The Crypto-Facilitated Accelerationist Bubble

Author: YB Source: X, @yb_effect Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance

In the past month, I have developed a habit: Whenever I see a post related to AI agents on X (original Twitter), I will mark it down and save it for further research later.

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 functions into agent workflows.

2. Balaji retweeted Aravind Srinivas, who suggested developing a Perplexity explorer that treats proxies as first-class citizens.

3. OtCo demonstrated the process of an agent creating an LLC in Delaware for its own needs.

4. Circle published a detailed tutorial on how to integrate USDC into various proxies.

5. Just a few days ago, Satya Nadella demonstrated Copilot Workspace, the first IDE to support proxies.

You might think, this is nothing special, right?

After all, it’s not uncommon for tech giants to talk about proxy technology. Almost everyone is paying attention to it!

But this is exactly my point - For the first time, it feels like the crypto consumer circle we are in is discussing the same thing as the entire tech industry. Maybe the form is different, but the core is the same.

The Crypto Circle’s Relationship with the Tech Industry

The crypto world has always seemed a little weird to “normal people”. Even in the tech world, crypto is like the “unlovable little brother”. This impression is not unfounded: there have been so many crazy news in the crypto industry in the past that even insiders have to admit that some trends are indeed a bit outrageous.

Past crypto trends have not had much intersection with other tech fields, at least in the short term.

• For example, how much does a top LLM (large language model) engineer have to do with the 10k PFP (avatar) project?

• Or why should a scientist who studies longevity care about new income assets?

In general, the narrative model of crypto is more likely to attract artists and quantitative traders, and is relatively isolated from other tech fields.

But now, there is finally a chance to break this cycle!

Although we are still far from that point, I personally can see the "light at the end of the tunnel". Here are three topics worth discussing in depth:

1. Deregulation of crypto

2. The bubble of accelerationism

3. Crypto-driven paradigm cases

Let's explore them one by one.

Deregulation of crypto

This week, SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler announced that he would resign on January 20. If you’ve been in the crypto space for even a week, you’ll understand the importance of this news, which is comparable to Harry Potter defeating Voldemort.

For the past four years, Gensler has been almost the biggest bottleneck in the U.S. crypto industry.

Not only has he delayed regulatory progress, he has actively attacked this emerging industry. As Linda’s tweet said, companies like Coinbase and Consensys have had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying and fighting the government in Washington.

And now, his replacement seems to be moving in the exact opposite direction.

No matter who takes over the position, one thing is clear: the Trump administration is determined to be more supportive of the crypto industry than the previous administration. Frankly speaking, this bar is not high.

In my election week post, Where Did Fairshake PAC’s $133 Million Go?, I mentioned that Republican Bernie Moreno received $40.1 million in donations to defeat Democrat Sherrod Brown in the Ohio Senate race.

Moreno’s eventual victory was one of the major wins for the entire crypto industry. He is a long-time cryptocurrency supporter, while Brown is a huge obstacle to crypto regulation in the Senate.

Besides, just discussing the possibility of a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is astounding enough!

Three months ago, if someone had broached the subject, I would have thought it was a dream. But in recent weeks, the momentum in the crypto industry has shifted dramatically, with events like rising crypto prices and a surge in inflows to the BlackRock ETF. Suddenly, the idea that the federal government might add Bitcoin to its balance sheet has become something that has to be taken seriously.

So how does all this regulatory news affect crypto crossing the chasm and entering the broader tech space?

Many other developers in the tech space have been wary of crypto in the past, and one of the main reasons is: US uncertainty about crypto as a reliable technology.

Integrating such a volatile technology with their life’s work didn’t seem realistic, as legal risks (like lawsuits or fines) were very real concerns.

But as new governments begin to embrace crypto and create clear regulations, it won’t be long before those in other industries feel comfortable enough to strategically explore crypto’s potential.

Vitalik sums it up nicely in this screenshot: Lack of regulatory clarity for serious projects is inhibiting developer adoption.

For those not actively building in the ecosystem, they may have learned about crypto through cheesy news stories like Moodeng and Bonk millionaires.

Obviously, that’s not the best pitch to convince a talented Anthropic engineer to get into crypto, right?

Hopefully over the next 4 years, pro-crypto politicians will do everything they can to make it simple and safe for non-crypto people to adopt the technology.

Accelerationist Bubble

Last week, I read Packy’s article “The Trump Bubble” in which he argues that the next four years will be a prime period for risk-taking, forward-thinking, and futuristic optimism.

