De-commodification: Possibly the only correct solution for the future of the crypto industry

Author: Jtsong.eth; Source: X, @Jtsong2

The crypto industry has always been talking about Mass Adoption, but in reality: users always stay as trading users, not “users.” And AI could help blockchains achieve true “value settlement.”

Introduction: When users turn from “human” into “AI”

If we’re honest about the crypto industry over the past decade, we’ll find a simple but commonly overlooked fact: the crypto industry’s products, in essence, have always been “serving human nature.” That’s also the core driving force behind crypto’s bull runs, one after another.

So what is human nature?

• Profit-seeking

• Gambling psychology

• Preference for leverage

• Dependence on short-term feedback

So the whole industry naturally evolved the most successful playbook: issuing assets + trading + PVP (gaming/betting)

From ICOs to DeFi Summer to NFTs to Memecoins, at their core they’re all built around:

• “Can I buy earlier?”

• “Can I sell faster?”

• “Can I profit from other people’s losses?”

Given the premise that “users are humans,” this logic is not only reasonable—it’s the optimal solution.

Because: no mechanism can drive user growth more than profit expectations.

But the problem is that the ceiling of this system was effectively written in from the start. Because it relies on:

• Human irrationality

• Volatility in market sentiment

• The constant inflow of new capital

Once these factors weaken, the whole system will quickly lose momentum. Why is the overall market bearish right now? It’s because old “weeds” are becoming more rational, while new capital simply isn’t entering with the same recklessness.

A more critical change is happening

In the past, we assumed by default: blockchain users = humans.

But in the future, this equation could be rewritten completely: the main users of blockchain = AI Agents

When AI starts to become the primary participant on-chain, everything changes.

Humans vs AI: Two completely different “user personas”

Human users:

• Driven by emotions

• Prefer high risk and high return

• Can tolerate uncertainty

• Easily influenced by narratives

AI users:

• Don’t participate in gambling

• Aren’t driven by emotions

• Pursue determinism and efficiency

• Need trustworthy data and execution environments

This means: the “casino model” is ineffective for AI.

AI won’t FOMO—it only does three things:

• Compute

• Execute

• Optimize

The true value of blockchain gets redefined

When the service target shifts from “humans” to “AI,” blockchain’s most core value will also shift:

From:

• Asset issuance

• Liquidity

• Speculation

To:

• Determinism

• Verifiability

• Trustless Execution

And these three are exactly AI systems’ “must-haves.”

Why is this critical?

Because AI systems themselves have a fundamental problem: Black Box.

• Model decisions can’t be explained

• Data sources can’t be verified

• Reasoning processes can’t be audited

This can be tolerated in the Web2 world, but when it comes to:

• Financial decisions

• Automated trading

• Agent collaboration

• Data assets

…these issues become systemic risks.

And blockchain offers a solution: move the key AI processes “onto the chain.”

• Data sources can be verified

• Inference results can be proven

• Behavioral records are traceable

This isn’t just a “bonus”—it’s the: infrastructure required for large-scale AI deployment.

A key takeaway

When the main users of the crypto industry are still humans: playing human nature is the right approach.

But when the main users start becoming AI: playing determinism is the only solution.

And this is exactly why the next wave of Mass Adoption in crypto is, at its core, a process of “de-casinolization” (removing the casino aspect).

The casino model’s boom is fundamentally a short-term structural tailwind

We have to admit: the casino model has been successful.

It has several extremely strong advantages:

• Strong user motivation (profit expectations)

• Very high liquidity turnover (high-frequency trading)

• Very low barrier to understanding (buying into pumps and buying into dips)

But these advantages are also its ceiling.

Where is the bottleneck of the casino model?

If you extend the time horizon, the casino model will gradually reveal several unavoidable problems:

1. User growth isn’t sustainable (depends on the “newbie weed” model)

The casino model is essentially PVP, not PVE.

