NFT is more than just digital art: Will smart agents be the next trend?

Original text: Daniel Barabander, Variant

Compiled by: Yuliya, PANews

In today's digital age, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have become a hot topic. To understand the value of NFTs, we can think of them as "special items" in the digital world, which have characteristics similar to items in the real world.

Let's start with the common example of buying a house. When we purchase a house, we receive a property certificate, which can prove who the previous owners of the house were (property provenance). As homeowners, we can use the house exclusively and have the right to prevent others from entering at will (exclusive rights). Moreover, if we renovate the house or make other improvements, these changes will remain with the house (improvability). Ordinary digital items cannot achieve these, but NFTs can simulate these three core characteristics.

Currently, NFTs have primarily achieved product-market fit in the art sector, but mostly only utilizing the characteristics of ownership traceability and exclusivity. For example, Botto's work "Asymmetrical Liberation" relies on the traceability capability of NFTs to prove it as the first piece generated during Botto's "Genesis Period," with the holder having exclusive control over it. However, similar to physical artworks, the owner cannot make alterations to the piece itself. There has been little exploration of NFTs in terms of "improvability," with the closest application being game NFTs, such as players upgrading their characters in a game. However, this characteristic remains significantly underestimated.

A more innovative application scenario is the use of NFTs for smart agents. Smart agents act like a digital assistant that can remember interactions with users, perfectly showcasing the three core characteristics of NFTs:

• Exclusive Rights: NFT holders have exclusive access to the agent's memory.
• Improvement: Each time the NFT holder uses the agent, its memory updates, accumulating exclusive experiences and remembering the holder's optimization adjustments.
• Ownership Traceability: The agency can only be used by the NFT holder, so its past ownership records can showcase their experience accumulation, equivalent to a "resume."

For example, if the famous writer Tolkien had used a certain intelligent agent to write "The Hobbit." This intelligent agent, with its unique experience, would hold special value for new writers looking to create fantasy novels. Because it not only accumulated the experiences of Tolkien during his creative process, but these experiences are unique and cannot be replicated.

Although most agents may be more suitable as publicly-facing API services, similar to SaaS products, intelligent agent NFTs are more like racehorses: their value comes from who the trainer was, the accumulated training achievements will always be retained, and there can only be one owner using it at the same time. Currently, companies like Plastic Labs are developing the underlying technology that supports this type of intelligent agent NFT.

This innovative model that combines NFTs with smart agents not only expands the application boundaries of digital assets but also brings new design ideas to the fields of software development and artificial intelligence. With the continuous advancement of technology, we may see more personalized smart agent applications that also have market value emerge.