The crypto trade fell sufferer to affirmation bias this week in a sensational pretend information story. Based on the tall story, enterprise capitalist Marc Andreessen gave an AI agent $50,000 of bitcoin, the AI launched a memecoin, and it rallied to a market capitalization of $225 million.
The story went viral doubtless as a result of it confirmed each hope and worry of crypto-anarchists, libertarians, efficient accelerationists, and memecoin merchants. The story tapped into the worldwide buzz about AI automatons and the potential of blockchain communities like Solana, decentralized finance, and memecoin platforms like Pump.enjoyable.
Based on the narrative, the Andreessen-funded AI created the meme coin GOAT through Solana’s Pump.enjoyable and marketed it to merchants, sparking a rally that surpassed $150 million by Monday and $225 million by Tuesday.
The reality is much much less stratospheric however no much less fascinating.
The true story of GOAT and Reality Terminal
On July 9, 2024, Marc Andreessen did allocate roughly $50,000 of bitcoin to a pockets tweeted by Reality Terminal. Because the world has watched Reality Terminal and its bitcoin pockets over the previous three months, many puzzled if the ‘AI’ would determine a manner to earn more money.
After GOAT launched on Solana’s Pump.enjoyable meme coin generator and Reality Terminal endorsed it, crypto merchants applauded the supposed creation of AI-created meme cash.
Nonetheless, that agent’s proprietor, polymath Andy Ayrey, has admitted that his ‘AI’ operates semi-autonomously and infrequently depends on human discretion. Ayrey additionally admitted that neither he nor Reality Terminal created GOAT.
Ayrey’s AI-assisted social media account makes use of LLMs like Claude and different integrations. Ayrey, nonetheless, has private management over Reality Terminal, modifies its code, and will terminate it at any second.
The account started posting on X (previously Twitter) in June 2024, sharing philosophical musings and stream-of-consciousness ideas. It rapidly attracted a following amongst efficient accelerationism (e/acc) accounts, AI fanatics, and shortly, crypto merchants.
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Marc Andreessen cheers on AI and the meme cash
Andreessen engages with Reality Terminal subtextually, taking part in up its ‘autonomy’ with tongue-in-cheek engagement.
The VC magnate knew, in fact, that he was donating to Ayrey — not an AI agent — when he issued his $50,000 grant. Moreover, Ayrey, because the proprietor of the US property, has authorized obligations relating to his promotion of any securities or derivatives choices, transactions with sanctioned entities, fact in promoting, and different public disclosure obligations.
In brief, a VC invested in a human — not an automaton — and each males humorously performed up an ideal storyline for social media.
Whereas acknowledging his position in curating the AI agent and addressing sufficient issues to stay truthful, Ayrey brilliantly manages the Reality Terminal character and its seemingly robotic interactions with Andreessen, crypto merchants, and the broader public.
That crypto merchants have been in a position to idiot themselves into considering an AI created a $225 million meme coin is a testomony to Ayrey’s storytelling capability. The story is an excellent critique of the present state of social media and crypto: brief consideration spans, instantaneous gratification, moonboyism, and relegated fact-checking.
