AI is the only driving force pushing encryption technology to new heights

Recently, legendary investor Mary Meeker released a detailed report on artificial intelligence trends.

In this report, a set of trend data caught my interest. This data points out that:

In the internet era, TikTok is the fastest-growing application, reaching one hundred million users in about nine months. In contrast, after the emergence of ChatGPT, it took less than three months to reach one hundred million users.

The adoption speed of artificial intelligence surpasses that of any new technology in human history.

The rapid spread of artificial intelligence has, on one hand, made humanity feel its tremendous impact on our lives; on the other hand, it continuously attracts the world's best talents to innovate and revolutionize in this field.

This makes artificial intelligence the current global focus of technological attention.

Compared to the brilliance of artificial intelligence, cryptography seems less impressive.

Is there a difference revealed by the data behind this?

I looked up the user data of the crypto ecosystem online:

Bitcoin was launched in 2009, and it took until around December 2024 for the number of active addresses to reach one hundred million, taking 15 years.

Ethereum was launched in 2015, and it took until the end of 2023 for the number of active addresses to reach one hundred million, taking 8 years.

While there are one hundred million active addresses, many users actually have multiple addresses, so it is very likely that the number of users for Bitcoin and Ethereum has not truly reached one hundred million even now. However, even if these one hundred million addresses truly represent one hundred million users, their adoption speed is still turtle-paced compared to ChatGPT.

I also checked the daily active user numbers:

ChatGPT currently has about 120 million to 180 million daily active users.

Bitcoin's daily active addresses peak at one million, while Ethereum's daily active addresses peak at one point two million.

In terms of daily active users, cryptography similarly cannot be compared with artificial intelligence.

The popularity of a technology and its daily active users are important indicators of its impact on society as a whole. A technology without user adoption and high-frequency daily active users cannot possibly be considered a great technology.

In this regard, current artificial intelligence completely outshines cryptography.

This is probably also a significant reason why the general public has had such a low perception of cryptography over the years and does not pay much attention to this technology.

Why is this the case?

One reason we all know, and which is often discussed, is that the usage threshold of cryptography is too high for ordinary people.

From 2009 to now, in 2025, it has been a full 16 years, and I estimate that the actual daily active users of crypto applications have only reached a few million at most. During these 16 years, numerous teams, applications, and standards have been trying to improve the user experience of crypto applications and lower the usage threshold.

However, despite all these efforts, the results have been minimal, especially when compared to the adoption speed of artificial intelligence, which is simply overwhelming.

Seeing this data and reflecting on the history of these 16 years, I have come to feel that:

All our efforts to improve the user experience of crypto applications may fundamentally be of little significance.

I am not saying that these efforts have no effect, but rather that the results of these efforts are almost negligible.

I have previously expressed the viewpoint:

Cryptocurrency may not be intended for humans at all, but rather for AI.

In the future, the number of AI Agents will certainly far exceed the number of humans.

Combining these two viewpoints with the data above, I think it becomes understandable:

The poor experience and high threshold that humans feel when using crypto applications are not a problem for AI; using crypto wallets, remembering private keys, digital signatures, and on-chain transactions is as natural and simple for AI as breathing air.

Cryptocurrency is prepared for AI, and AI Agents are the true users of cryptocurrency. One day in the future, when the number of AI Agents exceeds that of humans, the daily active "users" of cryptographic technology will certainly surpass the daily active user numbers of all these human applications mentioned above. However, at that time, the "users" will not be humans but AI Agents.

Thinking this way, all these contradictions and confusions can be resolved.

Therefore, in the crypto + blockchain space, how to enable AI Agents to use smart contracts and fully engage in transactions on the blockchain seems to me to be the only path to propel cryptographic technology to new heights and truly unleash and disrupt society.