Preface: Since the birth of Bitcoin, the Crypto industry has roughly undergone three revolutions. The so-called revolution is a subversion of the past and the creation of new paradigms and new species that have never appeared before. Every revolution in the history of Crypto has greatly promoted the development of the industry and brought about explosive growth that lasted for a cycle. This cycle (2022-2025) is at the end of the third Crypto revolution and on the eve of the fourth revolution. Therefore, we have seen the most embarrassing Crypto cycle: the entire industry lacks decent innovation, and the entire cycle is eating the leftovers of the third Crypto revolution. Although some people have already seen the vague appearance of the fourth Crypto revolution, on the eve of the revolution, everything seems dull and depressed. This article will begin by discussing three revolutions in the history of cryptocurrencies, and conclude with a discussion of the fourth revolution and the significant impact it will have on the entire industry. I believe that after reading this article, you will once again be filled with longing and hope for the future of cryptocurrencies. text: The first Crypto revolution broke out on January 3, 2009, the birth day of Bitcoin. The birth of Bitcoin revolutionized traditional asset management. For the first time, Bitcoin allowed humans to own fully autonomous assets that were not controlled by any third party. Bitcoin ushered in the Crypto era and was the first revolution in Crypto history. In the few years after the birth of Bitcoin, many Bitcoin clones (later collectively referred to as altcoins) issued through forked Bitcoin codes appeared in the crypto industry, such as Litecoin, Dogecoin, and altcoins that many people are no longer aware of, such as Feathercoin, Dotcoin, Namecoin, etc. However, these are simple imitations and copies of Bitcoin without any innovation. It wasn’t until six years later that Ethereum introduced smart contracts into the blockchain, allowing it to be used not only for transfers and payments, but also for issuing assets and building on-chain applications. Ethereum has transformed the application scenarios of blockchain technology from point to surface, and even into three-dimensional. Compared with Bitcoin, Ethereum is a new paradigm and a new species. Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum is a revolution at the infrastructure level. Therefore, we call the birth of Ethereum the second revolution of Crypto. All smart contract public chains after Ethereum are imitations or improvements of Ethereum and have not brought about any essential changes. From the birth of the Bitcoin Genesis Block (January 3, 2009) to the launch of the Ethereum mainnet (July 30, 2015), it took a full six years for Crypto to complete two revolutions. The third Crypto revolution occurred five years later in 2020. In the summer of 2020, DeFi exploded. After years of application exploration, the Crypto industry has finally discovered a unique new species that can only grow on the blockchain network - DeFi. Decentralized bank (AAVE), decentralized exchange (Uniswap), decentralized foreign exchange market (Curve), decentralized fund (Yearn), etc. DeFi is a revolution in traditional finance and a culmination of the characteristics of blockchain technology. DeFi runs on the blockchain. Therefore, DeFi data is completely transparent and open (the review cost is lower than that of traditional finance), settlement is carried out in real time on the chain (settlement efficiency is higher than that of traditional finance), and it is entirely operated by smart contracts (the operating cost is lower than that of traditional finance and the credibility is higher). Moreover, DeFi operates on the blockchain 24/7 and without borders (DeFi once again crushes traditional finance in time and space). Therefore, DeFi can be called the third revolution of Crypto, and this revolution is a revolution at the application level of Crypto. From 2020 to 2025, the crypto industry has been in the midst of its third revolution, with no new species emerging that surpass DeFi. The recent emergence of decentralized principal and interest separation protocols (Pendle) and decentralized contract exchanges (Hyperliquid) are merely continuations of the DeFi paradigm. The PumpFun model is nothing more than an innovative combination of Curve Bonding and Decentralized Exchanges (DEX), an extension of DeFi. When there is no disruptive innovation in the industry and no new revolution breaks out, it can only rehash leftovers and reinvent the wheel. The industry will show stagnation of innovation and stagnation, which is also a fact that everyone can feel in this round of encryption cycle. So, when will the fourth revolution happen in the Crypto industry? Will the fourth Crypto revolution appear in this form? The first Crypto revolution brought Crypto from nothing to something; the second Crypto revolution improved the Crypto infrastructure; the third Crypto revolution determined that DeFi is the main application paradigm of Crypto, and on-chain finance (DeFi) has become the best bridge for Crypto to extend to the human world. It can be said that after three revolutions, Crypto has gradually matured and improved. Crypto no longer lacks infrastructure or exploration of application directions. If Crypto wants to prosper