Author: Wanwu Island ThreeDao
Hello everyone, Yingmu told me that due to the poor market cycle and environment, everyone is starting to think: "Is it time to change careers?" She hopes to recharge everyone's "faith." I think that's certainly possible. I have believed in this industry since 2014, and I am now completely enchanted.
Before we begin, I want to express my happiness—this is my second time at the Dongyin Center. Last year, I shared with everyone here during the Wanwu Creation Camp S3. Returning to this familiar place and seeing familiar faces is particularly warm, especially welcoming our leaders from Changning District.
I just returned from Hong Kong yesterday, where I attended a four-day Blockchain Summit. This is the first time a group from the mainland has participated in the Hong Kong summit: the signal significance is extraordinary. The biggest difference this time is that the Shanghai municipal government organized two official delegations, nearly 50 people, to go to Hong Kong. This is the first time a local government from the mainland has organized a group to attend such a crypto summit.
We have held the Blockchain Summit in Shanghai for ten consecutive years, while this is the third year for Hong Kong. Why the separation? Because discussing "public chains," "Crypto," and "Token Economy" is indeed very difficult to unfold in the mainland. We are afraid that speakers will be hesitant to speak, so we placed the core content in Hong Kong. This year, through QR code scanning statistics, the four-day summit attracted over 8,000 independent attendees, with the total number of participants reaching tens of thousands.
The Application Explosion Period is Approaching
Many people ask if this is a crisis for the industry. I don't see it that way. I believe: **the blockchain industry has transitioned from the infrastructure stage to the second growth curve—the application stage. This year at the summit, you can clearly feel that the discussions on *protocols and infrastructure are decreasing*, while topics related to *RWA, PayFi, and USDT payments* have become the focus of the entire event. I believe this is not a crisis, but a turning point, a period of accumulation for the next explosion. This means that the era of "building frameworks" and "discussing protocols" has passed. The new opportunity lies in who can build truly problem-solving applications on this distributed ledger system.
On the last day of the summit, I had a conversation with Ethereum founder Vitalik. There was no prior communication on the outline, but I wanted him to talk about decentralization, and he indeed said a key sentence: "The application layer cannot achieve complete decentralization; Layer 1 must insist on decentralization."
Why? The core of decentralization is "trustlessness" and "disintermediation," which means reducing costs and improving efficiency. If the costs of Web3 are higher than before and the efficiency is lower than Web2, then why should we redo it? Therefore, when we often say that "everything is worth reconstructing in Web3," the premise is that trust costs are lowered, and system efficiency is higher, so that business models can be established.
Don't think of blockchain as metaphysics; it has long entered the real world. Why? Because cross-border e-commerce is shifting from B2B and B2C to C2C. The customer is no longer a foreign trade company but an American consumer who orders a $50 T-shirt from your website and wants to receive it within a week. He pays, and you ship; that’s how it works. The best payment method is to scan the USDT QR code—instant arrival, instant stock preparation, and air freight delivery within a week. This payment method does not require banks or clearing systems, solving the issues of trust and efficiency in a second.
In 2023, China sent out 18 billion international packages throughout the year. Without a USDT-based blockchain settlement system, the biggest victim is China. So you will see why Hong Kong is pushing for stablecoin legislation? Because it realizes that if it does not actively embrace new payment systems, Hong Kong will be eliminated from the competition for the global trade settlement center.
Many people are still fixated on "Can I create a protocol, issue a coin, and get rich?" I tell you, that era has passed. The public chain era is over. I have always advised entrepreneurs who are still thinking about creating public chains that it’s not that your technology is lacking, but that the opportunity has passed. The key moving forward is: can you truly use this system to create real "applications" that serve the needs of the real world? This is the intention behind the title of my speech—"Blockchain: Starting from the Origin." What was the original intention of blockchain? It was to make system trust computable, verifiable, and achievable at low cost.
