Author: Max.S
"Concept-driven bull market," as the bull market kicked off in November last year with BTC breaking through $100,000, combined with the rapid technological progress of AI+Web3 concepts, has left us dazzled. The speed of iteration of related concepts and the breadth of imagination have made sleep a luxury. Recently, my good friend Renée released a video Hot money flows to DeSci, is it the beginning of a revolution and breaking the circle, or just another cloud of smoke? which has motivated me to try to explain DePIN, DeSci, and DeFAI to you in the simplest possible language.
First, let's introduce the "big brother" DePIN
The full name of the "big brother" is "Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks," representing decentralized physical infrastructure networks. As early as 2021, IoTeX proposed the concept of MachineFi, which combines "Machine" and "DeFi" (Decentralized Finance), representing the financialization of machines and their generated data. After the continuous development and evolution of the ecosystem, Messari finally proposed the concept of DePIN, which is a way to establish and maintain infrastructure in the real world.
DePIN uses blockchain technology and token incentives to coordinate the physical hardware facilities of multiple individual units in a permissionless, trustless, and programmable manner.
IoTeX itself is the best practitioner of the DePIN concept, as they are one of the few Web3 projects that have physical products besides cold wallets. Their two products, a home security camera and a physical data recorder, are pioneers in bringing Web3 into real life, promoting global users to cooperate in building and maintaining the infrastructure network.
Recently, they also announced a strategic partnership with Eliza Labs, integrating IoTeX's modular DePIN infrastructure with ElizaOS to create AI Agents with physical world perception capabilities. In simple terms, it is to "feed" the real-time data and services of the DePIN network to the AI Agent.
While we're at it, let's also briefly explain what an AI Agent is. An AI Agent is an intelligent entity that can perceive the environment, make decisions, and perform corresponding actions. Unlike traditional AI systems, AI Agents have autonomy, reactivity, proactivity, and social abilities, and can simulate human thinking and behavior to perform complex tasks. The evolution from AI to AI Agent is essentially a transformation from passive to active, from single capability to multi-capability, just like the evolution from "Jarvis" to "Vision".
Returning to the cooperation between IoTeX and Eliza Labs, Eliza Agents retrieve and process real-world data from the DePIN network supported by IoTeX. This will enable Eliza's Agents to perceive, act, and learn based on the dynamic physical environment. Eliza may one day truly evolve into "Ultron" or "Vision," provided that it can find Vibranium.
Let's give a definition of DePIN: it is a network, a decentralized physical infrastructure network. It serves infrastructure networks in areas such as storage space, communication traffic, cloud computing, and energy.
Next, let's introduce the "second brother" DeSci
The popularity of the "second brother" is inseparable from the two big shots CZ and Vitalik, whose initials "CV" happen to mean "voice actor" in Chinese. They have injected vitality into DeSci just like voice actors giving life to anime characters.
The full name of DeSci is "Decentralized Science," and its focus is to use blockchain technology and features such as FT, NFT, and DAO to solve problems such as peer review, research funding, intellectual property management, data transparency, and review mechanisms. DeSci allows scientists to raise funds, run experiments, share data, and distribute insights to achieve democratized scientific research and discovery. (Quoted from Renée's video Hot money flows to DeSci, is it the beginning of a revolution and breaking the circle, or just another cloud of smoke?)
Among the many overviews of DeSci, the definition I like the most is that it is more like a bridge, which can allow ordinary people to participate in the "high-end" technological development through the direct investment method of meme, and at the same time, it can also allow a group of scientists to obtain sufficient research funding. And through decentralized means, it achieves transparency throughout the research process. All data and decisions are publicly recorded on the blockchain, reducing the possibility of human intervention.
Who will DeSci's rise and development affect? Undoubtedly, the "academic clique" is doomed! How many research students have had their passion for science extinguished by the "academic clique"? The academic clique and their disciples have monopolized academic resources through various means, such as research funding, laboratory equipment, and academic journal editorial rights. They exclude and suppress new scholars and researchers with different views, hindering academic freedom and innovation.
DeSci does not rely on specific authorities, and provides equal participation opportunities for any capable researcher through decentralization. This will encourage more new people and researchers with different views to participate in academic research, breaking the monopoly of the academic clique. Blockchain's NFT technology will serve knowledge property rights management well, ensuring that all contributors can fairly share the benefits and prevent the academic clique from obtaining improper benefits through controlling intellectual property rights.
Through transparent sharing, decentralized management, and democratization, DeSci has the potential to break the monopoly of the academic clique and promote fairness and openness in academia. However, DeSci also faces challenges in terms of law, technology, and academic recognition, and needs to work continuously in these areas to achieve its goals.
Let's also give a definition of DeSci: it is an idea, the "terminator" of the academic clique. DeSci solves the problems of transparency, fairness, and openness in the traditional scientific research field by changing the traditional scientific research funding allocation model and scientific research results dissemination model.
Finally, let's introduce the "third brother" DeFAI
DeFAI is a newly born concept, and literally it is the combination of DeFi and Artificial Intelligence. Through the powerful computing power and data analysis capabilities of AI, it can improve the efficiency and security of DeFi projects.
Citing an example from the article "Exploring DeFAI: The Deep Fusion of DeFi and AI, Three Core Scenarios Promote the Large-Scale Application of DeFi," users can issue instructions directly in natural language, such as "exchange 3 ETH for USDC" or "provide liquidity in the ETH-USDC pool." In the background, AI will automatically complete the parsing of user requests, search for the best source of liquidity, generate transaction data, and prompt the user to choose a wallet for signing.
If we start from this example, DeFAI can lower the threshold for Defi users, as users don't need to spend a lot of time learning how to use the basic infrastructure of DeFi such as wallets, DEXs, or swaps. AI's intervention will greatly reduce complexity and improve certainty.
As an old crypto veteran, I will be concerned about whether AI's understanding of natural language can complete my transaction instructions, after all, some changes in transaction parameters are fleeting, and it is obviously much faster for my brain to directly command my hands to complete the transaction than for my brain to command my mouth to issue commands and then have AI execute them. For real money matters, users can't sacrifice security for illusory convenience. For DeFAI to achieve mass adoption, there must be breakthrough progress in AI performance, such as Musk's brain-computer interface.
DePIN, DeSci, and DeFAI, as emerging frontier concepts, each carry different missions and visions. Although they are all still in the early stages of development, with the continuous progress of technology, the gradual improvement of the ecosystem, and the gradual increase in market awareness, they are expected to trigger profound changes in their respective fields in the future, and even interweave and collaborate with each other, jointly shaping a more open, efficient, and intelligent new digital economic ecosystem.
