Virtual Protocol: An AI factory for games and the metaverse, where everyone can contribute and benefit
Author: Xiaobai Navigation coderworld
AI The popularity of the track is obvious to all, and it has become a narrative consensus throughout the year.
On the other hand, the transaction volume of the Base chain has surged recently, with TVL reaching a new high of US$745 million.
But the dog craze is difficult to sustain. The traffic heat of the Base chain, coupled with the reliableAIProjects, combining the two may bring new opportunities.
Current crypto AI projects are all about high-end infrastructure and algorithms, which are very close to the future, but very far from life, entertainment and ourselves. We lack a project that you can participate in, has a low threshold, is perceptible, and has a visible and tangible impact on the entertainment life of retail investors.
Therefore, looking for projects with differentiated businesses in AI is the key to discovering gems.
Recently, the Virtual Protocol on the Base chain is a typical example that meets the above combination points.
ThatToken The price of VIRTUAL doubled within one day, and the protocol itself is one of the few serious AI projects on Base.
The goal of the project is to create an AI factory for games and the metaverse, where everyone can contribute and benefit, while making games more intelligent and increasing the sense of experience and interactivity.
The narrative of GameFi and Metaverse has been silent for a long time, and it may be able to create new sparks when combined with AI.
More importantly, game projects can use the capabilities provided by Virtual to make their own games better, so Virtual Protocol can be expected to create a "golden shovel" effect similar to Pyth.
As AI projects become more homogenized, will Virtual become the next Bittensor specializing in the gaming and entertainment industries?
In this issue, we will use the most popular way to help you quickly understand the AI pearl on the Base chain.
Democratizing AI and making games smarter
To understand whether Virtual Protocol has potential, we must first look at what is missing in the market and whether it can solve the problem.
Since the project is aimed at the general direction of AI + Game, what are the problems with the current AI and game tracks?
Let’s look at AI first. A commonly criticized problem is naturally black boxing:
You cannot get any benefits from the data you contribute to AI, nor can you know how the data is used, let alone actively contribute the data you want to contribute; the providers of the AI model take away most of the voice and benefits.
As for games, one of the prominent problems with the current GameFi or Metaverse is the lack of immersive interactive experience, which makes it less attractive than general gaming products.
The virtual world lacks interactivity, making you feel it’s unreal, unfun, not immersive enough, and not personalized enough. As a time-consuming product, games no longer have the confidence to occupy players’ attention.
From the perspective of industry observers, we have actually begun to see AI being used in the crypto industry to improve experience and efficiency. However, this application is mostly concentrated in DeFi and other transaction-oriented links, and there are very few mature examples of AI being used in the gaming track.
This is also the key for Virtual Protocol to find its own suitable ecological niche.
In short, the project does two main things:
AI Democratization, intelligent gaming.
The so-called AI democratization means that you can contribute the data you want to contribute and share the benefits of such contribution, understand the purpose of the data contribution, confirm the ownership of the data, and break the "black box" mentioned above;
This narrative naturally conforms to the spiritual core of Web3's equality and grassroots, and is easy to understand.
Game intelligence means that you can train AI to integrate data contributed by different groups into different game mechanisms, so that all game interactions can be transformed from "quasi-social" to "fully social" - imagine the scene of "I play games with my AI friends" becoming a reality.
Previously, in the traditional gaming circle, some players connected GPT4 to the NPCs in The Elder Scrolls, which greatly improved the quality of dialogue and interactive immersion. In fact, Web3 games can also adopt this approach, making the game more interactive and immersive, and serving the entire game/metaverse track.
Another benefit of intelligence is composability. The memory and background of AI characters can be integrated into different games and virtual worlds. In game A, he can continue his adventure with you in game B.
AI characters adventure in Zelda, and use memory to know where the sword in Mario might be hidden
Generative AI helps expand personalization, while multimodal outputs (including text, sound, and visuals) increase immersion. Together, they eliminate monotony in virtual interactions, ensuring that each moment is more engaging than the last.
The benefits are self-evident, the narrative is reasonable enough, the key is how to do it.
AI Factory for Games and Metaverse
Back to the project itself, how does Virtual Protocol specifically implement a jointly owned, human-planned, plug-and-play gaming AI?
Leaving aside the high-level technical details, a popular metaphor can summarize the essence of the project - Building a decentralizedAIFactories connect supply and demand.
Since it is a factory, it is natural to think of the key issues at both ends:
On the supply side, what does Virtual Protocol import and where does it come from?
On the demand side, what does Virtual Protocol sell? And to whom does it sell it?
Let’s start with the supply side.
You can simply understand the goods imported by Virtual as "virtualAICharacter Components“, sort the parts and deliver them to the factory in preparation for assembly.