further, it must build a more prosperous economic network on top of the existing on-chain financial infrastructure. To put it bluntly, Crypto needs further prosperity, which means it needs more on-chain users and more frequent on-chain economic activities. It needs an on-chain population explosion to drive the continued prosperity of the on-chain economy. So, how do we achieve a population explosion on the chain? Can we encourage more people to use Crypto? Currently, the total number of blockchain users worldwide is about 560 million, while the global population with bank accounts is about 4.86 billion. Even if everyone with a bank account in the world uses blockchain for financial activities, the growth space is less than 10 times (and this is just an extreme value. In reality, the growth space may be less than 2-3 times). Therefore, it is obviously not wise to rely on the slow growth of human users to promote the prosperity of the on-chain economy. So let’s focus on another group that is growing exponentially and explosively – AI. Today, AI is developing rapidly, and in the future the number of AIs will surpass the number of humans (both Elon Musk and Ultraman have said so). For AI to become AGI (general AI with autonomous capabilities), it must have an independent and trusted identity and account system. Currently, no organization in the world can issue a globally trusted identity card or bank account to AI, but Crypto can naturally do so. Therefore, Crypto will undertake the historical mission of building identity and asset accounts for AI, and AI will also become the largest user group of Crypto, which we call on-chain AI. The large amount of economic transactions, business interactions, and social collaborations between on-chain AIs will form an on-chain AI economy, thereby achieving true on-chain economic prosperity. On-chain AI is naturally more suitable for blockchain than on-chain humans. AI can work 24/7, and so can blockchain; AI's business dealings are not restricted by regions or national boundaries, and so is blockchain; AI's collaborative efficiency requirements are extremely high, and blockchain is just the right fit (all payments, transactions, and task processing on the chain are completed in real time and are extremely efficient). Therefore, on-chain AI will be the fourth revolution that promotes the prosperity of Crypto again. We call it the on-chain population explosion or the on-chain population growth revolution. However, achieving autonomous AI on the chain and realizing economic prosperity on the chain cannot be done overnight. The most critical and first step is to achieve trusted verification of AI on the chain. In other words, how to verify that the identity of AI on the chain is credible, and that the input and output of AI on the chain are credible and verifiable? Trusted verification of on-chain AI is the first priority for achieving great prosperity of the on-chain AI economy. The same is true for all human economic activities; everything must be built on a foundation of trust. Personal identities, asset information, and business practices all need to be trustworthy. Otherwise, human commercial civilization and economic prosperity are empty talk. This is what is meant by "integrity is the foundation of all business." Similarly, the prosperity of the on-chain AI economy also needs to be built on a foundation of trusted verification. Therefore, whoever can solve the problem of trusted verification of AI on the chain can start the prosperity of AI economy on the chain. Start the fourth Crypto revolution. It is worth noting that many outstanding entrepreneurs have begun to explore the issue of trusted verification of AI on the chain. Currently, there are two mainstream directions: One direction is to build a proprietary AI Layer 1 so that all on-chain AI standards and applications are built on the same infrastructure. Typical representatives of AI Layer1 are @0G_labs and @bittensor. 0G mainly builds the AI DA layer, verifies data integrity and fast retrieval through multi-consensus, thereby ensuring the credibility of AI data sources. As a proprietary AI Layer 1, 0G focuses on AI data storage and access (such as AI model training data sets). ,0G only verifies data rather than AI output/agent, and does not directly handle AI Agent behavior. Bittensor emphasizes building large AI models through decentralized incentives and optimizing machine learning with a subnet incentive model. Its advantage lies in standardized and unified systems, but its disadvantage is incompatibility with AI built using external large models. Bittensor's logic uses blockchain to build AI models. Its advantage lies in vertical specialization, enabling trusted verification of AI within the ecosystem, but its disadvantage is incompatibility with external AI models. Another direction is to directly build an AI trusted verification network to directly verify the input and output processes of AI and be compatible with all external AI models. Typical representatives here are @Mira_Network and @DeepSafe_AI. Mira achieves consensus and factual consistency through multi-model cross-validation, then uses community nodes to participate in final arbitration. This is then proven through on-chain records, ultimately achieving trusted AI verification. Mira's approach to trusted AI verification is a social consensus method