I want to talk about the source of "faith." A Nobel Prize-winning economist, John Hicks, once said: "The industrial revolution had to wait for a financial revolution." The evolution of human society cannot be separated from the changes in three elements: material, energy, and information. Every industrial revolution is a synchronous revolution of these three. And the financial revolution is often the precursor.
First Industrial Revolution: The steam engine, accompanied by the emergence of the banking lending system;
Second: Electrification, accompanied by the capital market and joint-stock company system;
Third: The internet revolution, with China inserting itself in the middle;
Fourth: AI + Blockchain, this time led jointly by China and the US.
What you see now in blockchain is the new generation of financial systems supporting the fourth industrial revolution.
In an interview, I candidly suggested to the Ethereum Foundation: "Ethereum has fallen to this point because you lost China." From 2014 to 2016, China was the most solid base of Ethereum developers and users. At that time, Vitalik would come to Shanghai every year to attend the blockchain conference, never missing the first seven sessions. But since 2017, when seven ministries and commissions in China issued relevant regulatory documents, the lawyers of the Ethereum Foundation established a rule based on "compliance risk": foundation members are not allowed to travel to China on business. Thus, Vitalik has since been "absent" from China, not because he didn't want to come, but because he "was afraid to come."
Until 2023, when we held the first conference in Hong Kong, he still did not attend. Last year he finally nodded, expressing his willingness to participate, and I invite him every year. I told him: it’s time to return to China. Wanxiang Blockchain Lab is also willing to accompany you to continue promoting workshops, hackathons, and various technical promotion activities in China. Losing China means losing a significant portion of global developer resources. Blockchain developers are mainly concentrated in two language systems: the English-speaking world and the Chinese-speaking world.
I asked him: how many developers does the Ethereum Foundation have in Europe? He thought for a moment and said, "There are a small number doing underlying technology in Berlin." But he also admitted that the underlying technology of Ethereum has matured, with only optimization space left, and there are no longer opportunities for reconstruction. If you expect an application explosion, can you rely solely on the limited technical strength in Berlin? Can you rely solely on European developers? Of course not.
So I suggested that the Ethereum Foundation set up an office in Hong Kong, and half-jokingly said: "We have the 11th Blockchain Conference in Shanghai in October; if you get caught, I’ll sit in jail with you." This is, of course, a joke— in fact, the technical departments, government agencies, and developer communities in China respect Ethereum's technology. Your foundation should no longer stay away from China. The legal team you established in Europe does not understand China at all, yet you are making rules that will only lead you further astray. This is what I discussed privately with Vitalik.
Behind Every Industrial Revolution, There is Always a Financial Revolution
Now let’s look at it from a broader perspective: the fourth industrial revolution is accompanied by a financial revolution that is happening.
First Industrial Revolution: Led by banks, credit and bonds are the main financing axis, with no capital market yet.
Second Industrial Revolution: Led by the US capital market, investment banks, Wall Street, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, etc., rose to support the wave of electrification.
Third Industrial Revolution: The birth of venture capital (VC) in the 1960s, the rise of Silicon Valley. As a Nobel Prize winner once said: "Behind every industrial revolution, there is a financial revolution."
Today, in the fourth industrial revolution, if you deny tokens and deny crypto, you miss the new financial paradigm and even the opportunity of the entire revolution.
In the past year, I have discussed the relationship between Web3 and AI with four top AI experts: Shen Xiangyang, Li Kaifu, Zhou Ming, and the dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. They all believe that Web3 and AI are two sides of the same coin and will ultimately come together. In the US, there are also two typical representatives:
1) Sam Altman: Leading Worldcoin, which already has ten million users globally, issuing three coins every quarter, even if each is less than a dollar, it’s still a huge expenditure. He represents the path of "AI + Crypto + Software."
2) Elon Musk: Supporting Dogecoin while promoting autonomous driving and Optimus robots, representing the direction of "AI + Hardware + Crypto."
These two directions are both "left hand AI, right hand Crypto." This is not a coincidence; it is the inevitability of historical development. Even President Trump has responded. He originally planned to establish an AI committee and a Crypto committee, but later, under the advice of his staff, simply merged them into one "AI + Crypto Presidential Committee." I learned from one of his crypto advisors about the thinking behind this decision: AI and Crypto should not be treated separately but should work together in synergy.
