behind Bitcoin. At the same time, according to official data, the DAU of BSC reaches 1.12 million, which will be the foundation for the vigorous development of the project.
Comprehensive user education and precipitation: Why did the pump start on Solana a month later and then start to explode? The reason is that SOL had completed sufficient user mindset education before March, and although there were frequent RUGs on the chain before the pump was born, the user group, habits and patterns were cultivated through years of precipitation in the same field, and finally "ignited" the ecology. BNB Chain has been in existence for four years, and there are also a large number of users who are familiar with transactions and full of curiosity about new things. Compared with similar projects like four.meme and PancakeSwap SpringBoard, although the launch is relatively late, we have also seen considerable results, proving the achievements and infinite potential of BNB Chain in user cultivation.
Mature infrastructure: Finally, the ecology also needs sufficient and convenient transaction infrastructure to fully unleash the value of the massive user base. In the third quarter of this year, Ethereum and SunPump took turns to pump.fun, but the heat only lasted 1-2 months, and the core reason why the heat could not be maintained was the high Gas fees, incomplete information and transaction tools. In other words, the transaction threshold on such chains is high, hindering the entry of users and capital. On the BNB Chain, on the one hand, the transaction fees are low and the TPS is extremely high, allowing users of different capital levels to participate in the development and construction of the project. On the other hand, after years of development, the DeFi products on the BNB Chain have become increasingly mature, including PancakeSwap, which ranks first in trading volume globally, the third largest stablecoin issuance volume, and further derivative tools such as Lista DAO. Whether it is the demand for transaction and address information, the richness and ease of use of tools, or the advanced derivative tools, they are rich and complete, meeting the needs of players at different levels, improving the circulation speed and pricing speed of the market, and unleashing the value of the massive user base.
Multiple technical architectures to support project development
In addition to helping projects acquire resources and users, the three pillars of BNB Chain, namely BNB Chain itself, the high-performance chain opBNB, and the storage protocol Greenfield, are also powerful driving forces for AI development.
The core elements of AI bottom-level development include models, data, and computing power. As one of the mainstream decentralized storage protocols, BNB Greenfield can first serve as a stable and cost-effective storage and hosting solution, as projects like StarAI have successfully hosted their networks on Greenfield. Furthermore, the combination with smart contracts can ensure transaction transparency and benefit distribution, and can also become the development foundation for further iterative applications such as DataDAO.
For opBNB, according to official data, its current TPS reaches 4,600, and the DAU reaches 4.7 million. This extremely high performance can support the real-time and concurrency requirements of complex AI applications.
The AI product matrix on the BNB Chain is more abundant, and there are many landing applications in the ecosystem, which can support the combined use, joint planning and common growth of products. At the bottom layer, projects like DIN and Alaya AI are providing massive data for AI models. At the middle layer, ChainGPT provides an integrated solution for blockchain and AI. In application development, MyShell integrates hundreds of AI interfaces, supporting AI development of different depths and different fields; Eternal AI is about to launch the framework tool Agent Studio, allowing developers to create AI Agents in a component-based manner; In January, projects like Tearline and DeAgentAI will also be deployed. Finally, BNB Chain has achieved a great expansion of the toC application landscape, with NFP using AI to drive UGC design; Xterio's Palio AI endows NPCs with emotions, changing the form of game interaction; MEET 48 has opened up a new track for Web3 idol entertainment.
BNB Chain is actively involved in the development of AI, and can plan and guide the birth and landing of new products from a higher dimension. The urgent need for more developers to participate in the AI construction of BNB Chain, whether they have outstanding innovation capabilities or execution and landing capabilities, the pioneers in the AI era are expected to stand out in this ecosystem.
AI First opens up endless possibilities
AI is no longer just an additional tool to assist certain links, but a disruptive technology. AI can disrupt the interaction form and depth between game NPCs and players, AI can flatten the threshold of NFT creation, and AI can raise the breadth and depth of transaction information to an unprecedented level.
OpenAI will launch a new generation of AI agents by 2025, and Alphabet will create a new form of AI interaction by 2025. We are still in the early stages of the AI journey. BNB Chain hopes to work with a wide range of AI developers and users, based on the concept of AI First, to examine strategy and the future with a "revolutionary" attitude, build a new grand blueprint, and create endless possibilities.