The parts can be roughly divided into three types:
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Cognitive Core:Incorporating the sophistication of Large Language Models (LLMs), it excels at crafting interactions that are not only contextually coordinated but also linguistically complete.
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Sound Core:From the timbre and tone of voice to the ambient sounds that accompany the interaction
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Visual Core:Covering everything from basic appearance to complex animations. This core encapsulates the visual aspects that enable AI to see and recognize
Seriously speaking, the official calls these components Modular Core, which constitute the key to a virtual character's AI capabilities.
Where do these parts come from? The answer is "from the masses".
Anyone can contribute to Modular Core to improve a certainAIA virtual character that can then be used in various applications such as games.
You can be aText data contributors,Providing the necessary text data to shape the AI’s dialogue, backstory, and traits, thereby forming a virtual personality;
You can be aLLMModel Contributors,Enhance AI communication by refining language models using targeted text data, ensuring natural and contextual interactions. This process transforms general AI into a more nuanced tool that excels in specific professional and subject areas;
You can also be aVoice data contributors,Provides different voice samples to create virtual voices, capturing the full range of emotions and pitches to generate expressive speech;
You can also be aVisual Contributor,There is work on hand,The appearance of the virtual world can be designed, from basic images to detailed animations.
Finally, the above parts are assembled into an AI virtual character. Everyone contributes, everyone owns, and everyone benefits.
Any materials you contribute will appear in the form of NFT, which will facilitate subsequent revenue sharing and data rights confirmation, and the file itself will exist on IPFS.
So after purchasing and assembling the goods, what should we sell?
These AI virtual characters can actually be roughly classified into three categories:
-
IP A virtual mirror for your character：These virtual mirrors are designed to emulate iconic characters from various IPs. Allowing fans to interact with their favorite characters in a very personal and authentic way, enriching their experience with the original IP.
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Virtual programs for specific functions: Customized to perform specialized tasks, similar to expert systems. Whether it’s writing horror narratives or guiding players in Dota, these AIs possess domain-specific knowledge that enables them to act as assistants and autonomous agents, providing users with expertise and interactive learning experiences.
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Personal avatar: Not only do they look like you, but they also behave and interact in ways that are typical of you. Designed as customizable extensions of yourself, these personal virtual devices offer users the opportunity to interact with digital spaces in an inherently personal and unique way.
Who needs these? Of course, various Dapps with different AI needs.
Virtual Protocol first tried the “self-production and self-sales” approach.
For example, the virtual AI girlfriend game AI WAIFU developed by the company uses the capabilities of the above AI factory to build three different AI girlfriends that can talk to you, respond based on different dialogue scenarios, improve your favorability, and form a game development model based on dialogue feedback.
For more specific details, we have previously discussedInterpretation of AI WAIFU: The first AI-driven virtual girlfriend game on Blast, the token LBP is about to be launched》 gave an in-depth introduction.
Similarly, the AI factory can also supply other third-party Dapps.
Through simple SDK access, different application developers can take advantage of the multimodal reasoning capabilities of the protocol, allowing VIRTUAL to be seamlessly integrated into various DApp environment, ensuring that developers can implement advanced AI capabilities with minimal friction.
There is a key benefit here, which is the "plug and play" mentioned above.
You can develop the game logic yourself, and when AI capabilities are needed, you don't have to develop it from start to finish yourself, nor do you have to train an AI specifically for the game. You can directly use the capabilities provided by the Virtual Protocol as a plug-in.
Ultimately, Virtual Protocol is a jointly owned, jointly created, plug-and-playXiaobai NavigationThe game AI used has formed such a value flow for different participants:
Contributors can contribute data, models and materials required in the core of various modules;
Validators use their expertise to review and verify the data and models provided by contributors to ensure that the output meets the highest standards;
Dapp developers use the above-mentioned contributed and audited data and models, and the profits generated by users using Dapps will also be shared with validators and developers. Thus, a factory specially designed for game AI is built.
Virtual Token, the key to coordinating the interests of all parties
对这个左手连接群众，右手连接游戏等Dapp项目方的平台来说，Token的经济激励，将成为AI工厂是否能以透明且有序状态运行的关键。
The overall role of $Virtual is to align incentives and increase value for all stakeholders.
Specifically, $Virtual will act as a utility token for transactions, governance, and staking. It will enable users to access, utilize, and contribute to various features in the virtual environment. Let's look at the value of $Virtual from the perspective of an ordinary user.
Assuming Alice is optimistic about Virtual Protocol and holds $Virtual, she can choose to pledge $Virtual to maintain the entire system.Safety, and obtain pledge income at the same time;
The question is, where is the most cost-effective place to pledge?