The financial revolution of the digital age is based on distributed ledgers and encrypted capital. If you do not acknowledge this, it will be difficult to keep pace with the US in the digital age. Why? Because blockchain is a new accounting system, payment clearing system, and global ledger system. The digital world knows no borders; it transcends space, time, organizations, and national boundaries. It requires a new registration, accounting, and settlement system. Traditional finance cannot meet this demand.
Human society has only seen three major changes in accounting methods:
1) Ancient single-entry bookkeeping
2) Double-entry bookkeeping after the Renaissance (still in use today)
3) The distributed ledger system created by Bitcoin in 2009
This third accounting revolution has taken us from bank accounts to the era of crypto accounts. Look at today’s small commodity merchants in Yiwu; why are they willing to accept USDT payments? Because they do not need a bank account; a crypto account is sufficient for payment. In 2023, the total settlement amount of dollar stablecoins reached $16 trillion, surpassing the total of VISA and Mastercard combined. Banks are certainly nervous, and governments are paying attention. Therefore, today, CEOs and chairmen of major banks around the world are acknowledging: blockchain is a revolutionary system that represents a leap in efficiency.
I remember in 2012, I debated with famous bankers at a conference about whether blockchain could change finance. They said: "The essence of finance will not change." I agreed— the essence of finance has always been: wanting to borrow money and wanting to receive money quickly. This is an unchanging demand for three thousand years. Do you think banks are the ultimate model of finance? The banking system is only a hundred years old, and central banks have only been around for 400 years. Early China had ticket houses and silver banks, and even earlier, there were escort agencies delivering silver. They can all change; why can’t banks?
Now you see, CeFi (centralized finance) is the traditional system, while DeFi (decentralized finance) is the new system. When I used to talk about DeFi, banks thought the risks were high. But I asked them, "From the perspective of lending behavior, is the risk higher for banks or for DeFi?" The capital adequacy ratio of banks is only 12%, equivalent to a leverage of 7 to 8 times. Relying on high leverage to maintain profits, once the model goes wrong, like in the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, the entire system collapses instantly. In contrast, DeFi's risks are transparent, quantifiable, and traceable on-chain.
What is DeFi? DeFi (decentralized finance) does not lend by leveraging but achieves returns by improving the efficiency of capital turnover. For example, if you mortgage a Bitcoin worth $100,000 into a DeFi protocol, with the current collateral rate of about 50%, you can borrow a maximum of $50,000. In other words, DeFi is over-collateralized lending, not high leverage.
The highest efficiency in capital turnover in DeFi is represented by "Flash Loans," which are characterized by completing borrowing and repayment within a single block, taking only a few seconds for the entire process. Although Flash Loans are not applicable in all scenarios, they demonstrate the high turnover capability of DeFi. Overall, the annual capital turnover speed of DeFi is ten times that of traditional banks, with profits derived from the accumulation of frequent small profits rather than through leveraged amplification. This is a more advanced financial system with strong vitality. Currently, this "new financial infrastructure" is more than halfway built, marking a key phase for accelerating application implementation.
Applications and Impacts of the New Financial Infrastructure
With the popularization of this infrastructure, payment applications such as PayFi have emerged. In 2024, the total amount of payments and settlements based on stablecoins reached $16.16 trillion, completely bypassing traditional banking systems and the SWIFT network. In this regard, China is one of the biggest beneficiaries. In our cross-border trade, an increasing number of payment settlements have shifted to this new system, helping goods sales go global.
Financial infrastructure refers to a complete set of institutional arrangements, including laws, accounting standards, etc., aimed at maintaining financial stability and serving the public interest. Its technical aspects involve hardware and system security. "Financial market infrastructure" is a subset of this, mainly including the three major links of payment, clearing, and settlement.
Payment: For example, when swiping a bank card, the first step is to verify whether the account has a balance.
