AI&DeSci - Unveiling the Infrastructure Potential Behind the Bull and Bear Narrative

Original Author: Evan Lu, Waterdrip Capital, X: @Fisher256X

How Far Are We from Mass Adoption

One week after Trump won the U.S. election, despite BTC rising over 20%, the meme coin craze once again ushered in madness. During the past six months of a low period, the market seemed to be stuck in a narrative of "lack of real-world adoption in the crypto industry." At that time, while the DeFi industry was still under construction, with some subsectors like cloud computing, there is still a considerable distance to go before true mass adoption. However, in the speculative frenzy of memes, CZ and Vitalik personally joined the scene, causing the heat around the DeSci concept to unexpectedly reignite. It is undeniable that every new concept cannot escape the stage of speculation and hype at the beginning of its birth; DeSci naturally could not avoid it. But after years of development in the blockchain industry starting from Bitcoin, it is also time to consider how to build applications that benefit humanity and reach real-world adoption.

AI & Desci

At the beginning of last year, the AI revolution led by ChatGPT injected new narrative momentum into this bull market. "AI represents advanced productivity, and blockchain represents advanced production relations redistribution and integration." This new paradigm consensus quickly sparked heated discussions in the community and became one of the new narratives on the eve of the bull market. Driven by this trend, projects like Bittensor and fetch.ai quickly rose to prominence and became pioneers of this concept.

Not only that, in September of this year, as the crypto market gradually regained vitality, meme coins revolving around the AI concept also experienced a frenzy of launches thanks to $Goat. A small team or even an individual only needs to develop an AI agent with a specific function—whether it is AI trading or AI virtual companionship; then nurture their own community and fan base—achieving success in just one week; and finally "profit" through launching a meme coin of the same name.

The DeSci concept can actually be traced back to the previous bull market, but it was constrained by the long cycle of "Science" in Crypto+Science, which never gained much presence in the crypto industry. It truly began to gain attention on November 8 when Binance Labs announced an investment in BIO Protocol, marking Binance Labs' first foray into the decentralized science (DeSci) field. Shortly after this announcement, in less than a week, CZ attended Binance's DeSci Day event in Bangkok and discussed Desci insights with Vitalik. CZ even stated his hope to see 1000 DeSci projects next year. Subsequently, whether it was the Binance official account or CZ's posts, DeSci was mentioned multiple times. CZ and Vitalik's enthusiastic endorsements momentarily propelled the DeSci concept meme coins to the forefront; within a few days, multiple popular coins based on the Desci concept emerged, such as $uro, corresponding to a single drug released by BIO, $rif, and $SciHub for donations to the world's largest open-access scientific paper platform Sci-Hub, among others. The combined market value of related concepts has already exceeded 800 million USD.

However, good storytelling is not only reflected in short-term popularity but also requires long-term infrastructure construction to achieve real-world application scenarios. The most essential foundation of AI—computing power—is still in the early stages of development and not widely used on a large scale through Depin cloud computing for the scheduling of idle computing power, with the cost, computing environment stability, and corresponding speed not yet effectively market validated.

The core technology behind DeSci—decentralized storage, has evolved from the IPFS protocol to the present day, proving to be lower in cost and higher in security compared to traditional centralized storage solutions; and the current implementation of the solution is relatively mature. It can be said that DeSci's infrastructure has been fully established, and now it only needs more people to recognize and adopt the concept of decentralized storage.

Tracing the DeSci Concept, Is Speculation Still Greater Than Utility?

I remember at this year's April Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, I had conversations with several projects quietly working in the DeSci track, but without exception, they all told me that this is a project that requires a psychological preparedness for 'long-termism.' The current stage can only indicate that DeSci has just been introduced into the user's field of view, and that it is just in the stage of presenting solutions before the glorious Rome is built.

So, what is DeSci? DeSci stands for Decentralized Science. It promotes global open access to research data through distributed storage technology, reduces government or institutional singular control over data, avoids the possibility of data leakage, loss, and malicious tampering in centralized storage. This model not only makes scientific research activities open and transparent but also allows global researchers to freely share resources. In addition, DeSci uses smart contracts and DAOs to enhance the transparency and efficiency of research funding and help scientists raise funds for their research needs. This fundamentally changes the traditional source structure of research funding and greatly enhances the efficiency of fund utilization.

In summary, the DeSci model has innovated in two areas: 1. Fundraising is achieved through token launches, and the currently popular $rif and $uro have both raised funds for the development of the two drugs through the launch of meme coins. 2. Research data storage has been transferred from centralized servers to decentralized and permanently retained blockchains.

"Decentralized Science (DeSci) has successfully brought the liquidity of meme coins to universities and laboratories around the world, supporting real scientific research." The founder of BIO Protocol's reply to CZ on X also revealed the essence of DeSci: to leverage the speculative nature of the crypto market to drive and accelerate the value realization in the field of scientific research and more real-world applications.

