Source: View on the Chain
Recently, I have invested some energy in the AI+DePIN track. I have a feeling that this will be the main value narrative driving this round of bull market. Shenglang, the old DeFi protocol, NFT, cutting-edge public chains, and many underlying technological innovations are moving closer to DePIN. Next, I will share some of my thinking logic:
1) How to understand the concept of DePIN. Simply put, traditional The operation of physical infrastructure networks such as CePin servers, sensors, and communication networks relies on centralized computing cluster services such as AWS and Alibaba Cloud. The investment cost is too high for many small and medium-sized enterprises.
DePIN uses blockchain Token incentives to allow some users with "hardware equipment" to establish large-scale collaboration relationships with physical equipment, forming an infrastructure network with service capabilities, so that some small and medium-sized enterprises can No need to be accessible and cost-effectively utilize network resources.
2) Some people say, isn’t this the “hardware equipment mining” narrative of the last bull market such as FileCoin, Chia, Arweave, etc.? Yes, but not entirely. This round of bull market has added a new "AI" variable.
There is a demand for decentralized storage, but it is not a strong demand. It will be mixed with some pseudo-demands, such as: data storage access. Although storage needs can be solved, network distribution depends on the structure and node efficiency operation. The instability has caused some application scenarios with strong real-time requirements such as online videos and games to be unable to be implemented.
After the introduction of AI scenarios, AI large model training will be a very rigid demand. I consulted some small and medium-sized AI companies that do AI model training. Regarding the hardware cost and configuration cost of servers like AWS, Small and medium-sized AI companies are not friendly.
If DePIN can enable supply chain cloud services such as GPU or mobilize hardware equipment across the entire network to form an infrastructure network, large model training, distributed machine learning, data storage verification mining, distributed reasoning, etc. Strong demand will be generated in other directions. If this round of DePIN can take off, it will mainly be driven by the AI track. At the beginning of this process, there will be some projects that rely on a PPT narrative, but in the long run, the projects that can be implemented will not be too bad. .
3) There is a high probability that AI+DePIN will take over the role of the last round of DeFi Summer and become the main value narrative of this round of bull market. This explains why MeMe will rise after BTC rises, but there is no movement in the old DeFi that everyone is looking forward to. Whether it is speculation in the new or old, or the burden on the car caused by the poor expectations of the last round of DeFi, the key There is still a lack of a narrative opportunity that can drive the mixed linkage of on-site and off-site funds.
There is no doubt that the last bull market NFT brought in traditional users and funds through the reshaping of the artist digital market. AI+DePIN may play a similar role in this bull market.
Does this mean that old DeFi has no chance? No, in my opinion, this is exactly an opportunity to reshape the traditional old DeFi:
1. Public chain: The last round of DeFi was too trapped in the EVM environment, and EVM-Compatible The narrative makes the differences between chains become smaller and smaller, and the possibility of linkage becomes greater and greater. However, everyone is working on the chain Infra. When will the application ecology be launched?
Therefore, the first thing to do in this round of AI+DePIN is to de-EVM, let some high-performance chains take the lead, and then spawn some killer applications, such as: @solana , Sui, Aptos, etc. . In particular, there is a group of unique developers active on SOL. Whether this wave of AI+DePIN can take off directly determines SOL's mainstream status in this bull market.
Whether the slogan of impacting or surpassing Ethereum can be realized depends entirely on the implementation of the AI+DePin narrative on SOL. Recently, I came into contact with projects like @ionet_official. The valuation is already very high, but after experiencing it, I was a bit surprised. I feel that it will be a potential force to detonate DePIN;
2. DeFi protocol Aspects: A while ago, Vitalik talked about AI+blockchain. The core actually leads to an entrepreneurial direction: AI+intent DeFi trading. Obviously, it can make smart contracts evolve into super smart contracts, lower user thresholds, and increase user interaction experience. Including the needs of reducing the wear and tear of users' cross-chain transactions, this is the direction that intent transactions really want to make efforts.
Therefore, it is critical whether the old DeFI can quickly promote a series of upgrades such as the intent transaction model + wallet front end. If you stick to this direction, you can integrate it into the main Shenglang narrative of AI+DePIN without falling behind; There are already many such innovative projects in DeFi. As a reminder, the Intent-centric narrative is not over yet. There is only one project that can combine AI and actually be implemented.
3. Innovation at the bottom of other technologies: In fact, the current web3 innovation environment is very mature, and the product power and innovation power of web2 have already penetrated, which is why "modularization", "chain abstraction", etc. have emerged. A series of narratives, and the goals of these narratives are to solve the problems of low inter-chain interaction efficiency and high collaboration costs existing in the web3 environment. The direction is very good, but due to the slow development of the old chain, these micro-innovations have no real potential.
Take ZK technology as an example. Everyone says that ZK is the end game, but now ZK only solves the problem of mutual trust between the main chain and the side chain. In fact, ZK can make all EVM and non-EVM chains realize mutual trust assets. Transfer, the real value discovery of ZK is still in the future. Recently, I have paid attention to a @ProjectZKM project. The bottom layer of ZK technology realizes multi-chain interoperability. Coupled with its hardware acceleration and other DePIN designs, it is also likely to find a key position in the new wave of DePIN narratives.
Above.
Note: I briefly elaborated on a few thinking logics that I think AI+DePIN has great potential for. They may not all be correct, but I am more based on the thinking of value investment research and the mature evolution trend of the industry. The emotional component of FOMO speculation in the secondary market has not been added. The above content is for reference only. You are also welcome to participate and learn together.