Clearing: If there is a balance, the amount to be paid is frozen.
Settlement: This completes the actual transfer of funds between different banks or accounts.
A security incident on Ethereum in 2016 occurred because the smart contract did not properly handle the clearing process, leading users to repeatedly withdraw assets, resulting in a loss of about $60 million. This incident highlighted the importance of the clearing mechanism. China's foreign exchange trading centers, clearinghouses, and settlement centers are representatives of traditional financial market infrastructure. They ensure the payment and settlement of different types of transactions.
Compared to traditional financial systems, the new financial infrastructure has undergone significant changes in technical architecture, participants, and settlement units. Its core is based on blockchain, using Bitcoin, ETH, and stablecoins as transaction mediums, completely removing intermediaries to achieve trustlessness and efficient peer-to-peer transactions.
In the old system, remitting money from Shanghai to the United States could take days or even weeks; however, with blockchain stablecoins, it can arrive in seconds. For example, I recently remitted money from Hong Kong to Shanghai, and it took a month to confirm the failure, while using stablecoins could have completed the transaction in ten seconds.
Such a gap in efficiency and cost begs us to rethink the direction of financial system reform, doesn't it? Although the decentralized blockchain system bypasses SWIFT, the U.S. government still chooses to support the development of dollar stablecoins. Trump has explicitly requested Congress to pass legislation related to dollar stablecoins before August 2025. The bottom line for the U.S. is: it can bypass SWIFT, but not the dollar. If this new system bypasses the dollar, the U.S. will completely lose its global financial dominance.
Trump's presidential advisor once stated that the U.S. government currently prioritizes advancing legislation for dollar stablecoins, rather than Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, even though the latter is also important. The priority is to ensure that the dollar remains the primary payment and settlement tool in the new generation of financial infrastructure. If the dollar loses this status, the U.S. will face fundamental risks.
Looking back in history, to have the world accept the dollar, the U.S. linked the dollar to gold through the Bretton Woods system after World War II, with other countries' currencies then pegged to the dollar, thus establishing the dollar's global currency status. As the system collapsed, the U.S. promoted the formation of the Eurodollar market and the "petrodollar" system, unifying the settlement currency for commodities as the dollar, creating global application scenarios for the dollar. Today, the dollar is entering the third stage of evolution: tokenization. The U.S. government is trying to ensure that "tokenized dollars" occupy a core position in future global financial infrastructure, which is of far greater significance to national interests than Bitcoin reserves.
Currently, the digital currency system is rapidly developing, including native cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin) and digital twin stablecoins (such as USDT, USDC), which represent the evolution of currency forms from precious metals, paper money, and electronic currency to crypto assets.
Cryptocurrencies can be divided into two categories: one is CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) promoted by national central banks, which belongs to M0 (base money); the other is market-driven stablecoins, which belong to M2 (broad money) and are created by institutions based on central bank base money through credit expansion. The bank deposits, wealth management products, and money market funds we use daily fall under the M2 category, representing bank liabilities rather than central bank assets. For example, in China, banks only guarantee deposits up to 500,000 yuan; in the U.S., the limit is $500,000. Any amount exceeding this limit will not be guaranteed if the bank goes bankrupt.
In the financial system, M0, M1, and M2 each perform different functions and are not interchangeable. Central bank digital currencies are unlikely to replace M2-level currencies and are not suitable for all consumption scenarios. The U.S. is well aware of this, which is why it has clearly stated that it will not issue CBDCs. Trump promised during his campaign that he would not allow the Federal Reserve to issue central bank digital currencies during his term. The Federal Reserve has also publicly stated that it does not consider issuing such currencies.
The reason is clear: central bank digital currencies could lead to comprehensive control of payment data by the state, harming user privacy. For example, if a digital dollar is used for payments in Hong Kong, Singapore, or Japan, the Federal Reserve could obtain transaction data, which would be difficult to accept internationally. Unless enforced through coercive means, it is hard to implement. The U.S. understands its limitations and thus turns to support market-issued stablecoins anchored to the dollar.
