What Are We Actually Talking About When Discussing "Image-Currency Exchange / Wave-Particle Duality of Images and Currency"?
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What Are We Actually Talking About When Discussing "Image-Currency Exchange / Wave-Particle Duality of Images and Currency"?
Token swapping is by no means just a new way to solve NFT liquidity issues.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: 0xLeoDeng, Partner and Head of Investments at LK Venture
First, the conclusion: "Image-Token Swap" is by no means just a new gimmick to solve NFT liquidity—it represents a turbocharged, comprehensive revolution across the entire crypto industry, impacting asset classes, protocol standards, operations, infrastructure, and application ecosystems.
$Nuts on Solana surged from a low of $0.3 to a peak of $2.3 in just 9 days. Pandora_ERC404 on Ethereum jumped from $400 to $24,000 in only 6 days. Pumping generates attention. The explosive price rises of Pandora and Nuts have kept the "image-token swap" concept trending. Below is a brief analysis of $Nuts and $Pandora, with visuals for reference.
Here are my five predictions for the future of "image-token swap / image-token duality":
1. Image-Token Swap Creates a Dynamic, Self-Adjusting Hybrid Asset Class Combining NFTs and FTs
A hybrid asset standard combining non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and fungible tokens (FTs) will officially emerge as a new asset class, similar to BRC20 tokens built on ordinals. Many equate this with old narratives like NFT fractionalization and liquidity solutions, but that's shortsighted. The most fundamental innovation in crypto is the creation of new asset types—NFT/FT duality is precisely such an innovation.
How will future assets evolve to generate wealth effects and make new asset protocols desirable? Just as after Ordi came Sats and other follow-up projects.
What comes next after Nuts—Edamame, Sunflower Seeds, or Cashews? After Pandora—Prometheus, Sphinx?
2. Image-Token Swap Revives NFTFi 2.0
NFTFi was once widely considered a flawed concept. Drawing from modern monetary M1/M2 theory, image-token swap will focus on liquidity management to maintain value stability, avoiding overheating or freezing.
We may soon see: novel algorithmic stablecoins (dynamic supply adjustment, diversified pegging strategies), innovative market-making mechanisms (automated liquidity provision, cross-asset liquidity pools, tiered market intervention), and new financial services including lending, liquidity mining, and yield farming.
3. Image-Token Swap Becomes the Standard Launchpad for New Crypto Projects
For rapid market validation, new projects can leverage image-token swaps to gain immediate exposure and community feedback, accelerating product-market fit. By designing incentives like early participation rewards and trading competitions, projects can encourage user engagement, thereby boosting liquidity and expanding their user base. Additionally, providing intuitive image-token swap interfaces lowers the barrier to entry for new users into crypto trading and investment.
4. Expansion of Infrastructure Layer for Image-Token Swap
With new assets and standards come urgent demands for enhanced infrastructure. Supporting high-volume image-token swap transactions requires high-throughput, low-latency networks, robust smart contracts, and interoperability solutions.
For example, developing cross-chain compatible image-token swap mechanisms could build a broad ecosystem enabling seamless asset exchange across blockchains, driving consolidation across the crypto space.
Could platforms like OpenSea and Blur be disrupted? Will Uniswap launch V4 with new pool designs? In my view, embracing Tiny SPL and ERC404 isn't just good news for Nuts and Pandora—it’s fundamentally beneficial for exchanges and trading platforms themselves.
5. Explosion of Use Cases and Business Models Around Image-Token Swap
This is the most important point. On the NFT market, the shift from PFPs to utility-based entitlements is inevitable. If we keep minting images endlessly, we lose the meaning of "non-fungible." NFTs must create value—not merely solve liquidity, but transcend it. "Image-token swap" is not the end goal, but a new tool and method. Only by quickly identifying real-world applications and viable business models can we sustain a larger narrative around image-token swap.
GameFi, RWA, DePIN—all are promising directions for image-token swap applications (to be discussed in future posts). While image-token swap leverages existing technologies, true breakthroughs often come from business model and use case innovation. Like how iPhone’s touchscreen—a pre-existing technology—became revolutionary through apps like Angry Birds, ultimately transforming human-computer interaction and mobile internet.
PS: A friend asked me today which I prefer between Pandora and Nuts, ERC404 vs. Tiny SPL. I’m bullish on both. But if I had to pick one, I lean slightly toward $Nuts and Tiny SPL. Here’s why:
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--Solana NFTs: In December 2023, Solana’s monthly NFT sales ($360 million) surpassed Ethereum’s for the first time, with nearly twice the number of active traders and ten times the transaction volume.
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--Solana DEXs: On February 2, 2024, Solana’s DEX trading volume reached ~$1.149 billion, exceeding Ethereum’s for two consecutive days. Jupiter, Solana’s DeFi aggregator, even briefly surpassed the combined trading volume of Uniswap V2 and V3.
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--Ethereum gas fees: An oft-cited issue, but particularly problematic for Pandora, which requires frequent NFT minting and burning. As transaction volume and frequency grow, this could become increasingly burdensome. Rumor has it that blue-chip NFT project Degods, having recently migrated to ETH, is now planning to return to Solana.
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--Tiny SPL offers broader utility than ERC404: Beyond image-token swap functionality, Tiny SPL enables secure, zero-cost mass airdrops, eliminates Solana token storage fees, and supports more flexible composability and splitting mechanics. Everything ERC404 has, Tiny SPL has—and more.
In short, no protocol or product is perfect—but the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses. I'm highly optimistic about $Nuts and the Tiny SPL protocol,
and I look forward to Pandora_ERC404 delivering even more breakout, mainstream moments.
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