Alice needs to select a virtual character in the Virtual system to stake, as shown in the figure below. You can think of it as a staking pool. The more tokens in the pool, the more development resources there are around the character.
In fact, the project is using Virtual tokens to associate AI virtual characters; the more tokens staked, the more it reflects the popularity of the character. The more popular it is, the more contributors are willing to contribute data (because the potential benefits to be distributed are greater), so the more development resources for the character will be.
Essentially, Alice is facing a mass voting mechanism, voting with coins and gaining benefits from voting.
However, after voting for a role, the pledge also means responsibility. Alice also needs to act as a validator to review the various language, voice, appearance and other data information uploaded by contributors for the role.
If she does not have this auditing capability, she can choose a delegated staking method similar to ETH, handing over the staking rights to more professional nodes and sharing the profits herself.
Later, when other Dapps develop games using Virtual’s technology and AI characters, Alice may receive token airdrops for that game because she holds Virtual.
Beyond Alice’s perspective, VIRTUAL tokens actually connect the value flow of the entire protocol:
First, VIRTUAL tokens will be used to reward contributors who upload and update the Modular Core virtual characters. Second, VIRTUAL tokens will be used to reward validators who review the submitted content. Finally, Virtual Protocol officials will use the virtual characters to DApp Part of the revenue is used to repurchase $VIRTUAL tokens, thereby increasing the value of the tokens and the stability of the ecosystem.
In addition to the function of the token itself, its economic model deserves more attention.
From the project's documents and public information, the 40% token of VIRTUAL token is the official token of the project.DAOAny use of these 40% tokens requires a proposal vote to be passed, which also means that the uncirculated portion of the VIRTUAL tokens will not be sold at will, thereby diluting the value of the tokens in circulation.
On the other hand, the remaining 60%s are already fully circulated in the market, and there is also the repurchase mechanism mentioned above. The games associated with the protocol generate revenue and will also share profits with token holders.
Therefore, overall, the VIRTUAL selling pressure is controllable and has a certain shovel effect.
In addition, the VIRTUAL tokenAirdrop PageIt has been launched. Holding Virtual can also get different airdrop rewards. Although the specific information has not been announced yet, it has also increased market expectations in disguise.
Catalysts worth watching in the near future
Public information shows that Virtual Protocol's mainnet was officially launched on the evening of the 22nd, when users can contribute relevant data and models on its website. In addition, what other good information is worth noting?
First of all, in the overall environment, the Base chain is hot and the AI track continues to move upward. The combination of these two factors is undoubtedly favorable factors.
Another point that is easily overlooked is that although the protocol is on Base, every application on the chain can use Virtual’s capabilities. The economic incentives and value flows based on tokens are on the chain, but the AI capabilities are off-chain. Using SDK to develop applications is not really a matter of L1 orL2This also greatly increases the number of potential partners and usage space of the protocol, which is the "Pyth golden shovel effect" we mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Perhaps, all games and metaverse projects will usher in an AI spring, and Virtual can just serve as the first ray of spring breeze.
At the same time, full-chain empowerment also brings a potential space for "vote buying".
Readers familiar with DeFi will be familiar with Curve War, which creates demand for veCRV to draw more attention to its own liquidity pool.
Virtual Protocol also has the possibility of a Virtual War:
With limited attention and liquidity, different game project owners can invest as much xVirtual as possible in the virtual characters they want to use to attract others to come for higher returns.pledge, thereby promoting oneselfAIThe activity and use of virtual characters.
In addition to these fundamentals, some ecological collaborations are also worth interpreting.
Virtual's official Twitter account recently announced that it has become part of NVIDIA's Inception Program, a free program designed to help startups grow faster through cutting-edge technology, opportunities to connect with venture capitalists, and access to NVIDIA's latest technical resources.
With its connection to Nvidia and AI, at least the fuse for a hype narrative is in place.
At the same time, Virutal's AI virtual character can essentially be seen as an AI agent specializing in the gaming industry. The big brother of AI agents, Autonolas ($OLAS), has also cooperated with Virtual, and there is room for imagination between the two in terms of resource contribution and token linkage.
Virtual, taken from reality
Finally, the name Virtual Protocol actually reflects the core of its business:
Decentralized collection of materials from the real world makes the virtual world smarter.
The name of Virtual Protocol is interesting enough, and the corresponding business and narrative are enough to arouse the interest of more participants.
The virtual world is not completely independent of reality. On the contrary, it brings together all kinds of wisdom and efforts in reality. Such wisdom and efforts deserve due rewards. While benefiting the entertainment industry, it also allows everyone to get their own happiness and benefits.
The article comes from the Internet:Virtual Protocol: An AI factory for games and the metaverse, where everyone can contribute and benefit
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