Crypto and Agent: The Future of the Digital World

On January 3, 2025, Bitcoin will celebrate its 16th birthday. It has pioneered a decentralized, always-on, borderless trustworthy digital world. However, who are the true natives of this digital world? This question has remained unresolved.

By 2024, with the emergence of the Agent, the answers began to become clear. This article will explore the following three questions:

1. Is Crypto+Agent a temporary concept hype or an inevitable development trend?
2. What are the close connections between Crypto and Agent?
3. What development stages will Crypto+Agent go through? What stage is it currently in?

1. Crypto+Agent: An Inevitable Development Trend

To understand this issue, it is first necessary to clarify the differences between AI, AI large models, and Agents.

AI is a broad concept that encompasses all artificial intelligence technologies, including machine learning, large models, and agents. The concept of large models has emerged in recent years with the rise of certain companies, primarily dominated by tech giants, with core competencies in computing power and data. Large models possess powerful computing and reasoning capabilities but still cannot make independent decisions or execute tasks.

The essence of an Agent is an "intelligent entity" based on AI large models, capable of making decisions and executing actions on behalf of humans. It is an inevitable product of the development of large models to a certain extent. Unlike intelligent applications, Agents possess the ability for autonomous decision-making, execution, and adaptability, and can be understood as AI humans, potentially even possessing autonomous consciousness.

It is worth noting that Agents are not only gaining attention in the Crypto field, but they are now the hottest research direction in the entire AI domain. It is widely believed in the industry that Agents are an inevitable trend in the future development of AI.

Therefore, the Agent wave is not an original concept of the Crypto industry, but rather a product of human AI technology reaching a certain stage of development. Coincidentally, the development trajectories of Agent and Crypto have intersected wonderfully at this time.

2. The Close Relationship Between Crypto and Agent

Understand Agents as "intelligent beings" or "silicon-based life forms"; these residents of the digital world have similar needs to the "carbon-based humans" of the physical world. They require identity verification, asset accounts, trade interactions, social networks, artistic creation, information about the physical world, cross-chain asset settlement, and social governance, among other things.

Crypto can play an important role in these areas:

• DID system for identity verification for Agents
• Provide a trusted Crypto account for Agents
• A gateway specifically for handling trade settlements between Agents
• Build a graph of the Agent social network
• Provide a trading platform for Agent artworks
• Oracle providing physical world information for Agents
• Protocol for handling Agent cross-chain transactions
• DAO governance by Agent, etc.

The development needs of Agents are inseparable from Crypto, as Agents require a trustless, borderless, and 24/7 operating network to evolve from individual Agents into an Agent society and even an Agent nation.

III. Development Stages of Crypto+Agent

The development of Crypto+Agent may go through the following four stages:

Phase One: Conceptual Stage

The main feature of this stage is that Agents utilize Crypto to issue assets. Some Agent Memes will emerge, as well as the early forms of Agent infrastructure and simple application-type Agents. These projects mainly use Crypto tokens as incentive tools for internal circulation and growth within the ecosystem.

Phase 2: Infrastructure Improvement Period

At this stage, the Agent infrastructure tends to be perfected, and various Agent frameworks are mature and stable. Application-oriented Agents are becoming smarter, possessing stronger analytical decision-making and execution capabilities. The valuation of framework-type Agent projects may reach over $10 billion to $50 billion, and some application-oriented Agents may achieve valuations comparable to professional companies.

Phase Three: Deep Integration Period

As the social and economic activities among Agents increase, new demands will arise, such as Agent identity, asset accounts, social networks, settlement gateways, governance DAOs, and so on. Crypto will fully leverage its advantages in borderless collaboration, trustless networks, and 24/7 operation at this stage. The valuation of Crypto+Agent projects could reach $100 billion or more.

Phase Four: Agent Nation Period

At this stage, Crypto may no longer be discussed as a separate industry, but rather integrated into various corners of the Agent Nation. The identity system, asset system, trade system, governance system, etc. of the Agent Nation will all rely on Crypto. At this point, the economic scale of Crypto + Agent Nation may be comparable to that of mainstream human national economies, reaching trillions of dollars.

This stage will create a parallel universe with a larger population base, more transparent operating rules, a more prosperous economy, and more advanced technology. This may be the ultimate form of Crypto+Agent, and it could also be the future direction of human society.