BIO Protocol Business Model, Source: https://docs.bio.xyz/bio

The current popularity of the DeSci concept is mainly supported by a wealth effect driven by memes, where the industry's development is engulfed by market sentiment due to brief yet massive exposure. However, the research field requires continuous and substantial financial investment while facing high risk and a high failure rate, which contradicts the DeFi's short-term speculative and rapidly exhausting liquidity nature.

Therefore, in the short term, this trend will lead to a significant number of speculators entering this arena, using it as a gimmick to launch fundraising projects with the purpose of "fundraising as profit" rather than genuinely investing in scientific research. Consequently, after a brief period of hype, DeSci will transition into a phase of separating the wheat from the chaff, gradually fostering user awareness of DeSci through the education market process, which might then truly achieve the goal of "leveraging crypto finance to monetize research outcomes."

Currently, behind DeSci, there is an immense demand for data storage and on-chain proof. If DeSci can leverage the hype of memes to break boundaries and effectively establish a mature business model, decentralized storage will become the infrastructure of the DeSci field. This stable and significant demand will greatly drive the development of the decentralized storage ecosystem.

Maturing of Decentralized Storage, Significant Infrastructure Behind DeSci

Decentralized storage has gone through various developmental stages from early projects like Storj to Filecoin, Arweave, and the underlying IPFS protocol. An analysis in May 2023 pointed out that decentralized storage is about 78% cheaper on average compared to centralized storage, and in enterprise data storage, this difference can be up to 121 times. Additionally, decentralized storage has clear advantages in terms of data security, privacy, and reliability. However, even though some Web2 clients have started to adopt decentralized storage solutions like Filecoin and Arweave, centralized storage with a more intuitive user experience and a mature product system still dominates the market. The limitations of Filecoin in programmability and restrictions in data permanent storage, along with the relatively high cost brought by Arweave's focus on "permanent storage," are still industry pain points that have not been fully resolved.

Centralized Storage vs. Decentralized Storage Comparison, Source: Binance Research

It was just last April when Binance announced the launch of BNB Greenfield, marking a new milestone for decentralized storage. The key feature of Greenfield is to provide decentralized storage infrastructure for the entire BNB Chain ecosystem, enabling users and decentralized applications (DApps) to create, store, and exchange fully owned data. Through a native cross-chain bridge with BSC, users can freely transfer BNB between BSC and Greenfield, facilitating seamless interaction with DApps built on Greenfield.

Compared to IPFS and Arweave, BNB Greenfield excels in deep integration with the BNB Chain, cross-chain support, the combination of decentralized storage and computational capabilities, as well as cost-effectiveness. This makes Greenfield more suitable for decentralized finance (DeFi), smart contracts, and Web3 application scenarios, with stronger scalability and ecosystem synergy. Looking ahead, Greenfield can be utilized in the following scenarios, including but not limited to:

· Website Hosting: Users can quickly deploy and host websites through an API, streamlining registration and payment processes.

· Personal Cloud Storage: Create secure personal cloud storage using a private key, making it easy to upload and download encrypted files.

· Blockchain Data Storage: Store BNB Smart Chain and other ecosystem data, reducing latency and increasing availability.

· Content Publishing: Creators can store their work and mirror it on the BNB Smart Chain, allowing buyers access after completing a transaction.

· Social Media: Social media influencers can fully control their content data, publish through decentralized platforms, and benefit from it.

· Personal Data Marketplace: Provide decentralized data storage and management solutions to ensure the security of personal data.

Meanwhile, the development of GreenField also relies on the support of its ecosystem projects. Just this year, the BNB Ecosystem officially launched the Community Favorite Project Vote, dividing the ecosystem into 5 categories. In the Infra category, 4EVERLAND and BAS, as part of GreenField's native infrastructure, are crucial components.

BNB Ecosystem Catalyst Awards Candidates, Source: Binance Square

4EVERLAND

4EVERLAND is the largest decentralized storage provider in the GreenField ecosystem. As an officially certified Storage Provider (SP) and validator, 4EVERLAND offers robust storage resources on GreenField while supporting the BNB Chain and opBNB network, aiming to construct an efficient decentralized storage network. Building upon GreenField by integrating the features and advantages of IPFS and Arweave, 4EVERLAND provides a superior integrated storage network solution, offering a more user-friendly experience and reducing the complexity of decentralized storage usage.

Its key advantages include:

· Storage and Validation Dual Role: As a Storage Provider (SP) and validator on GreenField, 4EVERLAND not only provides storage solutions to users but also participates in the Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism to ensure blockchain security.

