According to PANews, both cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI) are empowering humanity, albeit through different methods and depths. Cryptocurrency focuses on 'decentralized financial sovereignty,' allowing individuals to manage their assets without relying on traditional centralized institutions like banks. This form of empowerment is defensive, suggesting that the crypto industry will remain valid as long as it adheres to decentralization.
In contrast, AI empowerment is characterized by the 'exponential amplification of productivity,' enabling people to achieve previously impossible tasks. This offensive approach has led to continuous capital investment by internet giants, driving the growth of AI-related stocks. The industry's growth follows a predictable, sustainable, and exponential trajectory, akin to Moore's Law, indicating a foreseeable future of computing power races, algorithmic revolutions, and widespread adoption of AI applications.
However, the growth logic of cryptocurrency has shifted from regulatory arbitrage to orderly penetration under regulatory approval. As a result, the growth rate of crypto, in terms of 'wild' expansion, lags behind AI. This does not imply that crypto lacks value, but rather that its value realization pace cannot match AI's world-changing speed.
Cryptocurrency faces a choice: either embrace AI and become the foundational infrastructure of the AI economy or narrow its expectations to become a niche speculative financial market, detached from 'value.' Directions like the x402 protocol, AI Agent payments, and on-chain AI economy represent crypto's proactive embrace of AI. Although this process may be slow, the burgeoning demand for payments and automated trading driven by AI will allow crypto to align with AI's industrial growth and benefit from its expansion.
The timeline is clear: if 2027 is considered the emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), crypto must establish its protocol layer positioning and layout before then. Rather than focusing solely on 'Crypto for human,' the industry should leverage AI's growth as a lifeline to secure a share of the AI economy's success.