I must say that I don’t agree with all of this article—some parts seem overexcited and even a little exaggerated. But Packy does make some strong points, especially about the impending “atmospheric shift” in how we think about progress. The world is going to be faster, crazier, more experimental.

This phenomenon is what Byrne Hobart and Tobias Harris call an inflection bubble.

An inflection bubble is defined as: investors believe that the future will be radically different from the past. Example: the dot-com bubble. When you believe that the future will be radically different from the past, you choose to invest in the things you think will benefit most from that change.

I mention this because I think crypto, rather than traditional venture capital, is likely to be the financial backbone of the next inflection bubble.

In keeping with the theme of “The Future of Intelligent Agents”, I’ll let Truth Terminal explain.

If you don’t want to read the whole article, here are the key points to remember:

I’m not saying that 90% of memecoins out there have what it takes to succeed — it’s just that the format is still very new. Until we see truly clever token economics designed, memecoins won’t be comparable to what people traditionally think of as “good investments.”

As fields like energy, artificial intelligence, bioscience, and gaming begin to heat up, the combination of AI agents and crypto tokens could become a 10x more efficient path to experiment with new ideas.

Imagine this: Suppose you’re a nuclear engineering veteran with decades of experience who wants to realize a vision. You can spend months convincing VCs, building a team, forming a community, etc. Or: 1. Write a white paper that details your background, theory, plan, and vision; 2. Deploy a "Brand Agent" to spread the word on Twitter for you; 3. Raise initial funds through a token issuance; 4. Work with the agent to build a real fan community (e.g., social rewards); 5. Recruit team members from the community, and also complete tasks through rewards. I know you will think, "Are you crazy? Isn't this just a remake of the ICO craze in 2017?" You are right.

But I can’t help but wonder, are ICOs just born at the wrong time?

I think the following changes will indeed make a difference:

• Improved crypto infrastructure;

• A pro-crypto regulatory environment;

• Increased market maturity;

• Institutional-level adoption.

While the above framework may still produce thousands of completely meaningless projects, how is this different from the “power law distribution” that the venture capital community always talks about?

In my opinion, no high-potential builders from other technology fields have truly realized their visions through crypto financing.

Definitely not in 2017, but maybe in 2024 there will be some early attempts at DePin and DeSci projects.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is the first time that it feels like there is some overlap between the concerns of crypto and other areas of tech. Not just intelligent agents, but also topics like bioscience research, GPU allocation, etc.

pump.science has become one of the hottest topics in the industry recently, and I haven't studied it in depth, but its popularity is not surprising.

There are undoubtedly questions of speculation, legality, and security in this model that will take time to resolve (hopefully people in the crypto space will acknowledge this).

But it is worth emphasizing that people are generally excited about the concept of using crypto financing for non-crypto missions.

Since Kickstarter in the early 2010s, the feasibility of the crowdfunding model has been proven. The advantages of the wisdom and support of the crowd are much more efficient than the decision-making of a closed boardroom. People are eager to participate!

However, perhaps the technology and social consensus required for this model still need time to develop. Now it seems that the perfect storm is coming:

• Positive changes in the political environment;

• The increasing maturity of encryption and AI technology;

• A huge amount of creativity brought about by the accelerationist bubble.

However, even so, I still think that there is still a key element missing for this concept to be taken seriously!

Crypto-driven “Blockchain Projects”

The coolest thing about the recent rise of Onchain AI and the Goat meta is that it has managed to “attract” some AI/LLM developers into crypto.

I bet no one could have predicted this Threadguy interview with Andy Ayery would happen.

It’s actually pretty amazing if you stop and think about it.

For example, someone like Nick Liverman (founder of Chaos), who has spent his entire career working on projects like robotics, transhumanism, etc., probably made more money in the last month than he did in the last decade!

Another great example is Beff Jezos rooting for his friend Shaw. Shaw is working on ai16z and Eliza framework, which are launchpads for proxy tokens. The point here is not so much about Beff, but about how veterans in the AI ​​space are already connecting with crypto through the experiments of LLM developers on Onchain AI.

My core point is that in the next year, we will see a number of people from different tech verticals really embrace crypto and demonstrate how effective the proxy + token model is for building large-scale projects.

Once we see a few successful models, it’s only a matter of time before others get excited to try their own ideas.

Right now, all the token launches and experiments we’re seeing are still largely in the “junior leagues”.

But as long as there are a few successful cases, the crowd effect will quickly explode.