· Multi-Chain Support and Compatibility: In addition to GreenField, 4EVERLAND also supports the BNB Chain and opBNB.

· Integration of Decentralized Storage and Computational Resources: While providing storage services, 4EVERLAND combines its 4Ever Node to utilize idle hardware to offer users on-demand storage data access + computation, achieving more efficient data utilization scenarios.

· Flexible Storage Solution: 4EVERLAND provides a hybrid solution suitable for both hot and cold storage, combining the storage modes of IPFS + Arweave/Greenfield to meet different storage needs and be compatible with Web2.

· Decentralized AI Service: Through AI RPC (API standard), 4EVERLAND provides an aggregated solution of 100+ models to offer users efficient AI model invocation services.

· 4EVERLAND also provides DWeb hosting services, which play a significant role in the Greenfield ecosystem, providing developers with one-click deployment functionality, allowing dApp frontends to be quickly deployed to Greenfield storage, and in conjunction with BNB's ecosystem's future RAAS (Rollup as a service) initiative, achieving one-click chain-starting functionality.

Currently, 4EVERLAND has over 3 million registered users, 100,000+ daily active users, and stores 2000 TB on IPFS (third in the IPFS ecosystem), 20 TB on Arweave (third in the Arweave ecosystem), and has over 30,000 daily interactions on Greenfield (first in the Greenfield ecosystem). In terms of funding, it has received support from BNBChain, Polygon, Optimism, IPFS, Arweave, and ICP, as well as backing from multiple well-known investment institutions.

Recently, 4EVERLAND has collaborated with several projects of DeSci to jointly promote the decentralized storage of scientific research papers. DeSci's data includes some content that should not be altered and is suitable for permanent storage on Arweave, while data that is continuously updated is suitable for IPFS and GreenField. 4EVERLAND has established a decentralized storage solution tailored for DeSci by combining IPFS, Arweave, and Greenfield, where cold backup data is placed on Arweave and hot data access is hosted on GreenField.

BAS

BNB Attestation Service (BAS), as the underlying data protocol standard of BNB, aims to generate certification information for verification, to introduce tens of millions of trusted private data into the Web3 ecosystem, especially to provide data support for AI. The characteristics of BAS are:

· Decentralized Verification Service: By bringing Web2 and Web3 data on-chain, it provides cross-platform verification services, supporting exchange information from platforms such as Binance and Coinbase, as well as data from social platforms like X and TikTok. Moreover, services such as research data verification in DeSci can also directly use BAS for verification and post the results on-chain.

· User Sovereignty and Data Privacy: Users can actively upload data through the data sets created by BAS for dApp projects and defined data format standards, reducing the need for third parties to annotate and clarify data, achieving proactive data classification and standardization, and returning data control to users.

· AI Training and Data Set Service: Through decentralized data verification, BAS will directly provide the most reliable and available data for AI training and data set needs.

· Ecosystem Collaboration and Applications: BAS has connected with over 3000 independent attesters, 100+ data providers, and 100+ ecosystem partners, supporting over 30M attestations.

For Greenfield, the introduction of BAS provides data verification and management capabilities, further enhancing the platform's security, transparency, and user control, making Greenfield a more robust decentralized storage solution. By integrating with BAS, Greenfield can ensure data verification and compliance, while providing efficient data management and permission control.

Efforts Toward Sustainable Development in the Crypto Industry

GreenField is a strategic layout even personally instructed by Binance and CZ, marking a significant ecological innovation within the BNB ecosystem since its launch. Different from opBNB, a "front-line main force" facing end-users on the BNB chain, GreenField will more quietly cultivate behind the scenes. Its high performance and high interoperability will also be more conducive to the development of a new industry narrative.

If DeSci's business model is validated and supported by Binance's traffic, it will undoubtedly greatly promote the prosperity of the BNB ecosystem, and GreenField will also be widely adopted. Thus, this article only confirms the value investment potential of decentralized storage. From a broader perspective, what truly concerns us, the millions of cryptocurrency users and practitioners, is whether the cryptocurrency industry can remain youthful and achieve sustainable development.

CZ, Binance CEO, and Vitalik have recently emphasized the importance of DeSci. Vitalik has even invested a substantial amount of money to support this field. Even the official Binance account has published a research report specifically about DeSci to give it credibility. This is undoubtedly a significant innovative attempt rather than just a concept hype. Behind the industry dynamics, blockchain finance can truly serve the market, realize value, and advance the vision of blockchain technology making a real contribution to society.

Article References

· Technical Research Report | Exploring the Innovation Path of BNB Greenfield, Reshaping the Future of Data Storage

· 4EVER Network Documents

· Does DeSci Need to Return to Value or Chase Memes? At the crossroads, should we go left or right?

This article is contributed content and does not represent the views of BlockBeats