New ERC, new future

2024-04-04 15:33

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Original author: Li Hua

In the last round of bear market, people wondered whether the blockchain was useful, and then we saw Uniswap The power of , and the consequent vitality of DeFi. The question of whether blockchain is useful has been answered in the affirmative.

In this cycle, many people are deeply involved in DeFi, and many people have doubts again, "Blockchain can also be used for other things." What". It’s not because of dissatisfaction, but the current blockchain is like a giant dragon with only one wing, trapped in a limited territory. Only when its other wing grows out can it soar into the sky. Only when its other wing also grows can the power of the first wing be truly released.

Where will the wings grow from? It will not come from the level of the chain, such as a new chain or a new layer, which is the body of the dragon rather than the wings of the dragon; it will come from the level of the application on the chain, and it will most likely come from the new standard/new protocol. It is not an application under the old protocol. After everyone racked their brains and innovated for several years, the old agreement failed to bring surprises.

In this article, I would like to discuss three of my personal favorite new standards/protocols, ERC-6551, ERC-5169, and ERC-404. The new protocol will open up new application directions, and the new application directions may bring users with non-investment needs and non-financial needs to the blockchain, allowing the dragon to grow another wing.

ERC-6551

ERC-6551 It looks ugly, but it has a broad narrative space. This article explores only the directions that are of most interest to individuals, what I call non-human subjects of accounts. The three use cases in this article may be fanciful, but you see, the destination of the aerospace industry is the stars and the sea. Before taking us to Mars, it can first bring us air-cushioned shoes.

1. Game: Integration of real players and NPC

"Kenshi" is I like an open-ended game where players can make money by reselling goods between different cities, but the deserts between cities are full of dangers. At this time, you can go to the tavern to find mercenaries and pay NPCs to escort the caravan. In traditional games, these NPCs cannot be real people, and because they are not real people, everything else in the game except the players has no growth potential. The lonely players will one day complete all the tasks and leave the game.

Could there be a whole new type of subject or object that could host both real people and NPCs? When the real person comes online, the player enters the real person mode, and the player operates normally, such as improving skills and building a city; when the real person goes offline, the player enters the NPC mode (reading fixed data and executing specific programs), and performs passive actions in the real person mode of other players. NPCs make money, such as being mercenaries. Blockchain plus ERC-6551 is the best carrier for this kind of subject. NFT (game character) has an account, owns data and property, and can be treated as an independent object; a real person account owns NFT and can take over control after going online.

It’s not that blockchain and ERC-6551 solve all the problems of integrating real players and NPCs, but they open up a possible path. As a serious gamer, I often ask myself "Is it possible for blockchain to make games more fun?" I have listed countless answers, and I have crossed out almost all the answers after derivation. Finding your way through NPCs is an answer that hasn't been scratched yet.

2. AI: equal status between AI and humans

Human beings are self-respecting creatures As big creatures, we regard everything as our own tools or accessories. However, technology is not an appendage of human beings. When we look at the technology tree, we will find that it is another powerful evolutionary force, and it has its own place to go. If self-esteem only caused humans to miss out on a happier lifestyle in the past (Levi Strauss), in the future, it may bring about racial tragedy.

Perhaps we need to take a step forward and regard AI as an equal subject to humans. So where will AI live? Will they put themselves on a private server where someone else has control? How should they manage and use their assets? The answer may be: a data subject on a public chain (or some consensus), which owns an account (ERC-6551), rather than the account holder.

Taking a step back, AI game characters (especially AI characters based on reinforcement learning), AI agents (narratives for mass adoption), they are all needed The person who owns the account.

3. Digitalization: the digital future of people

Through data collection and AI training, in It is no longer far away that the digital space can generate a somewhat similar self. The only question is whether it is one ten thousandth similar, or whether it can be recognized as the digital self. In view of mankind's pursuit of immortality, it would be a common thing to train a digital clone, let this digital clone exist forever, and give it a physical body when the technology matures.

The "life" maintenance of the digital clone is a problem, especially after the death of the original. It is unreliable to leave it to others, including relatives, because there is a long time to span. The best strategy is to leave it enough money to sustain itself. In this case, it requires a permanent account (the account cannot be closed) and the ability to use the account's assets autonomously. What solution can you think of? Furthermore, if the digital clone can be considered as a digital self, it is an equal subject as human beings. It makes money, it spends money, and it not only maintains but also develops itself. So where does it live? How to achieve independence, or in other words, how to let the digital avatar have the highest authority over the digital avatar?

ERC-6551 is one answer. ERC-6551 is the carrier of an independent digital subject, whether the subject is a game character, an independent AI, or a person's digital clone.

