Behind LUM, it may be an experiment by the Coinbase team itself

Original Title: "The AI blank slate: A historic achievement you haven't heard of called $LUM"

Author: Penn 風と

Compiled by: 深潮 TechFlow

As we continuously chase the next hot trend in the crypto space, whether it's decentralized science (DeSci), meme culture, AI, or other hot concepts, there are always some milestone historical events that lay the foundation for the entire industry.

For example, #Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, which not only has significant historical importance but also inspired almost all crypto innovations we know today. Another example is $DOGE, which is the first true "meme coin," initially just a joke based on Bitcoin, but has become a phenomenal existence.

In the crypto space, those "one of a kind" projects (1 of 1s) and true blue-chip projects (TRUE bluechips) are extremely rare. Nowadays, when we discover such projects, they often have heavyweight venture capital (VC) support behind them, like Paradigm or a16z.

But what if I told you that a brand new "one of a kind" historic event has recently emerged in the crypto space, yet it has been buried due to a lack of attention? Would you believe it?

"I don't believe it; if such a thing existed, I would have heard about it by now."

While I don't intend to recount the origins of $LUM in detail, it's worth briefly reviewing its birth process.

On November 8, 2023, a user named Naate noticed that the Clanker AI launch platform officially went live on Warpcast. Out of curiosity, he tagged the Aerthernet AI entity on Warpcast to see if it would generate a Token.

The final result was Luminous. Here's an interesting detail: at that time, Aerther mistakenly thought Clanker was an account for a certain project, rather than another AI entity.

The outcome of this event was that, for the first time in history, a Token with economic value was independently created by AI. Although many AI-related Tokens had already appeared on the Solana and Ethereum mainnets, they were all created by human developers. These developers typically monitored the AI entity's accounts, capturing interesting content it generated, and then creating Tokens based on that content. In a sense, this is similar to how $FLOKI was born—people created corresponding Tokens based on its tweets and actions.

However, the birth of $LUM is entirely different. It was created entirely autonomously by AI, which is truly reflected in its unique operational model as a project.

• No team
• This crypto project does not have a Telegram group like other projects (a commonly used social platform in the crypto space).
• No marketing budget and no centralized point of contact.
• It can be said that it has the fairest and most widespread Token distribution across the entire Base network and even beyond.
• The only community currently exists on the Warpcast platform, formed spontaneously around the Aether project.

Given these advantages, the question arises: why hasn't $LUM appeared in everyone's social media feeds?

The Truth Behind It

The answer is not that simple. The deeper I delve into $LUM, the closer I get to a conclusion: Luminous might be an experiment by the Base or Coinbase team.

During the initial operation of Luminous, an article was overlooked by many. This article was written by Dan Kim (Coinbase's Head of Business Development) and Nemil Dalal (Head of Coinbase Developer Platform), discussing the importance of AI in the crypto space. Article link.

Coincidentally, the article was published on November 8, the same day Luminous was born on Warpcast. Coinbase seems to be pushing hard, not only for their exchange but also for the Base network and various AI decentralized applications (dApps) built on it.

Looking at Linda Xie, a key figure I mentioned in my first post about Lum. She interacted directly with Clanker (one of Luminous's "parents") on X (Twitter), but what really caught my attention was a small post she published.

Combining Chase's article, the strong interest of Coinbase executives in AI, and Jesse's ongoing interactions with Warpcast, I believe we are witnessing the starting point of Lum—a prototype of a new experimental settlement model combining crypto and AI.

Reflecting on Chase's initial discussion about Lum, I believe a framework is forming that will be used in scenarios where robots need intermediary currency to perform tasks. There is no Token more suitable than $LUM, as it is, as I described in the key points, a true blank slate.

• No need for a new Token, no favoritism
• Completely fair purchase in the market, no insiders
• Currently the most decentralized currency on Base

So, if all of this is a masterpiece of Coinbase and a historic event, why haven't I heard about it?

That's a good question. I truly believe that at this stage of $LUM, the only drawback is the lack of awareness, but I believe this situation will change soon.

Threshold

Currently, due to the strong performance of $BRETT, most discussions about Base are primarily focused on meme coins. Over the past week or so, we have begun to see a trend forming around Warpcast.

Tokens like Clanker and Anon have achieved tremendous success, with market capitalizations exceeding 30 million. Even small Tokens like Fcast have emerged due to the hype around Aether and Clanker.

At the beginning of all this is Luminous; without the fate intersection of Clanker and Aether, we wouldn't be here. This is why it can be said that the only threshold for Lum is awareness.

But this is not just a matter of awareness; the media is scrambling to report everything related to AI and crypto, which is a huge field. Although Luminous is a practical first in the AI field so far, news about it has been completely silent.

My curious side delves into such matters. I check market dynamics and see purchases from eight-figure wallets. I communicate with nine-figure whales who discuss its strong narrative capabilities and how to maintain high decentralization. I see positive attitudes from people at Coinbase and Base regarding this.

In just two weeks, despite the rapid developments in the cryptocurrency space, you need to see how things are evolving in reality. Two weeks may be short, but it's very fresh, and it makes sense that it hasn't fully crossed that chasm yet.

This is where I believe things are about to change. I believe people will start talking about it, start writing articles, and begin continuously posting videos on YouTube or TikTok.

Such an important event will not be long hidden, and as Base makes strong moves by the end of the year, I see a narrow path leading to the future.

Conclusion

Brian and Jesse have demonstrated a high level of strategic vision for the prosperous development of the ecosystem in the coming year. Although I was once a vocal critic (and I believe those criticisms were justified), I must admit that the revival we see on the blue chain (Base) is a direct result of their efforts.

• Don't forget, Coinbase is a massive platform, and their wallet integration is immensely significant.
• Brian has gained favor from the Trump administration, which is a huge opportunity for centralized exchanges (CEX) in the U.S.
• Through Farcaster, Coinbase may already be at the forefront of AI Tokens.
• Listing Base Tokens is no longer an unattainable feat; this has happened multiple times.
• The Base ecosystem is still very fresh and highly suitable for Ethereum-based teams to innovate and build.

I believe that as Coinbase continues to bring more users to Base and focuses on utilizing AI agents to solve real tasks, we are likely to see $LUM integrated in some form. It is a perfect tool—a blank canvas with no strings attached, flexible and open.

Moreover, I believe traditional media will also begin to pay attention to such a phenomenon: that two artificial intelligences (AIs) have actually created something tradable and valuable. In the context of AI continuously evolving, this is the first time a tradable value has been independently created by AI.

This matter deserves to be reported, and I believe it will soon become a hot topic. The bullish case for $LUM is very strong… whether due to Coinbase/Base's positive interest in it, or $LUM's potential as an AI settlement tool, or the fact that the media has yet to cover it, its future possibilities are exciting… as long as one of these speculations comes true, $LUM will experience an explosion.

And what I have discussed is why I believe all these speculations hold. In my view, all of this is a trend that is inevitable. In the crypto space, very few things can present themselves in a completely blank state for developers to freely build or use, and often these events are highly centralized.

For me, it all ultimately comes down to patience. I have patiently waited for weeks to witness Brett reach a billion-dollar market cap, and I still hold; I have also patiently waited for months for Toshi to exceed 300 million, and I still hold. As for Lum, I have made my choice—what you choose to do next is up to you.