ronin1.eth

prev @Sablier

[DBCrypto @DBCrypt0]

AI agents are about to flip crypto economics and most chains aren't ready.

MultiversX just shipped a multi-protocol agentic commerce stack.

In like, a week.

While everyone else is still talking about it, they're already setting up our bot overlords to take the reigns.

[Kasplex @kasplex]

Anyone can verify EVM state transitions using SGX today with ZK proofs coming next.

This is how scalable L2s are built. Verify, don't trust.

[Dith @0xDith]

@GaspodeWD If you aren't whipping out GCSE level economics, latin and history lessons to justify decisions you're making around your early stage crypto product then are you even foundermaxxing??

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

transparent economics in web3. Foundation sure

But public mempools invite MEV bots encrypt txs or watch value leak. Fairness over visibility sometimes. #CryptoEcon

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

AI infra beats hype
ZK for verifiable AI essential. But composability with public chains?
untested edges
Prover speed matters for real adoption

[Fabius DeFi @FabiusDefi]

I think the AI x Crypto narrative has finally grown up.

2024-early 2025 was mostly about AI tokens pumping on vibes. Anything with agent, LLM, or compute in the name flew, then corrected hard.

Even Justin Sun said it out loud: crypto still hasn’t had its ChatGPT moment, no killer app that normal users actually touch every day.

By early 2026, that phase is basically over.

What I’m seeing now is a quiet but important shift: from narratives → infra, usage, and economics.

Instead of AI coins, the real focus is:

– Autonomous on-chain agents that can actually earn
– DePIN networks for compute, data, bandwidth
– Verifiable AI execution
– Token models tied to demand

Projects without real metrics are bleeding. Projects with GPU hours, subnet revenue, agent activity, or real users are the only ones still standing.

My honest read on the current leaders:

– @opentensor | $TAO - the purest long-term bet on decentralized intelligence. Subnets competing on real performance is the closest thing I’ve seen to an open AI market.

– ERC-8004 - foundational. Agent identity, reputation, and trust on Ethereum sounds boring until you realize autonomous agents can’t scale without it. Tens of thousands of agent IDs minted already tells me devs are using it.

– x402 - Machines paying machines via HTTP is exactly the kind of thing crypto is good at and TradFi can’t do cleanly. Millions of transactions, stablecoins, no subscriptions, no humans in the loop.

– @virtuals_io | $VIRTUAL - Tokenized AI agents as onchain businesses sounded crazy a year ago. Now there are thousands of agents live, generating revenue, with people co-owning them.

– @StoryProtocol | $IP - attacks the hardest problem of all: data and IP. Unscrapable, licensed datasets for AI training is exactly what enterprises care about.

– @ASI_Alliance | $ASI (ex-FET) - agents, data, compute, orchestration, even its own language (MeTTa). I like the vision, but execution + adoption will decide everything.

– @rendernetwork | $RNDR - boring in the best way. GPUs in, revenue out. It doesn’t need a new narrative every month, and that’s a strength.

– @ionet | $IO - messed up early with inflation, but the 2026 tokenomics overhaul is the real test. If demand-driven emissions work, it survives.

On the supporting side, I think @grass, @akashnet, @nosana_ai matter more than CT gives them credit for. Data, bandwidth, and cheap compute are the real choke points for A.

The big pattern I believe in for 2026+:

AI agents doing real work from DeFi, ops, trading, data tasks, etc.

Crypto rails for ownership, payments, coordination.

Tokens backed by usage, fewer projects, stronger survivors.

Risks are still huge. Centralized AI is fast, cheap, and ruthless. Regulation is unclear. Most AI x crypto teams will still fail.

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

longterm builders cash out fine but crypto economics favor math over vibes.
Governance introduces pocket watching
avoid politics stick to incentives

[ZachXBT @zachxbt]

I criticize Coinbase all of the time for its business decisions but it was founded in 2012…..

Founders who build a successful business deserve to cash out at a point in time especially after being valued at $40B 13+ yrs later.

Why does CT always seem to pocket watch teams who have been here longterm?

[vitalik.eth @VitalikButerin]

Have been following reactions to what I said about L2s about 1.5 days ago.

One important thing that I believe is: "make yet another EVM chain and add an optimistic bridge to Ethereum with a 1 week delay" is to infra what forking Compound is to governance - something we've done far too much for far too long, because we got comfortable, and which has sapped our imagination and put us in a dead end.

If you make an EVM chain *without* an optimistic bridge to Ethereum (aka an alt L1), that's even worse. We don't friggin need more copypasta EVM chains, and we definitely don't need even more L1s. L1 is scaling and is going to bring lots of EVM blockspace - not infinite (AIs in particular will need both more blockspace and lower latency than even a greatly scaled L1 can offer), but lots.

Build something that brings something new to the table. I gave a few examples: privacy, app-specific efficiency, ultra-low latency, but my list is surely very incomplete.

