Suddenly, Token has appeared in the public eye at an unprecedented frequency. As a billing unit for various AI products, Token has become well-known alongside the explosive popularity of products like OpenClaw, ChatGPT, and Deepseek.

On March 24, the National Data Bureau officially confirmed the Chinese translation of Token as "word element," and this news quickly spread like wildfire across social media platforms like WeChat Moments and Douyin.

For practitioners in the blockchain industry, this is undoubtedly a mixed blessing. Once upon a time, we struggled to explain to outsiders what Token was, elaborating on decentralization, economic models, and consensus mechanisms; now, large models have achieved a nationwide understanding of this term in a nearly blunt commercial manner within just one year.

Making Token accepted by the public was a long-sought dream of all blockchain practitioners. Now that the vision has come true, it leaves behind an awkward reality. This is not just because "this Token is not that Token," but also because the promised "transformation of production relations" by blockchain is sinking into an unprecedented crisis of faith.

1. The Evolution of the Meaning of Token: From Verification and Assets to "Computational Currency"

In the long history of computer science, Token is not a new term.

In the world of Web2 or earlier, Token was a "pass" used for login verification. It is an encrypted string you receive after logging into a server, proving "you are you." It quietly resides in the browser's Cookies or Headers, lacking social attributes and possessing only functional properties.

In the world of Web3, Token is endowed with an unprecedented grand narrative. It is translated as "token" or "certificate." In the context of blockchain, Token is an asset, a vote, ownership, and the glue of the community. We attempt to reconstruct the world through Token, believing it can break the monopoly of tech giants.

In the era of AI, Token has become the currency of computational power and the unit of measurement for API calls. It is another way of saying electricity bill: the more you use, the more you pay; the smarter the model and the longer the output, the more terrifying the Token consumption.

2. The Struggles and Confusions of the Cryptocurrency Industry

Blockchain practitioners once had a grand ideal: "Tokenization of Everything," hoping to convert real-world assets, credit, and labor into Tokens for free circulation.

Ironically, AI has indeed achieved a certain form of "tokenization of everything," with text, sound, and video being decomposed into Tokens. For the public, they do not need to understand cryptographic principles, do not need to manage private keys, and do not need to worry about losing mnemonic phrases. They only need to enter a prompt, and the model will consume Tokens and output Tokens.

The widespread acceptance of Tokens was once the goal all practitioners in the blockchain industry pursued. Now, the vision has come true, but it leaves behind awkwardness. This is not only because this Token is not that Token, but also because many practitioners themselves no longer believe in this goal and vision.

In recent years, as Tokens, due to characteristics like permissionless entry and low thresholds, have formed various breakout forms such as NFTs and memes, they ultimately still received labels of "speculation" and "fraud" following the price collapse.

At the same time, the blockchain industry lacks intrinsic innovation momentum, projects like DePin, DeSci, AI agents, and RWA progress slowly with limited practical applications. Increasing numbers of crypto entrepreneurs are halting their ongoing projects in confusion, either waiting for new opportunities or choosing to embrace the AI field, and capital is also shifting in this direction.

"As time goes by, I feel like I have lost my direction in the cryptocurrency field. After diving in full-time, the initial allure of cryptocurrency's transformative power has gradually faded. I feel disappointed in the target audience I am truly fighting for. I completely misunderstood the difference between real cryptocurrency users and the promotional audience. Cryptocurrency claims to help decentralize the financial system, which I completely believe, but in reality, it is just a super system of speculation and gambling, merely a replica of the existing economy." A former crypto entrepreneur, Ken Chan, wrote in an article that went viral in the crypto industry a few months ago.

This entrepreneur's thoughts are not uncommon in the cryptocurrency industry; the struggle of belief and the loss of ideals continuously impact the psychology of crypto entrepreneurs during this bear market cycle. Although this is not the first time—such voices emerge every time the market enters a bear phase—this time, the robust rise of AI has made this crisis of faith particularly glaring.

3. The Second Half of Token

This may be the cruel logic of technological iteration: what truly changes the world is often not the grand narratives, but the practical tools. Blockchain gave Token ideals, while AI granted it necessity; blockchain wanted to change the world, AI first changed life.

When AI's Token becomes the new "digital oil", blockchain can only watch its former dreams land in a completely unfamiliar way. This misaligned popularization is a victory for AI but also the deepest helplessness for blockchain.

However, there is good news; in the past year, assets like U.S. Treasury bonds and stocks in the Web2 world have also rapidly been tokenized, becoming one of the highest growth Token assets due to low trading thresholds and high convenience. When speculative bubbles burst one after another, and when financial giants like BlackRock and Fidelity enter the scene, Tokens may be returning to the essence of "value carriers".

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