ERC-5169

Before discussing ERC-5169 , we need to discuss ourselves first Two kinds of shackles imposed on oneself. One shackles are about data, and the other shackles are about trust.

Blockchain can only process on-chain data, and the boundaries of on-chain data are regarded as the boundaries of blockchain capabilities. In order to expand this boundary, in almost every round of development, we will try to put data on the chain. However, both theory and practice tell us that only very few types of data have the value or meaning of being put on the chain. Data on the chain does not help. Blockchain effectively expands boundaries. We stop there. However, there is a vast space between data that completely needs to be processed by the blockchain and data that does not need to be processed by the blockchain at all. For applications in this space, part of their data can be handed over to the blockchain. Processing to obtain the capabilities of the blockchain, another part of their data can be processed off-chain to obtain the advantages of off-chain data processing. The boundary of this space is the boundary of blockchain capabilities. This space should be included in the territory of blockchain rather than excluded.

Removing trust may be one of the biggest charms of the blockchain, but it is difficult to achieve trustlessness. We often deceive ourselves and others, equating decentralization with trustlessness. Some decentralization can indeed bring trustlessness, but other decentralization brings centralized objects that should be responsible for something and evade their responsibilities. In fact, the situation is similar to the data on the chain and the data off the chain. Some things need to be trusted, some things need centralized trust, and some things need to be trusted to protect rights and interests, and the other part needs to be trusted by the center. trust or other forms of trust to protect rights and interests. The pursuit of total trustlessness will not only cause the blockchain industry to lose a large territory (trustlessness combined with other trusts), but will also damage the de facto rights and interests of project participants due to the replacement of trustlessness by decentralization.

ERC-5169 ’s job is to open these two new territories. With the help of this standard, developers can explore application directions where part of the data is processed on the chain and part of the data is processed off the chain, and where rights and interests are guaranteed by trustlessness and other trusts. These directions are new and broad at the same time.

ERC-5169 is token-centered programming, that is to say, on-chain data and off-chain data, trustlessness and other trusts are all anchored on a certain token. People in the Web2 world may not understand why this is done. In their eyes, token may be just a digital asset with a face value, but people in the blockchain field deeply understand the interoperability and composability brought about by this method. This interoperability and composability is one of the most disruptive innovations of blockchain. ERC-5169 extends this innovation from on-chain data to off-chain data, and from trustlessness to other trusts.

ERC-404

A good friend convinced me to pay attention to the ERC-404 standard with one sentence, he Said: "Fried blind boxes won't last long, you have to fry wine." ERC-721 can be used to produce blind box-like products, and ERC-404 can be used to produce wine-like products. This is the beauty of ERC-404.

In terms of production methods, the difference between wine and blind boxes is that wine is a sustainable product produced in a standardized production method; in terms of product attributes, The scarcity of wine comes from the consensus of the public. For example, the 1982 Lafite is the most valuable (the scarcity of the blind box comes from the setting of the project party). Think of ERC-404 as a product production machine. The input is data (production materials), such as block height, random numbers, etc., and the output is products that can be sold or used, such as generative art. There is no need to intervene in the production process, it is standardized and automated production; there is no need to design scarcity, the public decides the scarcity themselves.

We will discuss ERC-404 using blind box speculation and wine speculation as examples because they are the most intuitive and easily accepted products by blockchain users. The meaning behind this example is that only when a type of product can be produced in a standardized production method, can it move toward mass adoption; only when scarcity comes from consensus can it be sustainable. This is also the reason why my friend is interested in ERC-404. He regards Web3 as a new type of economic activity. He observes and judges Web3 projects based on what productivity is and what the product is. This is a grand narrative that includes blockchain but is more than just blockchain.

ERC-404 Technically clear and easy to understand, the real challenge is how to use it. If the applications of ERC-6551 are mostly about creating new demands, the applications of ERC-5169 are mostly about providing new solutions to real problems. In my eyes, successful ERC-404 applications may require more tricks and ingenuity. Skills can bring out the magic of ERC-404; it also requires real product capabilities, and forming a consensus is not a simple matter.

Conclusion

New standards/new protocols are new forces, new technologies and new scenarios Additional new conditions were also created for the release of this power. Taking ERC-6551 as an example, it can be combined with many new technologies, including intent-centric and account abstraction; it can be applied to many new scenarios, such as the autonomous world and AI.

Finally, when we discuss the value of different new standards/new protocols, it does not mean that the project proposing the protocol or the directly related project has value, but that new gameplay or new projects will be born based on these new protocols, and these new gameplay or new projects may break the deadlock, and may be the dragon growing wings.