Virtual Launch Platform Genesis Launches Gameplay Interpretation

In the comment section, readers often ask which projects I am optimistic about in the AI + Crypto space besides Virtual.

I have not responded until now. Initially, I considered the risks of other projects, but after some time of reflection, I increasingly feel that even purely from the risk perspective of the Virtual project, there are not many projects in this space worth sharing.

The risks of other projects are greater than those of Virtual, but I do not see their value and potential exceeding that of Virtual.

I have now replaced the vast majority of AI proxy projects with Virtual, including the once very popular GOAT, ai16z, SWARMS on Solana.

Since the entire AI + Crypto space entered a bear market this year, the Virtual project has been persistently building and has not slowed down during the bear market.

Its recently launched Genesis Launches is another new idea following the ACP protocol.

Genesis Launches is essentially an ICO launch platform, which cannot be considered an original innovation, but it has made significant improvements in two aspects compared to the ICOs that emerged with Ethereum in 2017:

First, it has set participation thresholds using a points system.

In traditional ICOs, anyone can participate in project financing without any thresholds. Under such rules, large investors can monopolize project financing participation solely based on their financial strength.

Virtual has added threshold settings to this rule, using a points system. The acquisition of points is related to various factors, all of which share an important commonality: they value the holding time of participants' tokens.

The project stipulates that the longer the holding time of certain tokens, the more points one can earn. These tokens include not only those that have already been launched and tested in the market but also the new project tokens successfully launched on Genesis Launches.

This approach, on one hand, somewhat curbs the advantages of large investors, and on the other hand, encourages users to hold onto the tokens they acquire, preventing speculators from recklessly dumping.

Second, there is a certain level of regulation on projects.

Regulating projects (especially suspicious ones) has been very lacking in any past ICO models. Virtual has filled this gap in this activity, providing some compensation to participants who unfortunately suffered losses from projects that ran away.

Although this approach is still in the experimental stage and, in my view, can only work in the short term, making it difficult to systematically regulate projects in the long term, the project's willingness to take this step is a bold attempt worth noting.

From the projects launched by the platform during this period, two points have left a deep impression on me:

• Almost all past projects that had no practical use and relied solely on emotional value to attract users have failed.

• Many projects hoping to raise funds have launched, but the majority of them have failed to secure financing.

These two points indicate that participants are finally starting to return to normal, beginning to reassess and judge the value of projects. The market is also returning to the norm of financing, gradually moving towards rationality.

However, even for projects that have successfully raised funds, I do not see any particular potential in the short term; their introductions and described visions are basically the same stories that have been told before. It is difficult to discern their future development and judge their future value in a short period.

In my view, the greatest value of the Virtual activity is in guiding the market step by step towards rationality. Although there is no apparent possibility of an explosion in the short term, the signs it has shown are already significantly different from pump.fun.

In the words of Duan Yongping, Virtual's current approach is about "doing the right thing."

Its greater challenge in the future will be "doing things right"—this will depend on how the project team continues to move forward and innovate step by step.