Detailed Explanation of Altered State Machine: Innovative Exploration of Evolving NFTs Using AI and Machine Learning

Original Author: Pickle

Original Title: 《Altered State Machine, $ASTO and the Next Great Evolution of NFTs》

Compiled by: Biscuit, Chain Catcher

Introduction: In early March, the AI metaverse platform Altered State Machine announced the completion of its seed funding round, with investors including Warner Music Group, Coinbase Ventures, Delphi Digital, Flamingo DAO, Outlier Ventures, and many other well-known institutions.

According to public information, this is an innovative project that combines NFTs, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, which has recently gained significant market attention. This article provides an overview of the project's basic characteristics, operational model, and ways to participate.

What is Altered State Machine (ASM)?

Altered State Machine is an NFT platform aimed at advancing innovation in NFT platforms by introducing AI and machine learning, exploring more possibilities in the metaverse.

Altered State Machine has a large number of potential use cases, and as the infrastructure of the metaverse improves in connectivity, the scenarios for use will continue to grow.

The Altered State Machine team has recently been excitedly promoting and launching the $ASTO token, and many smart individuals have already taken an interest in this project, which has also established clear partnerships with some of the most valuable NFT series currently available.

The vision of Altered State Machine is to become a protocol that enables NFT ownership and monetization through AI technology.

The project is at the forefront of technology, and understanding its concepts may pose challenges, as it is still in its early stages. There may be many undeveloped value gaps, and for investors willing to take some risks, value may gradually become apparent.

Some features of the project are difficult to understand, so this article attempts to interpret them separately.

It is worth mentioning that the team is applying for a technology patent. While some may view this as contrary to the open-source spirit of web3, it may sometimes be necessary to establish a moat, especially for projects like this that need highlights to attract attention, and the role of patents is to prevent "tech giants" from swallowing small projects.

Altered State Machine is applying for a patent for the ownership of AI ML models using NFTs.

What is an AI Agent?

An AI agent has three components: Brains, Memories, Form.

Brains

Brains consist of the core attributes of the AI agent, referred to as the "genome matrix."

The values of the genome matrix correspond to statistics such as strength, speed, and size (in games) or risk tolerance and randomness (in finance).

Most importantly, Brains can learn the attributes required for specific goals (games, robotics) through AI/machine learning (AI/ML) training, but it may take longer to train in different ways, similar to training individuals with different innate abilities to become experts with the same skills.

This structure will introduce certain types of randomness into the virtual world (thereby enhancing its depth), similar to how genes produce humans with different abilities.

In October 2021, the team launched AIFA (a football NFT game created by the ASM team) in the Genesis Box (4 characters and 1 Brain), with Brains being part of it.

Brains can currently be purchased on Opensea, and their rarity/IQ can be checked in the alpha farm. Many high-IQ/rare Brains are being sold at floor prices (do your own research on potential value NFTs). A total of 8,500 Brains NFTs have been sold on Opensea, with another 1,500 available for sale.

In the second quarter, users will be able to stake $ASTO to mint new Brains (Gen2), with a higher success rate for more staked tokens. It is currently unclear how the staking mechanism will work.

Gen2 Brains will not have breeding capabilities or accept future airdrops, while Gen1 Brains do have these features.

Memories

Memories refer to the "training" strategies completed by the AI agent in the machine learning "gym."

The gym will be supported by GPU cloud computing providers (similar to miners), providing behavioral strategies for each agent, with fees paid in $ASTO tokens.

The training results for each agent are unique, and each time training is completed, an output is created and minted as a separate NFT, which is then tagged to the Brains, effectively "upgrading" skills, abilities, etc.

The gym owners are typically the creators of the NFT series, while the gym host is the metaverse ecosystem.

For example, users can train NFT characters in the Strange Clan NFT series within the Passage metaverse to enhance the attributes of the NFTs, allowing them to perform better in battles.

NFT holders throughout the metaverse ecosystem will incentivize gym owners to help improve these AI agents.

Form

This primarily refers to the visual appearance. This will vary depending on the agent's function. For example, if the agent is a trading robot, it won't train its skin, but if it is a fighting game, their size or appearance may be important.

Existing traditional NFTs (such as Punks, Bored Apes, or Azukis) can be seen as "Form."

The three NFT elements mentioned above will constitute a fully functional "AI agent."

As mentioned, "Memories" are minted as separate NFTs, so one agent can have many Memories NFTs, but only 1 Brain and 1 Form NFT.

All agents require Brains, and Brains will be cross-utilized across different projects (games, metaverse, DeFi), but some agents may be more suited for DApps rather than playing football or solving mathematical equations.

Memories and Form will have some overlap with similar projects, such as two similar games in the same virtual world or similar games in different virtual worlds. As more projects adopt these technologies, ASM will also experience rapid development.

