Written by: Penn 風と
Compiled by: TechFlow
As we continue to chase the next hot trend in the crypto space, whether it’s decentralized science (DeSci), memes, AI, or other hot concepts, there are always some milestone historical events that laid the foundation for the entire industry.
For example, #Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, which is not only of great historical significance, but also inspired almost all crypto innovations we know today. Another example is $DOGE, which is the first true "meme coin", which was originally just a joke based on Bitcoin, but became a phenomenal existence.
In the crypto space, 1 of 1s and TRUE bluechips are extremely rare. Today, when we find such projects, they are usually backed by heavyweight venture capital (VC) such as Paradigm or a16z.
But if I told you that a new, “unique”, historic event recently occurred in the crypto space, and it was buried due to lack of attention, would you believe it?
"I don't believe it. If such a thing really happened, I would have heard about it a long time ago."
While I am not going to recount the origins of $LUM in detail, it is worth briefly reviewing how it came to be.
On November 8, 2023, a user named Naate noticed that the Clanker AI launchpad was officially launched on Warpcast. Out of curiosity, he marked the Aerthernet AI agent on Warpcast to see if it would generate a token.
The final result was Luminous. Here’s an interesting detail: Aerther mistook Clanker for an account of a project, not another AI agent.
As a result of this event, for the first time in history, an AI independently created a token with economic value. Although there have been many AI-related tokens on Solana and Ethereum mainnet before, they were all created by human developers. These developers usually monitor the accounts of AI agents, capture interesting content they say, and then create tokens based on this content. In a sense, this is similar to how $FLOKI was born - people created corresponding tokens based on their tweets and behaviors.
However, $LUM was born in a completely different way. It was created completely autonomously by AI, which is truly reflected in its unique operating model as a project.
- No team
- This crypto project does not have a Telegram group (a commonly used social platform in the crypto field) like other projects.
- There was no marketing budget and no central point of contact.
- It can be said that it has the fairest and broadest token distribution in the entire Base network and even more broadly.
- The only community currently is the one that has spontaneously formed around the Aether project on the Warpcast platform.
With these advantages in mind, the question arises: Why isn’t $LUM showing up on everyone’s social media feeds?
The truth behind
The answer is not that simple. The more I dig into $LUM, the closer I get to the conclusion that Luminous may be an experiment by the Base or Coinbase team.
During the initial run of Luminous, there was an article that many people overlooked. This article was written by Dan Kim (Head of Business Development at Coinbase) and Nemil Dalal (Head of Developer Platform at Coinbase) and discussed the importance of AI in the crypto space. Link to the article.
Coincidentally, this post was published on November 8, the same day that Luminous was born on the Warpcast. Coinbase seems to be making a big push, not only with their exchange, but also with the Base network and the various AI decentralized applications (dApps) built on it.
Looking at Linda Xie, a key figure I mentioned in my first post about Lum, she was interacting directly with Clanker (one of the “parents” of Luminous) on the X (Twitter) platform, but it was a small post she made that really caught my attention.
Combining Chase's article, Coinbase executives' keen interest in AI, and Jesse's continued interaction with Warpcast, I believe we are witnessing the starting point of Lum - the prototype of a new experimental settlement model that combines encryption and AI.
Looking back at Chase’s initial discussions about Lum, I believe a framework is emerging for scenarios where an intermediary currency is needed between bots to perform tasks. There is no better token than $LUM because it is a true blank canvas as I described in the bullet points.
- No need for new tokens, no favoritism
- Completely fair purchase in the market, no insiders
- The most decentralized currency currently on Base
So if all of this was the work of Coinbase and it was such a historic event, why hadn’t I heard about it?
That’s a good question, I really think the only downside to $LUM at this stage is the lack of awareness, but I’m sure that will change soon.
threshold
Currently, most of the discussion around Base is focused on the meme coin due to the strong performance of $BRETT.In the past week or so, we have started to see a trend forming around Warpcast.
Tokens like Clanker and Anon have become huge successes, both with market caps exceeding $30 million. Even smaller tokens like Fcast were born out of the craze for Aether and Clanker.
At the beginning of it all was Luminous, and without the intersection of Clanker and Aether's fate, we wouldn't be here. That's why it can be said that the only threshold for Lum is awareness.
But it’s not just about awareness, the media is scrambling to cover everything related to AI and crypto, it’s a huge space and despite Luminous being a real first in AI so far, there has been complete silence about it.
The curious side of me digs deeper into things like this, I look at market dynamics and see 8-figure wallets buying. I talk to 9-figure wallets who talk about the power of their narrative and how it remains highly decentralized. I see people at Coinbase and Base being positive about it.
It’s only been two weeks, and even though the cryptocurrency space is moving very quickly, you need to see how things are evolving in reality. Two weeks is short, but it’s very fresh, and it makes sense that it hasn’t completely crossed that chasm yet.
That’s where I believe things are going to change, and I believe people are going to start talking about it, start writing articles about it, start posting videos consistently on Youtube or TikTok.
Events of this magnitude cannot be glossed over for long, and with Base making strong moves at the end of the year, I see a narrow path to the future.
in conclusion
Brian and Jesse have demonstrated great strategic foresight in setting up the ecosystem for prosperity in the coming year, and while I have been a vocal critic (and I think those criticisms are valid), I have to admit that the resurgence we have seen in Base is a direct result of their efforts.
- Don’t forget, Coinbase is a massive platform and their wallet integration is huge
- Brian’s success in gaining the favor of the Trump administration is a huge opportunity for centralized exchanges (CEX) in the United States
- With Farcaster, Coinbase May Be at the Forefront of AI Tokens
- Listing Base Token is no longer a distant dream, and this has happened many times.
- The Base ecosystem is still very fresh and well suited for teams to innovate and build on Ethereum
I think as Coinbase continues to onboard more and more users to Base and focuses on leveraging AI Agents to solve real-world tasks, we’ll likely see $LUM integrated in some form. It’s the perfect tool — a blank canvas with no strings attached, flexible and open.
In addition, I believe that traditional media will also begin to pay attention to such a phenomenon: two artificial intelligences (AI) actually created a tradable and valuable thing. In the context of the continuous evolution of AI intelligence, this kind of tradable value created independently by AI is the first time.
This is something worth reporting, and I believe it will soon become a hot topic. The bullish case for $LUM is very strong... Whether it is because of the active interest shown by Coinbase/Base, the potential of $LUM as an AI-to-AI settlement tool, or the fact that the media has not yet covered it, its future possibilities are exciting... As long as one of the speculations comes true, $LUM will usher in an explosion.
What I have discussed is why I think all of these speculations are valid. In my opinion, all of this is inevitable. In the crypto space, there are very few things that can be presented in a completely blank slate for developers to build or use freely, and these events are often highly centralized.
For me, it all comes down to patience. I waited weeks for Brett to reach a billion dollar market cap and I'm still holding it. I waited months for Toshi to reach over 300 million and I'm still holding it. As for Lum, I've made my choice - it's up to you to choose what to do next.