based on cross-validation and community arbitration, which places greater emphasis on verifying AI output. Deepsafe uses CRVA (Crypto Random Verification Agent) built through four cryptographic technologies: Ring-VRF random algorithm, ZKP, MPC privacy computing, and TEE hardware isolation, to achieve dynamic random selection of nodes (rotation every 10-60 minutes), multi-agent collaboration to verify AI intentions and behaviors, and support on-chain/off-chain AI message verification. This AI trusted verification solution that relies entirely on cryptography and mathematics is called mathematical consensus method, and Deepsafe emphasizes the verification of AI input and output processes. The above are the two mainstream directions and representative projects in the AI trusted verification market. To sum it up simply, the AI Layer 1 faction represented by @0G_labs and @bittensor achieves trusted verification of AI data through a unified standard AI base layer; while the AI trusted verification network represented by @Mira_Network and @DeepSafe_AI directly targets the input and output of AI verification, achieving trusted verification of AI through social consensus or mathematical consensus methods. It is difficult to say now which of these two schools will become the mainstream AI trusted verification solution in the future. However, it is obvious that the AI trusted verification market - ATVM (AI Trusted Verification Market) is gradually opening up, and more and more outstanding entrepreneurs have flocked to this track. I believe that as the AI trusted verification market grows, more and more trusted AI will run on the blockchain. Currently, there may only be a few hundred thousand or even millions, but in the future, on-chain AIs will outnumber humans on the blockchain by several times the number. They will become the mainstream users of the blockchain, generating a vast amount of on-chain business transactions and commercial activities between on-chain AIs and humans, and between on-chain AIs themselves, ultimately fostering a truly prosperous on-chain economy. Perhaps, in the next 3-5 years, people will see a great boom in the on-chain AI economic network, and people will call this process of exploring the trusted verification of on-chain AI the fourth Crypto revolution. The concepts mentioned in this article, such as on-chain AI, AI trusted identity and account system, blockchain as AI's identity and account system, and AI as blockchain's largest user group, have already been elaborated in my 250,000+ read article earlier this year: "Crypto + Agent: Endgame Thinking." For more information, please click here : https://x.com/Cyrus_G3/status/1875439092902850569Preface: Since the birth of Bitcoin, the Crypto industry has roughly undergone three revolutions. The so-called revolution is a subversion of the past and the creation of new paradigms and new species that have never appeared before. Every revolution in the history of Crypto has greatly promoted the development of the industry and brought about explosive growth that lasted for a cycle. This cycle (2022-2025) is at the end of the third Crypto revolution and on the eve of the fourth revolution. Therefore, we have seen the most embarrassing Crypto cycle: the entire industry lacks decent innovation, and the entire cycle is eating the leftovers of the third Crypto revolution. Although some people have already seen the vague appearance of the fourth Crypto revolution, on the eve of the revolution, everything seems dull and depressed. This article will begin by discussing three revolutions in the history of cryptocurrencies, and conclude with a discussion of the fourth revolution and the significant impact it will have on the entire industry. I believe that after reading this article, you will once again be filled with longing and hope for the future of cryptocurrencies. text: The first Crypto revolution broke out on January 3, 2009, the birth day of Bitcoin. The birth of Bitcoin revolutionized traditional asset management. For the first time, Bitcoin allowed humans to own fully autonomous assets that were not controlled by any third party. Bitcoin ushered in the Crypto era and was the first revolution in Crypto history. In the few years after the birth of Bitcoin, many Bitcoin clones (later collectively referred to as altcoins) issued through forked Bitcoin codes appeared in the crypto industry, such as Litecoin, Dogecoin, and altcoins that many people are no longer aware of, such as Feathercoin, Dotcoin, Namecoin, etc. However, these are simple imitations and copies of Bitcoin without any innovation. It wasn’t until six years later that Ethereum introduced smart contracts into the blockchain, allowing it to be used not only for transfers and payments, but also for issuing assets and building on-chain applications. Ethereum has transformed the application scenarios of blockchain technology from point to surface, and even into three-dimensional. Compared with Bitcoin, Ethereum is a new paradigm and a new species. Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum is a revolution at the infrastructure level. Therefore, we call the birth of Ethereum the second revolution of Crypto. All smart contract public chains after Ethereum are imitations or improvements of Ethereum and have not brought about any essential changes. From the birth of the Bitcoin Genesis Block (January 3, 2009) to the launch of the Ethereum mainnet (July 30, 2015), it took a full six years for Crypto to complete two revolutions. The third Crypto revolution occurred five years later in 2020. In the summer of 2020, DeFi exploded. After years of application exploration, the Crypto industry has finally discovered a unique new species that can only grow on the blockchain network - DeFi. Decentralized bank (AAVE), decentralized exchange (Uniswap), decentralized foreign exchange market (Curve), decentralized fund (Yearn), etc. DeFi is a revolution in traditional finance and a culmination of the characteristics of blockchain technology. DeFi runs on the blockchain. Therefore, DeFi data is completely transparent and open (the review cost is lower than that of traditional finance), settlement is carried out in real time on the chain (settlement efficiency is higher than that of traditional finance), and it is entirely operated by smart contracts (the operating cost is lower than that of traditional finance and the credibility is higher). Moreover, DeFi operates on the blockchain 24/7 and without borders (DeFi once again crushes traditional finance in time and space). Therefore, DeFi can be called the third revolution of Crypto, and this revolution is a revolution at the application level of Crypto. From 2020 to 2025, the crypto industry has been in the midst of its third revolution, with no new species emerging that surpass DeFi. The recent emergence of decentralized principal and interest separation protocols (Pendle) and decentralized contract exchanges (Hyperliquid) are merely continuations of the DeFi paradigm. The PumpFun model is nothing more than an innovative combination of Curve Bonding and Decentralized Exchanges (DEX), an extension of DeFi. When there is no disruptive innovation in the industry and no new revolution breaks out, it can only rehash leftovers and reinvent the wheel. The industry will show stagnation of innovation and stagnation, which is also a fact that everyone can feel in this round of encryption cycle. So, when will the fourth revolution happen in the Crypto industry? Will the fourth Crypto revolution appear in this form? The first Crypto revolution brought Crypto from nothing to something; the second Crypto revolution improved the Crypto infrastructure; the third Crypto revolution determined that DeFi is the main application paradigm of Crypto, and on-chain finance (DeFi) has become the best bridge for Crypto to extend to the human world. It can be said that after three revolutions, Crypto has gradually matured and improved. Crypto no longer lacks infrastructure or exploration of application directions. If Crypto wants to prosper further, it must build a more prosperous economic network on top of the existing on-chain financial infrastructure. To put it bluntly, Crypto needs further prosperity, which means it needs more on-chain users and more frequent on-chain economic activities. It needs an on-chain population explosion to drive the continued prosperity of the on-chain economy. So, how do we achieve a population explosion on the chain? Can we encourage more people to use Crypto? Currently, the total number of blockchain users worldwide is about 560 million, while the global population with bank accounts is about 4.86 billion. Even if everyone with a bank account in the world uses blockchain for financial activities, the growth space is less than 10 times (and this is just an extreme value. In reality, the growth space may be less than 2-3 times). Therefore, it is obviously not wise to rely on the slow growth of human users to promote the prosperity of the on-chain economy. So let’s focus on another group that is growing exponentially and explosively – AI. Today, AI is developing rapidly, and in the future the number of AIs will surpass the number of humans (both Elon Musk and Ultraman have said so). For AI to become AGI (general AI with autonomous capabilities), it must have an independent and trusted identity and account system. Currently, no organization in the world can issue a globally trusted identity card or bank account to AI, but Crypto can naturally do so. Therefore, Crypto will undertake the historical mission of building identity and asset accounts for AI, and AI will also become the largest user group of Crypto, which we call on-chain AI. The large amount of economic transactions, business interactions, and social collaborations between on-chain AIs will form an on-chain AI economy, thereby achieving true on-chain economic prosperity. On-chain AI is naturally more suitable for blockchain than on-chain humans. AI can work 24/7, and so can blockchain; AI's business dealings are not restricted by regions or national boundaries, and so is blockchain; AI's collaborative efficiency requirements are extremely high, and blockchain is just the right fit (all payments, transactions, and task processing on the chain are completed in real time and are extremely efficient). Therefore, on-chain AI will be the fourth revolution that promotes the prosperity of Crypto again. We call it the on-chain population explosion or the on-chain population growth revolution. However, achieving autonomous AI on the chain and realizing economic prosperity on the chain cannot be done overnight. The most critical and first step is to achieve trusted verification of AI on the chain. In other words, how