PANews Editor's Note: IOSG founder Jocy tweeted about the core developers of its investment projects leaving Crypto to join AI, as follows:

Another core developer of a portfolio left the industry to start an AI application business. The most prestigious individuals and organizations in the industry are focusing on memes. To be honest, what's wrong with winning this battle? AGI is the grandest narrative in history. All the best talents will be attracted as long as they observe carefully. If the goal of everyone in the crypto world is to get more outstanding people to leave and finally make web3 a big casino, is their success still worth shining so brightly? The goal of many entrepreneurs and developers is not just to get rich. They want to make applications that change the world, and want to leave a mark on history and be recognized. When everyone in the entire environment does not pursue true ideals and values, these people will leave. I really hope that everyone can be more responsible. Excellent people will shine in any industry. When they shine in the AI world, they will never come back to the cryptocurrency circle. At that time, we will lose not only talents, but also an era lost in the cryptocurrency circle.

As soon as this tweet was released, it sparked heated discussions in the community. The following are some wonderful comments from KOLs and netizens:

Encryption

I think excellence is relative. It is true that AGI will change the world, but it cannot be said that only those who are suitable for AGI are excellent. Hayden, who created AMM, was just a Siemens engineer, but AMM is definitely a creation that changed the world's financial history. Generally speaking, excellent people can shine in various industries, but they shine brighter in some industries than in others. Instead of looking for excellent people, it is better to look for suitable people.

0xBai

The current situation is the result of a combined effort. At first, people believed that encryption would change the world and believe in the future. As a result, after repeated VC/project parties poured in and falsified the narrative, everyone became smarter and decided that it would be better to go directly to the casino. Many people who got big results would not return to the encryption industry to feed back to the industry. If it ends up being a big casino, only suitable for payment and pvp, it is normal to let the market decide, and there will naturally be a suitable positioning.

Cat

I think crypto players and real blockchain builders are not the same group of people. It is normal for the attention to be diverted before the builders produce anything. The development of technology is like this. The history of AI development, VC Fomo after Alpha Go came out, and the four little dragons of AI in China could not survive. A large number of AI practitioners left, fresh graduates could not find jobs, and no one wanted to learn machine learning until the transformer architecture came out and AI exploded again. What is more pessimistic is that I found that many investment institutions in the "coin circle" care about issuing coins and making money.

Jason

As soon as this article comes out, some people may say, "Look, VC didn't make any money this round, and they are envious and jealous again." This industry is essentially different from the traditional technology industry: the backgrounds of the participants are very diverse (because the threshold in the early stage was too low), that is, they ignore the core driving force of technology for economic development and lack true venture capital values. The core value of VC is to strive to achieve financial benefits while promoting technological innovation. Although memecoin does have valuable attributes and pmf in the industry, and I also think that there is no problem for the community to participate in memecoin pvp, but if the largest and most influential (to the outside world) institutions in the industry are all committed to promoting digital casino culture, it will only keep professional capital away and make entrepreneurs specializing in technology products fail. In the end, those who remain at the table are casino owners, gambling agents, and gamblers.

Dana (Yzi Labs)

- AGI is a beautiful grand narrative, but the reality is trivial and complicated. Looking closely from this grand narrative, every company, every product, and every entrepreneurial team has its own struggles and anxieties. AI has indeed improved efficiency, but it has also lowered the threshold. Let alone the long term, just look at the short and medium term. Where is the moat for an AI application company, or even a large model company? These questions are in front of us, and we still sit there and can't sleep.

- Human growth is never a straight line. Try different industries and slowly find the path that is closest to your heart. In the short term, it can be said to be speculation, but in the long term, it may be possible to connect the dots. In the final analysis, who you are and what you want to accomplish is up to you to decide; only by looking at it over a longer period of time can you see clearly.

- In an industry that is developing rapidly, such as Web3/Crypto, being able to stay at the table and keep up with the industry's beta is actually very important. But every entrepreneur who is full of enthusiasm and wants to create alpha will always be discouraged because they cannot see their own light in the short term or there is no high-intensity positive feedback. This feeling is understood by everyone (10,000 words are omitted here as an investor's various mental journeys and experiences of eager to find alpha, and now they are still on the road...) But it is worth reminding that you should not forget why you came to this industry just because you don't see Alpha in front of you.

Don't forget why you set out.

Stay relevant, don't die

Every time I see TN from Pendle, I always ask him, what made you stick with it for so long? TN said that after leaving Kyber, the Pendle team explored other industries for a while and missed the DeFi summer, "so we made a promise to ourselves: we'll never leave." Pendle issued coins in the first half of 2021, and persisted until the first quarter of 2024, when it finally saw the dawn of PMF. The price of Pendle's coin is like a heroic journey for this team. After a long search (the pain is understandable), their rank has been upgraded to a higher level. And TN wrote in an article a few days ago, "job's not done."

- "Use the false to cultivate the true". Is the bubble a lively illusion or a huge opportunity? The bubble of huge financing and burning money for subsidies is not unique to the cryptocurrency circle. Luckin Coffee went public at the speed of light, but was delisted due to data fraud. In the end, it made a comeback with "raw coconut milk latte yyds". Again, who are you, how to go, and what to accomplish, you decide for yourself.

The real world that each of us sees is, to a large extent, a reflection of our own inner world. What we believe in, what we worry about, how we interpret it, and how we act are all our own choices.

Lurpis (Bifrost)

After seven years in the industry, I feel that this industry gives less and less positive feedback to idealistic developers. Making an excellent product on web3 is far less popular than the applause and attention gained by pulling the market. In addition, "making products is useless, just learn how to make markets", "as long as it doesn't go up, it's garbage", "meme can surpass your market value with just a shout, why don't you issue a meme coin". After hearing these too many times, the naive idea of "making an excellent product" should not appear in the currency circle. In this environment, it is difficult not to discourage those developers who rely on their passion, save money and polish the details, and hope to change the world with good products and good technology.

Be nice to them, after all, they are the ones who ultimately drive this industry forward.

Oar (lmk.fun)

Blockchain is a "revolution" of production relations, and revolution is bound to be dark, long-term depressed, and chaotic. AI and robots are both improvements in productivity, which are in the interests of the public and can see results in the short term.

Just like me in the past three years, my biggest mistake was to chase hot topics, only to find in the end that if I had thoroughly implemented the idea of day 1, I might have gotten better results.

Only long-termism can survive in a highly volatile market.

Keer

It is a terrible thing that a bunch of people who can only see the surface are always "starting a business".

These people were attracted to the cryptocurrency world by the concept of the metaverse when NFT was hot, and then went all in on AI after ChatGPT was released. Before leaving, they even said, "The cryptocurrency world is a casino." Who knows, when the bull market comes, they may be attracted by a certain narrative and want to come back to issue coins. In the end, they will end up with nothing.

Meme is the only way to achieve the denationalization of currency.

I don’t think the so-called AGI narrative is more “grand” than the denationalization of currency. The former changes productivity, while the latter changes production relations. Do we have to rank which is more important?

What is happening in the cryptocurrency world now is that the value discovery of this non-sovereign state token has been transferred from the primary market to the chain. Since the blockchain gives everyone the ability to issue currency, price discovery should follow free market competition. This is the essence of Meme - a mockery of the existing order.

Why should the market pay for the price set by a small group of people? Because you are a Stanford graduate? If VCs and "excellent entrepreneurs" really dominate the market, then the cryptocurrency world is the real road to slavery!