That is to say:

A portion of people’s profits must be built on other people’s losses.

This directly leads to:

• User growth is highly dependent on “incremental capital”

• Once new users slow down, the system starts to cannibalize itself

• Retention is extremely low; most users participate only once

Eventually it forms a typical structure: “traffic-driven → bubble expansion → liquidity exhaustion → price collapse.”

2. Can’t accumulate long-term value (no “productive” component)

The casino model hardly creates real value—it only transfers value.

By contrast:

• Web2 creates information, content, and network effects

• AI creates productivity and automation capability

And most crypto applications are just “more efficient tools for speculation.”

This creates a core problem: capital can come in, but it won’t stay long-term.

3. Regulatory pressure is inherently present

When an industry’s core activities are:

• High-frequency trading

• Leverage

• Speculation

…then it will naturally be categorized as a financial risk system, not a technical innovation system.

That’s why across the globe:

• Exchanges face the strictest regulation

• Token issuance is constantly scrutinized

• DeFi keeps living in the gray area

The more successful the casino model is, the stronger regulation becomes.

4. Product experience can’t break through to the mainstream

Most “casino-style products” have a problem:

• Strong financial attributes

• High-risk cognition

• High learning costs

For Web2 users, there’s no need to take on complexity + risk for “maybe making money.”

So the crypto industry keeps talking about Mass Adoption—but in reality users always remain trading users, not “users.”

The real breakthrough: shifting from a “financial system” to a “productivity system”

If the crypto industry in the past solved “how to trade value more efficiently,” then the next phase must solve “how to create new value.”

And the answer may very likely come from AI × Blockchain.

AI is, by nature, a productivity tool, while blockchain is, by nature:

• Establishing rights

• Settlement

• Verifiability

The core significance of combining them is: make both the “production process” and the “production outcomes” recordable, verifiable, and assetized.

This is a completely different path from the casino model.

A key paradigm shift: from “trading assets” to “generating assets”

In the past:

• Tokens were financing tools

• NFTs were collectibles

• User behavior = trading

In the future:

• Data is an asset

• Models are assets

• The behavior of AI Agents is also an asset

User behavior will become creating → using → reusing → earning, rather than just buying and selling.

Case: How 0G Labs turns “memory” into an asset

Taking 0G as an example, you can see a very different path.

One core module of 0G is decentralized storage + AI computation, which enables a very critical capability: on-chain AI Memory (memory).

What does that mean?

In traditional AI systems:

• User data is stored on the platform

• AI’s “memory” isn’t transferable

• All value belongs to the platform

But in an architecture like 0G:

• Users’ interaction data can be recorded on-chain

• An AI’s memory can become verifiable, ownable assets

• Different applications can share the same “memory layer”

This directly brings several changes:

1. Memory becomes an asset (Memory as Asset)

Your:

• Usage habits

• Preferences

• Data trails

…are no longer just “data exploited by a platform,” but assets you can own, authorize, and even monetize.

2. AI Agents have “inheritable state”

Traditional AI:

• Every application is an island

• Context can’t be transferred

But on-chain:

• AI Agents can share memory across applications

This means:

• AI isn’t a one-time tool anymore

• It’s a “digitally embodied being that grows continuously”

3. New business models start to emerge

When “memory” can be assetized:

• Data markets

• Agent economies

• Personalized AI services

…will all become true PVE (value creation) systems, not PVP.

Conclusion: The essence of Mass Adoption is “de-casinolization”

For the crypto industry to truly move to the next stage, it must complete a fundamental shift: from asset issuance + trading-driven to productivity-driven + value creation.

That is: De-Casinoization.

This doesn’t mean trading disappears—it’s just that:

• Trading is no longer the core

• Speculation isn’t the only entry point

• Users aren’t just “gamblers,” but “creators”

The previous generation of the crypto industry was about making money move; the next generation is about making value be created.

And AI might be the most important variable on this path.