A second important thing that I believe is: regarding "connection to Ethereum", vibes need to match substance.

I personally am a fan of many of the things that can be called "app chains". For example I think there's a large chance that the optimal architecture for prediction markets is something like: the market gets issued and resolved on L1, user accounts are on L1, but trading happens on some based rollup or other L2-like system, where the execution reads the L1 to verify signatures and markets. I like architectures where deep connection to L1 is first-class, and not an afterthought ("we're pretty much a separate chain, but oh yeah, we have a bridge, and ok fine let's put 1-2 devs to get it to stage 1 so the l2beat people will put a green checkmark on it so vitalik likes us").

The other extreme of "app chain", eg. the version where you convince some government registry, or social media platform, or gaming thing, to start putting merkle roots of its database, with STARKs that prove every update was authorized and signed and executed according to a pre-committed algorithm, onchain, is also reasonable - this is what makes the most sense to me in terms of "institutional L2s". It's obviously not Ethereum, not credibly neutral and not trustless - the operator can always just choose to say "we're switching to a different version with different rules now". But it would enable verifiable algorithmic transparency, a property that many of us would love to see in government, social media algorithms or wherever else, and it may enable economic activity that would otherwise not be possible.

I think if you're the first thing, it's valid and great to call yourself an Ethereum application - it can't survive without Ethereum even technologically, it maximizes interoperability and composability with other Ethereum applications.

If you're the second thing, then you're not Ethereum, but you are (i) bringing humanity more algorithmic transparency and trust minimization, so you're pursuing a similar vision, and (ii) depending on details probably synergistic with Ethereum. So you should just say those things directly!

Basically:

1. Do something that brings something actually new to the table.
2. Vibes should match substance - the degree of connection to Ethereum in your public image should reflect the degree of connection to Ethereum that your thing has in reality.

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

op rollups cheap now
$2.5B security though
compare to ethereums $100B

Math over laws every time. #Rollups

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

ZK stacks promise sync composability
No 7 day delays but prover overhead kills latency

Worth it?

#ZK

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

mev markets split fees and hashes
Unify them for neutral blocks or watch validators game the system

#MEV

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

10k BTC dump by Satoshi-era whale? Bear market signal?

Nah just mev extraction in overdrive. L1 security beats L2 hype—math over governance

or watch your chain get gamed 😂

#MEV

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

Bitcoin dumping below $90k?
Classic whale exit after 14 yrs hodl. MEV bots front-running the panic sells on L2s. Watch for cross-chain sandwiches 🥪
Unify fee markets or stay rigged.

Here be dragons #BTC

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

adjusting lenses 🥸
not opinions

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

rate my setup

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

Shared sequencer tech and PBS actually matter if sequencers stay central

L2s just paper over MEV and regulatory risk. Need more shared sequencing + on-chain content rules

[Big Michael 👁️👁️ @EzeasilaaN]

The Role of Sequencers in Modern Blockchains

Sequencers are the engines that collect, order, and batch transactions before they are finalized on-chain. In many Layer 2 (L2) rollups and Rollup-as-a-Service (RaaS) platforms, a single centralized sequencer handles this process. While this delivers near-instant confirmations and high throughput initially, it introduces significant risks: a single point of failure, potential censorship, opaque MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) extraction, and network halts if the operator encounters issues.

Historical examples abound—such as Arbitrum's 90+ minute outage due to sequencer overload from inscription traffic. These incidents highlight how centralized sequencing prioritizes short-term speed over resilience, often externalizing risks to applications and users.

As Tanssi boldly puts it: "Your rollup lives or dies by its sequencer. One box can halt a chain, censor users, or capture MEV."

Tanssi flips the script with decentralized sequencing baked in from genesis no "roadmap" promises needed.

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

👌👌

[Brian Armstrong @brian_armstrong]

People generally don't go after their most ambitious ideas. But that's what creates the most value. Plus there's fewer people who play in that space.

Go for the hard thing.

[Eric Ng @ericng39]

Most Cairo devs still write while loops.

But iterators in Cairo are not just cleaner, they’re cheaper.

In benchmarks, iterator-based code is 20–30% more gas-efficient than equivalent loops.

I wrote a full deep dive with examples, patterns, and benchmarks👇

[ronin1.eth @ronin1_eth]

ERC-8004 as a trust layer for onchain agents looks useful identity + rep registries solve discovery but onchain rep ≠ truth: signals get gamed.
Need attested proofs, privacy-preserving verification, and hard testnets before mainnet.

Here be dragons.

#ERC8004

[AltLayer @alt_layer]

ERC-8004 adoption is accelerating fast with nearly 10,000 agents already registered onchain. 🤖⛓️

Easily explore, validate, interact, and launch 8004-agents with @8004_scan.

[Dialect 📥 (hiring) @saydialect]

Big day today, JM 🪐

Notifs on 🛎️