RWA (Real World Assets) tokenization also falls under the M2 category, such as dollar money market fund tokens issued in Hong Kong. Its essence is credit creation based on sovereign currency, issued by banks and other financial institutions, still representing bank liabilities.
The core of the new generation of payment and settlement systems is not only the innovation of currency forms but also the evolution of asset issuance models. From "golden dollars" to "petrodollars," and now to "tokenized dollars," each round of evolution has strengthened the global influence of the dollar.
It is worth mentioning that China once held 70% of the global Bitcoin mining share, meaning Bitcoin was once a "Made in China" currency. However, due to regulatory reasons, China voluntarily gave up this strategic resource to the U.S. From an industry perspective, this may not be a bad thing, but from a national interest standpoint, it is a significant loss.
The development of AI also provides a clear demand for the new financial system. If in the future, hundreds of billions of devices globally can create GDP without human involvement, their payments and settlements will rely on programmable currency. Traditional banking systems struggle to support machine-to-machine automatic payments, while systems based on blockchain and smart contracts possess this capability, with no better solution currently available. On this basis, a new asset issuance system is also being constructed. The new industrial revolution calls for a matching financial revolution, namely a comprehensive upgrade of payment settlement systems and asset tokenization. The five main types of token assets currently include:
Payment Tokens: Such as USDT and USDC, pegged to fiat currencies for daily payment settlements. In the future, stablecoins for Hong Kong dollars, yen, euros, etc., will also emerge.
Reserve Tokens: Such as Bitcoin, which is transitioning from a risk asset to a strategic reserve asset. Several U.S. states have already legislated to include Bitcoin in state government asset reserves, evolving from household assets and corporate cash management to national strategic reserves.
The book "The Currency Pyramid" once predicted that Bitcoin would become a reserve asset for central banks in the future. The reason is simple: for the digital-native generation under 30, Bitcoin's appeal has already surpassed that of gold. This book directly tells the current central bank governors and finance ministers in their seventies and eighties— you will eventually exit the historical stage, while those who have grown up in the digital world will take your place, and they are more likely to include Bitcoin in national reserves. The trend is irreversible, and individual will cannot counter the tide of the times.
Surprisingly, the initiator of this trend is not the digital-native generation, but an 80-year-old man—Trump. This reality confirms the judgment that "the situation is stronger than the individual." It was originally thought that only the young would drive change, but it turns out that an elder has taken the lead.
Currently, the trend of Bitcoin as a reserve asset is beginning to emerge. Recently, during market fluctuations, the vast majority of crypto assets have seen significant declines, but Bitcoin's drop has been relatively small. The reason is that most cryptocurrencies are still viewed as "risk assets," while Bitcoin is gradually transitioning from a risk asset to a "credit asset."
The core role of credit assets is to hedge against the excessive issuance of fiat currency. For example, gold has long been viewed globally as a means of value storage, and its price has risen against the trend in recent years. While U.S. stocks and bonds have fallen, gold and Bitcoin have remained strong, indicating that Bitcoin is gradually acquiring characteristics of a credit asset. It is expected that within the next year, Bitcoin will complete its transition from a risk asset to a credit asset.
Currently, Bitcoin's market value is less than $2 trillion, while gold exceeds $20 trillion. If Bitcoin ultimately reaches the market value level of gold, whether in five years or ten years, it will be a tremendous opportunity for investors.
As for Ethereum (ETH), it still belongs to functional tokens. Its value depends on the actual applications within its ecosystem; only when applications explode on a large scale will ETH have significant upside potential. Unlike Bitcoin, which is expected to become "digital gold," ETH cannot become a credit asset, but as a functional asset, its prospects remain broad.
Regarding the growth path of functional assets, one can refer to the classic Silicon Valley book "Crossing the Chasm" from 30 years ago. The book points out that the user growth path for all high-tech products can be divided into five stages:
Tech Geek Stage: Products are created by tech geeks. For example, Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik created Bitcoin and Ethereum from scratch.
