Author: Haotian Source: substack
io combines AI, DePIN, and Solana to explore whether the Crypto industry can ignite a bull market with the help of AI. In a way, it could be called the “NVIDIA of the crypto world.” Here are my thoughts:
1) From its inception, io has been highly anticipated by VCs, miners, and retail investors alike. Everyone is eager for io to set a positive precedent in the Crypto industry by integrating AI, with high expectations for leading AI projects. io’s decentralized cloud computing solution targets a key contradiction in AI large model training: the increasing demand for massive computing power for small to medium-sized model training, fine-tuning, and inference, versus the rising costs of centralized computing power.
The emergence of io’s distributed cloud computing platform aims to resolve this contradiction. By leveraging idle computing power from IDC data centers, cryptocurrency mining farms, and regular users, io accumulates a significant amount of idle and low-cost computing power. Through a Crypto Tokenomics incentive framework, new contract standards, hardware standardization, and other measures, io integrates otherwise disparate computing power to enhance application efficiency.
Therefore, the emergence of distributed computing platforms like io marks the first essential scenario where Crypto governance frameworks and AI training needs intersect, paving the way for Crypto to conquer the AI domain.
2) OpenAI’s LLM large language model is gradually monopolizing the internet market context. The evolution from ChatGPT3.5-4.0 to Sora and then to 4o shows that these large models are becoming more intelligent and multimodal. These models can integrate images, text, videos, and even combine robots and IoT devices to provide real-time dynamic output. However, all these capabilities rely on centralized computing power and high energy consumption. If this trend continues, centralized AI services will tend towards oligopolies, with a few tech companies controlling the direction of AI development and restricting diversity in innovation.
The emergence of distributed computing platforms like io can cater to niche demands with low barriers to entry, greater flexibility, customization, and the ability to leverage the value of Tokenomics community incentives. This can help unlock potential value in more vertical and segmented application scenarios (such as supply chain finance, precision medicine, personalized education).
Furthermore, Tokenomics can bind together stakeholders such as computing power providers, developers, and users, making it ideal for unlocking opportunities in niche areas that traditional computing resources may overlook. Centralized computing power will primarily be utilized in areas with broader commercial potential, such as large language models and machine learning.
This is why I believe AI+DePIN could be the core driver of the bull market’s primary uptrend, as the excitement in this field extends beyond the existing Crypto industry, attracting incremental users and projects through real demand and supply.
3) io’s core business directly competes with cloud services giants like Amazon and Alibaba Cloud by establishing the IO Cloud cluster and integrating GPU resources from suppliers like Render Network and Filecoin. This gives io’s GPU resources high scalability. Once it establishes itself as a leader, it can further reduce costs by aggregating resources from other idle computing platforms.
If io can solidify its position in the distributed cloud computing market, it will directly impact the Crypto industry’s cloud storage (Filecoin), distributed coprocessors (Livepeer), distributed computing (Golem), intellectual property rights (StoryProtocol), and other DePIN infrastructure, middleware, edge AI, RWA, and derivative directions, creating significant growth potential.
Some may argue that io’s practical applications are currently overstated, but in the emotionally-driven Crypto field, if io can stimulate interest in a series of related projects in the AI+DePIN ecosystem, its narrative value alone is enough to establish industry barriers.
Furthermore, although DePIN may seem like traditional hardware mining on the surface, the mining chain, node network architecture, and the catalytic effect of software-hardware integration will attract a broader range of incremental market participants. (Don’t underestimate the power of the Pan community.)
In conclusion, while it may be premature to label io as the “NVIDIA of the crypto world,” it is clear that io’s performance will have a significant impact on the AI+DePIN ecosystem. Regardless, it should be given appropriate market expectations, as this tumultuous bull market desperately needs a catalyst to kickstart a new uptrend.