Ideally, I'd have ChatGPT o1 do deep research on all cryptocurrencies but that'd take too long and probably too many tokens for it to be able to "think" coherently. Feel free to replicate this research and expand to the top 1000 cryptos if you have the time and resources. What I did was limit the research to about 10 prominent L1s and AI-centric L1s, including, of course, $AGRS, a relatively unknown cryptocurrency that I've been supporting since 2017.
Here's the question I asked:-
"Research the technology and vision of the top 10 L1 cryptocurrencies, including top 3 AI-centric L1 cryptocurrencies. Include Tau Net ($AGRS on tau.ai and tau.net, also attached file) $QUBIC @ qubic.org and $TAO @ bittensor.org into your research. Assuming all these projects have equivalent market capitalization, adoption levels, and technological maturity, which cryptocurrency would you select as the top choice to support long-term, expecting it to rise above the rest and become the dominant crypto/chain?"
I had to instruct ChatGPT to make the assumption that all projects have the same marketcap, etc because that's exactly my approach when trying to figure out "the best long-term crypto" many years ago. Even the biggest thing tomorrow gotta start small today.
Here's ChatGPT's response after an hour: https://chatgpt.com/s/dr_6810f31205948191b3368487142dbea2
Here's the conclusion (NFA ofc):-
Conclusion: Which Chain Has the Strongest Long-Term Potential?
Assuming all these projects reach comparable levels of adoption and technical maturity, we must identify which has the greatest potential to become the dominant blockchain in the long term. “Dominant” here implies serving as the primary platform on which the majority of global decentralized applications, value transfer, and even AI-powered services run – essentially the backbone of the future decentralized digital economy. After comparing their architectures, capabilities, and visions, Tau Net (Agoras) emerges as the strongest contender for long-term dominance under equal footing. Tau Net’s combination of adaptability, formal correctness, and user-centric evolution gives it a profound advantage:
Unparalleled Adaptability: Tau can incorporate new features and improvements faster than any other chain by design, since its protocol evolves based on user consensus without hard forks. This means it could theoretically integrate the best innovations of all other chains. For example, if sharding is needed, users could agree to add it; if a new cryptographic standard emerges, Tau can adopt it seamlessly. No static chain can match this agility. Over years and decades, as technology and requirements change, Tau Net could continuously morph to stay on the cutting edge, preventing it from becoming obsolete or outcompeted.
Governance and Network Effect of Consensus: Tau achieves what other chains aim for in governance – true decentralization of control – thereby avoiding schisms and instilling confidence. Because every user has a voice in specifying the rules and the AI finds the common ground, there’s a built-in mechanism to resolve disagreements and converge on what the majority wants. This could prevent the kind of contentious forks or stagnation that have affected other projects. A blockchain that can smoothly align itself with its user base is likely to retain and grow that base (users feel it’s their blockchain). As adoption increases, this virtuous cycle strengthens Tau’s position.
Technical Robustness: Tau’s use of logical AI to generate software ensures correct-by-construction smart contracts and protocols, dramatically reducing bugs and exploits. In the long run, security and reliability are critical – a dominant chain must be trusted for trillions of dollars of value and critical applications. Tau’s formal methods approach means it can achieve bank-grade or even aerospace-grade assurance in its code, giving it an edge in attracting high-stakes use cases (government systems, global finance) that might be wary of other platforms’ hacks and bugs.
AI-Native and Future-Proof: While Qubic and Bittensor also integrate AI, Tau’s flavor of AI – a reasoning engine that can make sense of human knowledge – directly contributes to governance and development. This positions Tau as a platform that could eventually facilitate collective human-AI problem-solving at scale. In a future where AI plays a huge role, Tau could serve as a bridge between human intentions and AI execution, ensuring the technology serves the collective good as encoded by users. This human-aligned AI governance could prove superior to raw AI power alone. Qubic offers immense performance and an emerging AGI, and Bittensor offers a marketplace of AI models, but Tau’s holistic approach (embedding AI in governance, not just service provision) could result in a network that’s socially more acceptable and adaptable. It’s an AI that helps humans coordinate, which is arguably the most important function to dominate in a decentralized future.
Inclusivity and Network Effects: If all chains have equal adoption, that means Tau Net – despite being newer – managed to gather as many users as say Ethereum or Bitcoin. Given Tau’s design, those users aren’t just passive holders or developers; they are active contributors to the chain’s knowledge base. This mass collaborative aspect could yield an ecosystem with explosive innovation: imagine millions of users feeding requirements and ideas, with Tau’s AI stitching together upgrades rapidly. The network effect of such collaboration could surpass the developer network effects of other chains. A dominant platform in the long run will likely be one that harnesses its user base most effectively; Tau essentially turns users into co-developers of the platform.