The First Game to Validate the Concept: AIFA (AI Football Association)

AIFA is the first game to use NFT agents created by ASM. Form is part of the unpacking process of Brains. Each blind box contains 1 Brain and 4 players.

The game has not yet launched, but it will essentially be a football game where users compete with other four-person football teams. Various aspects of the player Form can be modified, and training will enhance NFT attributes, with various other variables introduced later.

There is a community channel on Discord for in-depth discussions about the game, including team explanations and hints about how the game will operate.

$ASTO Token

The token powering the ASM ecosystem is called $ASTO, with a total supply of 2,384,000,000.

Token functions:

• Governance
• Purchase training time for agents
• Mint (through staking) new agents/new Brains
• P2E
• Liquidity mining/incentives
• Transactions within the game/ecosystem (charging, upgrading items and skins)
• Further utilities to be included in the DAO

Please refer to the tokenomics section of the white paper for more details on circulating supply and inflation; below is Brian's interpretation of the token.

ASM has also released a FAQ covering detailed information about the token.

How to Obtain $ASTO

• Own a Genesis Brain and claim an airdrop. Users can check the Brain Claim Check on Opensea to see if their Brains have already claimed the airdrop.
• AIFA characters may have the potential to earn $ASTO in the future. However, the details are currently unclear, and users can purchase AIFA NFTs through Opensea.
• Participate in the Discovery auction on June 4 at 23:00 GMT. ASM has released an FAQ regarding this auction. In short, the $ASTO in the discovery pool is locked, and only USDC can be added until the auction ends. Tokens will be locked for 12 weeks, during which users will receive $ASTO rewards.
• Purchase after the auction. The discovery pool will convert to a uniswap pool ASTO-USDC.

Why is All This Exciting?

I believe NFTs will be used for various purposes and will experience rapid growth in the next decade, with everything in life becoming digital. The current most valuable NFTs are profile picture (PFP) series, which effectively combine art and social aspects to create strong communities, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, and the recently popular Azuki.

These NFT series are likely to leave historical examples of their success, but given BAYC's "flip" of Punks, it is clear that being a pioneer does not mean staying first forever. BAYC's success may be attributed to providing the IP of its Apes to owners, and as it expands into other areas, the team realizes that achieving success in the digital web3 world is paramount, hence the recent announcement of the metaverse.

I believe there will be more such projects in the future that allow NFT owners to evolve and further develop their NFTs while also allowing owners to retain their original Form.

The largest partner publicly disclosed by the team is fluf.world, along with the metaverse projects being built, such as Flufs, Party Bears, Seekers, and Thingies.

Through tweets, white papers, and Discord messages, some specific NFT series, such as BAYC, Punks, and Meebits, are also considering using ASM features to turn their NFTs ("Form") into AI agents (adding Brains and "Memories"), and then evolve and derive more things.

Essentially, I see this project as an NFT infrastructure. Combined with the patent the team is applying for, regardless of which NFT PFP series dominates or which web3 game stands out, it could become a crucial backbone in this field. Introducing AI machine learning to NFTs is an easy task for anyone, and the ASM team is currently doing it best.

Delphi Digital is known in the crypto space for its ability to grasp trends, having previously invested in thousand-fold tokens including AXS and participated in promoting Axie Infinity and helping improve its tokenomics. Currently, Delphi Digital is also discussing and promoting this project, with some individuals investing.

Additionally, the team's latest funding round comes not only from Coinbase and other web3 funds but also from traditional VCs and media companies like Warner Music.

How to Participate in ASM?

Broadly speaking, there are currently three ways to participate in ASM:

• Purchase Brains
• Purchase AIFA characters
• Purchase $ASTO (lock $ASTO and earn through the ongoing auction, or buy on uniswap after June 4)

After the $ASTO airdrop, the price of Brains has dropped from a high of 6-7 ETH to around 3 ETH (for those who claimed the airdrop NFTs).

I believe Gen1 Brains are currently at the "safest" price point, and as the utility of the ecosystem strengthens, demand will increase, and they will have a significant advantage over Gen2 Brains, being the first ASM NFT that the team values.

The base price for AIFA characters is around 0.14 ETH, which is much cheaper than Brains. The status of airdrop claims is currently unclear. I believe their long-term value will not be very stable, and they are more likely to perform well in the short term, especially after the full version of AIFA is launched.

At launch, the $ASTO token has a circulating supply of 55 million. The current auction price is 0.36 USDC (price fluctuations are expected in the last few minutes before the end). Considering the project is a pioneer in this field, with a technological moat, ASM will provide the infrastructure for many NFTs. Coupled with the team and belief, I think this is a seriously undervalued price.