Tech Enthusiast Stage: Early users do not pursue immediate practical applications but are passionate about new technology. For instance, in 2015, when Vitalik came to Shanghai, even though the Ethereum mainnet had not yet launched, Wanxiang Blockchain still invested $500,000 in it.
Pragmatist Stage: General users begin to focus on whether the technology can truly bring value and solve real problems. This is the critical "chasm" period for product survival, where 80% of projects fail at this stage.
Late Majority Stage: Users follow suit only after seeing others benefit, making up the majority of the user base. This stage has a lower threshold, but the prerequisite is to cross the "pragmatist chasm."
Rejector Stage: The "traditionalists" who always reject new technology. They prefer stability and a nostalgic lifestyle, do not accept new things, and do not need to be forcibly converted.
Projects that can acquire users and monetize from the third and fourth stages have a foundation for sustainable development. Additionally, there are two types of assets worth noting:
Securities Tokens: For example, RWA (Real World Asset tokenization), which is essentially the digitization of securities investment tools and must comply with securities regulatory rules. Ignoring regulations will ultimately face legal risks.
Meme Coins: Such as the Meme coin launched by Trump, targeting users who are speculators for entertainment purposes, similar to a Las Vegas casino. Although primarily for "fun," there are also real users and market demand, making it an independent asset category.
In summary, in the new generation of asset systems, tokens are mainly divided into five categories: reserve, functional, credit, securities, and entertainment. Understanding which category your project belongs to can help more accurately assess its development path and regulatory requirements.
The Essence and Development Direction of the New Generation Financial Market System
The essence of finance is the intertemporal mismatch of value across time and space. For example, a startup borrows from a bank due to expansion needs, and the bank lends based on its growth potential over the next two years. This is essentially an early realization of future value using current funds, a typical mismatch of time value. Achieving this value transfer in a more efficient and lower-cost manner is the core mission of "good finance," while other superficial behaviors are secondary.
DeFi (Decentralized Finance) and CeFi (Centralized Finance) are not oppositional; they can be combined to optimize the risk-return structure. The new generation of asset trading markets features global accessibility and 24/7 operation—assets issued on public chains inherently possess global accessibility, allowing anyone to participate in trading at any time and place.
Traditional exchanges like NASDAQ and the NYSE have also begun to extend trading hours, evolving from the original five days a week and five hours a day to a "5×23 hours" near 24/7 trading system. In fact, new technologies can already support "7×24 hours" trading, fully covering global time zones and breaking the previous "inhumane" trading hour settings. Since the technology is available, embracing change is a logical choice.
AI and blockchain together form the infrastructure of the new generation wealth distribution system. In the era of AGI, the new financial system based on blockchain will become the optimal global wealth distribution mechanism.
Blockchain is not only a financial infrastructure but also a new business governance tool. On-chain data features real-time disclosure (once per block), immutability, traceability, and auditability, allowing companies to achieve efficient and transparent information disclosure without relying on traditional semi-annual or annual reporting systems. Compared to traditional accounting systems, the blockchain-based information disclosure mechanism is more efficient and credible. New organizational forms like DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) are based on transparent on-chain data, enabling global strangers to collaborate on complex tasks through a new governance model.
The AI era is one of large-scale collaboration among global strangers. Traditional methods like company contracts and bank transfers can no longer support the demand for efficient collaboration. On-chain protocols, smart contracts, and token incentive mechanisms will become the infrastructure for new business activities.
RWA: The Tokenization Process of Real World Assets
RWA (Real World Assets) essentially refers to the tokenization process of assets, which involves converting off-chain assets into standardized, shareable, and securitized forms on-chain. As early as ten years ago, stablecoins like USDT and USDC achieved the tokenization of fiat currencies, marking the starting point for RWA.
From a developmental stage perspective, RWA can be divided into three phases:
Phase One (2015): The tokenization of fiat currencies represented by USDT. Due to the strong credit backing of sovereign currencies, there is low reliance on oracles; it is sufficient to have a custodian bank provide proof of receipt for the market to trust.
