Historically, Solana has been continuously laying out the "AI + on-chain agency" ecosystem over the past year: including real-time inference markets from Inference.net, distributed inference and simulation protocols from Gradient, and Eliza directly connecting AI agents to Solana and supporting hundreds of plugins, all of which expand the network from a pure DeFi and NFT platform to an execution and payment environment that AI agents can natively call.

In terms of capital pathways, the assertion of "AI using crypto" is essentially paving the way for a new value chain: AI applications rent GPUs, purchase data, and call agency services through on-chain payments, with fees settled in SOL or stablecoins; computing power and data providers earn on-chain income, some of which is reinvested into network staking, node operations, or secondary markets; Solana and its ecosystem projects share growth through transaction fees and token appreciation, while AI companies gain global settlement and micropayment capabilities without relying on traditional card organizations and closed billing systems.

In terms of analogy and industry positioning, this pathway can be compared to the previous model of "internet content settled with ads, cloud computing settled with credit cards": previously, AI calls were often completed through cloud billing and corporate contracts, while Solana attempts to break these calls into on-chain micropayments and agency transactions, upgrading the network's position in the AI industry chain from "an optional crypto platform" to "a settlement and state layer for open agency and inference markets"; this positioning differs from other public chains that focus on "AI tokens" and is closer to a long-term role of "providing infrastructure for AI."

In terms of structural judgment, this push for "AI using crypto" essentially belongs to "technological substitution + capital concentration + transfer of pricing power": technologically, replacing traditional closed billing systems with on-chain payments and states, making AI call records and settlements public and composable; in terms of capital, computing power and data rents are concentrated in a few high-performance public chains and their ecosystem projects, reinforcing the infrastructure value of these networks in the AI era; pricing power gradually shifts from credit card networks and cloud billing systems to protocols and communities that control on-chain transaction rules and token economies, with AI companies needing to accept a new cost curve formed by "on-chain transaction fees and token volatility" in addition to "cloud billing prices."

ABAB News · Cognitive Laws

When AI starts using on-chain settlement, cloud billing is no longer the only price tag for computing power.
Once model calls become transactions, who writes the protocol determines who controls the pricing power of the inference economy.
When algorithms use crypto payments, what is truly redesigned is not the wallet, but the entire AI value chain.