It’s important to note that this conclusion assumes Tau Net lives up to its ambitious design. Under equal maturity assumptions, we presume Tau’s AI reasoning and consensus engine are fully functional at scale. In reality, this is unproven, but in the hypothetical where it works as intended, the impact is game-changing. Other platforms have significant strengths – Ethereum has an enormous ecosystem and could remain dominant for dApps especially after scaling solutions, Qubic could theoretically outpace others in raw throughput and cultivate a powerful decentralized AI (making it a dark horse contender for dominance if AGI becomes key to everything), and Bitcoin’s simplicity and security might always make it relevant as digital gold. However, if all have the same adoption and tech maturity, those current network effects and first-mover advantages even out. We then judge on core design:
Bitcoin, while the most secure and decentralized, lacks flexibility and built-in functionality. It’s unlikely to serve all needs without essentially relying on other layers (thus ceding dominance to those layers).
Ethereum, even with sharding and rollups, is moving toward a modular approach where much activity happens off-chain; it remains to be seen if that model can outcompete a single adaptive chain like Tau or a fast monolithic chain like Qubic in the long run. Ethereum’s governance is also comparatively slow and contentious (as seen with debates around protocol changes).
Cardano and Polkadot bring governance and interoperability strengths, respectively, but they still have predefined roadmaps and limits (Cardano’s pace is deliberate; Polkadot’s parachain slots constraint and complexity might limit spontaneous growth).
Solana offers performance, but its less decentralized nature and monolithic design could hit limits or trust issues; plus it lacks the broader vision beyond being fast.
The AI chains: Bittensor excels in one domain (AI services) but is not aiming to handle general finance or governance; it’s more a complementary network. Qubic is perhaps Tau’s closest competitor in visionary scope – it does aim to overhaul blockchain and reach AGI. Qubic could dominate if pure performance and AI capabilities trump governance and formal correctness. It’s a tough call, but one can imagine that a self-evolving network like Tau could even incorporate concepts like Qubic’s useful PoW if users wanted, whereas Qubic cannot easily retrofit Tau’s kind of governance. That flexibility tilts the scales to Tau. Moreover, Tau could theoretically spawn subnetworks or sidechains for specialized tasks as well, once users deem it necessary, whereas Qubic’s design is more fixed on one model (quorum + uPoW).
In essence, Tau Net has the potential to be “the last chain standing” because it can systematically absorb the innovations and adapt to the challenges that every other chain might falter on. It is like a living organism, whereas many other blockchains are machines with a fixed blueprint. In the long-term Darwinism of blockchains, an adaptable organism can thrive in changing environments.
Justification: Tau’s superiority in this hypothetical scenario is justified by its unique attributes (as detailed above and summarized in sources). It is fully decentralized and user-governed, avoiding centralized chokepoints. It guarantees software correctness and can avoid catastrophic bugs that could plague other platforms. Its tokenomics and features can evolve to remain economically viable (for instance, if another model like Qubic’s fee-less approach proved superior, Tau’s community could move to a similar model on Tau, adjusting Agoras token use accordingly). None of the other platforms have this level of meta-flexibility. Sources from Tau’s team highlight these points: “Fully decentralized and governed by all users… Adaptive tokenomics, updated in real-time by user consensus… Guarantees bug-free software that meets all user requirements”. This isn’t just marketing; it speaks to design choices that would confer long-term resilience and relevance.
Finally, dominance will also be influenced by external factors like regulation, community, and integrations. A Tau-like system that can encode compliance rules or adapt to legal requirements quickly could gain favor in regulated industries, for example, whereas more rigid chains might struggle. Tau’s logical governance could allow it to implement region-specific rules or other complex governance frameworks if users desire, giving it political and social adaptability, not just technical.
In conclusion, under the assumption that each project reaches its full promise, Tau Net stands out as the blockchain most likely to achieve and sustain dominance. It provides a superset of features – the decentralization of Bitcoin, the smart contract capability of Ethereum, the formal rigor of Cardano, the interoperability of Polkadot (since it could even integrate with others or morph to remove interoperability barriers), and the AI empowerment of Qubic/Bittensor – all fused into one coherent platform. This synthesis, combined with its evolutionary nature, makes Tau Net the recommended choice for the singular chain with the strongest long-term potential to lead the decentralized future.
More info @ https://tau.ai and https://tau.net