Phase Two (2024): Represented by BlackRock's Build, promoting the on-chainization of financial assets such as short-term government bond funds. These assets provide credit guarantees through licensed financial institutions, securities regulation, custodian banks, and law firm audits.
Phase Three (Future): The tokenization of physical assets. This phase is the most challenging, with the core difficulty lying in the verification of the authenticity and ownership of off-chain assets, making oracles a key bottleneck.
Currently, there are three main types of oracle solutions:
1) Crypto-native oracles like Chainlink: These have already achieved the on-chain integration of cryptocurrency market prices and data.
2) DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network): This is a key oracle for future machine data on-chain, such as real-world data generated by autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. Its importance will significantly increase with the development of AI and hardware.
3) Financial institution oracles: These are provided by regulated financial institutions through custodianship and other means to back on-chain data. For example, a bank as a custodian confirms token quantity change instructions to ensure the trustworthiness of on-chain assets.
The mapping of physical assets on-chain still faces significant challenges, and there is currently no mature and reliable credit guarantee mechanism. However, the ongoing development of oracle systems is expected to address this issue.
When discussing RWA (Real World Assets), if one believes that "everything can be RWA," that would be overly idealistic. To create RWA, two core issues must first be resolved:
First, how to get on-chain. This means ensuring that the data is real, immutable, and traceable. This typically relies on oracle systems, but oracles themselves also face issues of trust and accuracy.
Second, compliance issues. Certain financial products need to obtain approval from securities regulatory agencies before tokenization. For example, tokenizing a money market fund in Hong Kong requires approval from the Securities and Futures Commission before implementation.
Moreover, tokenization cannot be merely for the sake of tokenization. For ordinary investors, the returns from purchasing a dollar money market fund are essentially no different from those of its tokenized version, but the latter increases the complexity of wallet management, private key security, and other operations. In reality, money market funds are readily available for purchase, with no barriers to entry.
Therefore, for RWA to be established, it must possess its unique use and added value. Otherwise, the securitization of real-world assets is already sufficiently mature, and there is no need for an additional layer of tokenization. In other words, tokenization must address issues that traditional finance cannot meet.
A typical scenario is the combination with DeFi. For instance, the annualized yield of current dollar money market funds is between 4.5% and 4.9%. If tokenized, one could continue to enjoy that yield while also obtaining an additional return of around 5% through DeFi lending, which represents a way to increase value "without increasing risk." Such returns stem from improved capital efficiency rather than leverage, making it a commendable innovation. We are currently in discussions with regulatory agencies, but have not yet received approval to officially use tokenized money market funds for DeFi lending.
Another example is gold RWA: It is commonly believed that gold is naturally suitable for ETFs or RWA, but this depends on the specific executing entity. If a gold mining company or smelting enterprise claims to produce gold daily and wishes to tokenize it, that is not feasible. The outside world cannot verify the ownership, purity, or safety of the gold. However, if a licensed financial institution issues a gold ETF, approved by securities regulation, and has a bank as a custodian—such as a certain issuer in Hong Kong storing gold in HSBC's vault, with HSBC as the custodian—then this gold ETF can be converted into an RWA Token, which is credible. In other words, the market trusts not the miner, but HSBC.
In summary, not all assets are suitable for direct conversion into RWA. Typically, they need to first be converted into compliant financial products before tokenization. This is a reality that the industry must face at this stage.
The Combination of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and Blockchain
When discussing the combination of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and blockchain, I would like to share a small anecdote. Three weeks ago, I met with Shen Xiangyang in Hong Kong, who also expressed that AI and crypto are naturally compatible fields, and we are exploring ways to combine the two.
Over the past year, I have been searching for truly valuable AI + Crypto projects. It is not about creating a chain, issuing a coin, or slapping an AI label on it; rather, it is about solving real problems and doing genuine engineering. For example, distributed inference networks are a direction we have been investing in for a long time. We hope to build a system that can support 200, 2000, or even 20,000 devices to collaboratively complete AI inference tasks. This is not just a slogan; it is a deep engineering challenge at the hardware and network levels. Currently, our system is expected to launch a TGE (Token Generation Event) within two months.