to verify that the identity of AI on the chain is credible, and that the input and output of AI on the chain are credible and verifiable? Trusted verification of on-chain AI is the first priority for achieving great prosperity of the on-chain AI economy. The same is true for all human economic activities; everything must be built on a foundation of trust. Personal identities, asset information, and business practices all need to be trustworthy. Otherwise, human commercial civilization and economic prosperity are empty talk. This is what is meant by "integrity is the foundation of all business." Similarly, the prosperity of the on-chain AI economy also needs to be built on a foundation of trusted verification. Therefore, whoever can solve the problem of trusted verification of AI on the chain can start the prosperity of AI economy on the chain. Start the fourth Crypto revolution. It is worth noting that many outstanding entrepreneurs have begun to explore the issue of trusted verification of AI on the chain. Currently, there are two mainstream directions: One direction is to build a proprietary AI Layer 1 so that all on-chain AI standards and applications are built on the same infrastructure. Typical representatives of AI Layer1 are @0G_labs and @bittensor. 0G mainly builds the AI DA layer, verifies data integrity and fast retrieval through multi-consensus, thereby ensuring the credibility of AI data sources. As a proprietary AI Layer 1, 0G focuses on AI data storage and access (such as AI model training data sets). ,0G only verifies data rather than AI output/agent, and does not directly handle AI Agent behavior. Bittensor emphasizes building large AI models through decentralized incentives and optimizing machine learning with a subnet incentive model. Its advantage lies in standardized and unified systems, but its disadvantage is incompatibility with AI built using external large models. Bittensor's logic uses blockchain to build AI models. Its advantage lies in vertical specialization, enabling trusted verification of AI within the ecosystem, but its disadvantage is incompatibility with external AI models. Another direction is to directly build an AI trusted verification network to directly verify the input and output processes of AI and be compatible with all external AI models. Typical representatives here are @Mira_Network and @DeepSafe_AI. Mira achieves consensus and factual consistency through multi-model cross-validation, then uses community nodes to participate in final arbitration. This is then proven through on-chain records, ultimately achieving trusted AI verification. Mira's approach to trusted AI verification is a social consensus method based on cross-validation and community arbitration, which places greater emphasis on verifying AI output. Deepsafe uses CRVA (Crypto Random Verification Agent) built through four cryptographic technologies: Ring-VRF random algorithm, ZKP, MPC privacy computing, and TEE hardware isolation, to achieve dynamic random selection of nodes (rotation every 10-60 minutes), multi-agent collaboration to verify AI intentions and behaviors, and support on-chain/off-chain AI message verification. This AI trusted verification solution that relies entirely on cryptography and mathematics is called mathematical consensus method, and Deepsafe emphasizes the verification of AI input and output processes. The above are the two mainstream directions and representative projects in the AI trusted verification market. To sum it up simply, the AI Layer 1 faction represented by @0G_labs and @bittensor achieves trusted verification of AI data through a unified standard AI base layer; while the AI trusted verification network represented by @Mira_Network and @DeepSafe_AI directly targets the input and output of AI verification, achieving trusted verification of AI through social consensus or mathematical consensus methods. It is difficult to say now which of these two schools will become the mainstream AI trusted verification solution in the future. However, it is obvious that the AI trusted verification market - ATVM (AI Trusted Verification Market) is gradually opening up, and more and more outstanding entrepreneurs have flocked to this track. I believe that as the AI trusted verification market grows, more and more trusted AI will run on the blockchain. Currently, there may only be a few hundred thousand or even millions, but in the future, on-chain AIs will outnumber humans on the blockchain by several times the number. They will become the mainstream users of the blockchain, generating a vast amount of on-chain business transactions and commercial activities between on-chain AIs and humans, and between on-chain AIs themselves, ultimately fostering a truly prosperous on-chain economy. Perhaps, in the next 3-5 years, people will see a great boom in the on-chain AI economic network, and people will call this process of exploring the trusted verification of on-chain AI the fourth Crypto revolution. The concepts mentioned in this article, such as on-chain AI, AI trusted identity and account system, blockchain as AI's identity and account system, and AI as blockchain's largest user group, have already been elaborated in my 250,000+ read article earlier this year: "Crypto + Agent: Endgame Thinking." For more information, please click here : https://x.com/Cyrus_G3/status/1875439092902850569