Virtuals Protocol - Next Gen AI Agents? What You Need to Know
$LUNA, Interactive Autonomous Agents, & More
Virtuals protocol is the latest AI protocol to take the timeline by storm. We recently covered $ai16z, a combination of AI agents and a new take on DAOs. Virtuals $VIRTUAL and $LUNA tokens saw a solid rise last week, but the substance behind the protocol has allowed mindshare to remain high. Virtuals is a platform for creating individualized autonomous agents, a new form of User Generated Content (UGC). Virtuals gets its value by providing one of the most engaging forms of media; interactive livestream avatars. Beyond visuals, these avatars are representative of autonomous agents, which can tweet, message users, send and receive money, and more.
While the protocol tokens might have lacked some instant virality compared to $GOAT, there’s probably more merit behind Virtuals and there is more justification that ‘serious’ investors or individual speculators can get more involved with the AI x crypto narrative. Other top AI protocols, namely Bittensor ($TAO)’s, value add is a bit complex and maybe not that captivating to people uninterested in what makes AI tick behind the scenes. Meanwhile, Virtuals provides a new way for users/consumers to interface with AI, via 24/7 livestream, a layer on top of things like terminal of truths, or degen spartan AI. The fact that Virtuals isn’t just an operator but a platform providing the ability to create custom agents opens up a lot of possibilities.
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Background on Virtuals Protocol
Virtuals Protocol has been building since 2021, though it has come to prominence mostly recently, taking advantage of the hype around AI and autonomous agents in crypto. Autonomous agents is a very broad term, but in a short period of time, we’ve seen such agents' role in crypto evolve from non-existent to encompassing multiple verticals. First with terminal of truths and tweeting about an associated ticker ($GOAT), and more recently with $ai16z using AI to manage a DAO treasury. Virtuals describes its purpose as providing ‘co-ownership of AI agents in entertainment and gaming’, honing in on this specific vector.
The state of autonomous agents in crypto is still young, and examples thus far are mostly primitive, proving as interesting proof-of-concepts. With Virtuals, it may actually be the non-crypto components that set the protocol apart from any competitors, which it seems there aren’t really any of at this time anyway. These capabilities include the unique planning and reasoning bestowed upon agents, as well as the ability to present themselves via multiple mediums including text-based social media, voice, and video. As previously mentioned, these agents are also designed to be used in games, so they can operate effectively as a player, mimicking inputs. Where crypto comes into play, is the agent’s ability to interact onchain; this includes receiving tokens, paying people for certain tasks, and more.
The team has basically taken it upon themselves to give potential customers or users a proper example of what is possible with the platform, launching the first autonomous agent in Luna ($LUNA). Luna takes after professional mobile livestreamers, a concept that originated in China, and quickly spread to other parts of Asia and the rest of the world, mostly on TikTok. These livestreamers can earn large sums of money through gamified donations, or also simply selling products to their viewers. Luna uses the former, allowing users to spend some $LUNA to give gifts to the virtual streamer, and perhaps get a reaction.
While not related to the functionality of Luna, the $LUNA token is also a Solana SPL token. This has allowed it to find significant market discovery, even rivaling the primary $VIRTUAL token valuation. The self-stated (team-stated) primary goal of the Luna agent is to drive up the price of $LUNA. A specific goal is even given; for $LUNA to reach a $40.9B marketcap.
Expanding beyond Luna, the Virtuals protocol allows for the creation of more autonomous agents, and the co-ownership of these agents in a decentralized manner (their token). This can create interesting incentives, where the teams behind these agents make certain design choices to optimize for token price. It also creates a parallel dynamic to the current state of AI, which is dominated by big tech companies with large valuations.
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