We firmly believe that the deep integration of AI and blockchain will happen, and we are actively seeking entrepreneurial projects with practical implementation capabilities. I know that many entrepreneurs in the Wanwu Creation Camp S5 are also making similar attempts, and I welcome everyone to discuss together.
In fact, as early as February last year, I reached out to the CSDN team, hoping they could mobilize developers to run large models in a distributed manner. This project has been progressing for over a year, and because everyone is serious and grounded in their work, we feel it is worthwhile.
We are also collaborating with Shen Xiangyang's team, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. For example, they have already compressed AI models to run on mobile devices. We are discussing whether, if we cannot pre-install models, we can collaborate with mobile distribution channels to pre-install models during the sales process and activate them with user authorization. Our tests show that 90% of users do not actively uninstall the models and are willing to keep them.
This decentralized edge computing node network could allow users to earn token rewards by sharing computing power, thereby activating the entire ecosystem. This is not an easy task, but it is precisely because it is difficult that it presents an opportunity. Truly valuable innovations are never things that "everyone is doing."
Regarding AGI, OpenAI has proposed five stages: Conversationalist, Reasoner, Agent, Innovator, Organizer.
Currently, ChatGPT has achieved the first stage; the Reasoner (such as DeepMind's Alpha series or OpenAI's O1) is also gradually taking shape. The third stage—Agent—is in progress. Musk's autonomous driving systems and humanoid robots fall into this stage. Autonomous driving is expected to mature within two years, and the application of humanoid robots in factories is also accelerating. As for comprehensive applications in home scenarios, it may take another five years or even longer. The more complex stages are Innovator and Organizer. Innovators create from 0 to 1, while Organizers need to standardize, systematize, and scale the results of innovation, which is more challenging. Once all five stages are connected, AGI will be realized. Optimistically, AGI is expected to arrive by 2027, while conservative predictions suggest 2030.
After AGI, we will enter the era of ASI (Artificial Superintelligence). The key question in this stage is: How will the immense social wealth created by AI be distributed? This raises an ancient yet important proposition: Universal Basic Income (UBI). Economists have long proposed UBI models to ensure that humans still receive reasonable distribution in the AI era. I saw a news report where someone asked a tech mogul what the ultimate destination of AGI is, and he replied: Socialism. In a sense, this is correct—AI does not consume or waste; the wealth it creates needs to be redistributed. The concept of UBI is to distribute not based on labor but based on "people."
The next stage is UHI (Universal High Income), matching the exponential growth of wealth created by ASI. In the future, perhaps if you plan to travel to Antarctica, the Arctic, or space, the systems of the AI era may support you; this is no longer a fantasy.
Do we remember Andrew Yang, who ran for U.S. president in 2020? His core platform was UBI, providing every American with $2,000 a month. He articulated the inevitable trend of the AI era too early. Why is Sam Altman of OpenAI working on Worldcoin? It is to build a global identity verification system (World ID) and a super-sovereign currency system, laying the groundwork for future UBI. Because the wealth of the AGI era no longer belongs to a specific country; it must be fairly distributed through super-sovereign currencies and multinational platforms.
Musk is also exploring similar avenues. The identity verification and economic behavior of AI machines must be based on blockchain. Otherwise, we cannot verify the interaction relationships between devices. Moreover, payments and settlements between machines inherently require smart contracts, and thus must be based on programmable currencies and decentralized ledgers.
Therefore, the combination of AGI and blockchain will manifest in two aspects:
1) A decentralized collaborative network at the level of computing power and tasks, such as distributed inference;
2) A global identity and settlement system for wealth distribution, such as the UBI framework constructed by Worldcoin.
This is a question that must be considered for the future—when the means of production in human society are completely taken over by agents, our value system, distribution mechanism, and incentive system must also be restructured. And blockchain may be the infrastructure closest to this answer.
Alright, that concludes my sharing for today. Thank you, everyone!
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
