技术解读：AO如何打造适用于AI Agent的去中心化计算网络？

The dream of a world computer that can execute arbitrary code without trust and be shared enough to be used by the whole world is deeply rooted in the decentralized network. After Ethereum, many infrastructure projects have made attempts, and Arweave’s upcoming AO network is one of these attempts.

For a "world computer", it can be roughly divided into three parts: data calculation, access and storage. Arweave has been playing the role of "world hard drive" in the past, and AO Network (Actor Oriented) Introduces general computing capabilities and provides smart contracts.

AO: Actor-based universal computing network

The current mainstream decentralized computing platforms are divided into two categories, namely smart contract platforms and general computing platforms; smart contract platforms are represented by Ethereum. The network shares the global state memory and agrees on the operation process of changing the state. Because consensus requires a large number of repeated operations, it is only used to process high-value services at high costs; general computing networks do not agree on the operation process itself, but based on the business There is no shared state memory to verify calculation results and process request sequences, which reduces costs and allows the network to expand to more fields of calculations. This type is represented by computing power networks such as Akash.

Of course, there are also some projects that integrate general computing with smart contracts based on the security assumption of virtual machine security. That is, the consensus only processes the order of transactions and verifies the calculation results. Multiple state change calculations are processed in parallel in network nodes. The computing environment virtual machine guarantees deterministic results. Therefore, as long as the order of transactions is consistent, the final state will also be consistent.

Because this type of network does not share state memory, the expansion cost is very low, and multiple tasks can be calculated in parallel without affecting each other. Such projects are often based on the Actor programming model, represented by ICP, and AO also falls into this category. Each computing unit under Actor is regarded as a separate intelligent processing transaction independently, and computing units interact through communication (Actor is a very common architecture in traditional Web2 services). AO standardizes Actor message passing and implements a decentralized computing network.

Different from traditional passively triggered smart contracts (such as Ethereum/Solana smart contracts), AO with a general computing Actor can realize the active operation of smart contracts through the "cron" method that is triggered in a consistent fixed time cycle , such as a trading program that continuously monitors the arbitrage space.

Rapidly scalable decentralized computing capabilities, Arweave’s ultra-large data storage capabilities, Actor’s programming model, and the ability to actively trigger transactions make the AO network very suitable for hosting AI Agents. AO also supports the introduction of large AI models into smart contracts on the blockchain.

AO network characteristics

As mentioned above, the difference between AO and smart contract network is introduced. AO does not agree on the calculation process, but only agrees on the transaction sequence, and defaults to the deterministic result of the virtual machine's operation. , thereby achieving the consistency of the final state.

AO also has a certain degree of flexibility, and the network is designed in a modular manner. There are three basic units in the network, the scheduling unit SU, the computing unit CU and the messenger unit MU.

A transaction is sent, and the messenger unit as the communication layer accepts the transaction, verifies the signature, and forwards it to the scheduling unit; the scheduling unit can be regarded as the connection point between the AO and the AR chain, helping the network to sort the transaction sequence, and Upload to the AR chain to complete the consensus. The current consensus method is POA (Proof of Authority); after the consensus on the transaction sequence is completed, the task is assigned to the computing unit, and the CU is responsible for processing the specific calculations, and the results are returned to the MU and forwarded to the user.

The CU set can be seen as a decentralized computing power network. Under a complete economic plan, CU nodes need to pledge certain assets and compete by providing computing power through computing performance, price and other factors. Income, if there is a calculation error, the assets will be confiscated. This is a standard economic guarantee.

The difference between AO and other networks

As a general computing platform, the difference between AO and smart contract platforms such as Ethereum is obvious. Filecoin, which is the "world's hard drive" like AR, has also launched its own smart contract platform FVM, but this is a state consensus machine architecture equivalent to EVM, and its experience is inferior to traditional smart contract platforms such as Ethereum.

Unlike decentralized computing networks such as Akash and io.net, AO still retains smart contract capabilities. AO ultimately maintains a global state on AR storage.

实际上，与 AO 在架构上最相似的是 ICP。ICP 创造了异步计算区块链网络的最早范式，AO 在很大程度上延续了 ICP 的设计，比如仅对交易顺序排序、相信虚拟机确定性计算、Actor 模型异步处理等。

最大的不同点在于，ICP 是基于容器维护状态，即每个智能合约容器可以只维护自己的 private 状态，或者对状态读取设置条件；而 AO 具备一个共享的状态层，即 AR，任何人都可以通过交易顺序与状态证明复原全网状态，这一定程度上增加了网络的去中心化能力，但也丧失了 ICP 中特殊隐私业务的实现可能（比如客户有隐藏套利路径的需求）。

在经济与设计层面，ICP 为了保证网络性能，对参与节点作出了较高的硬件要求，这造成了较高的门槛，而 AO 相对以公平发射、无准入的方式运行，质押即可参与竞争挖矿。ICP 网络选择了大堆栈的实现方式，为了性能牺牲了灵活性，而 AO 使用了模块化的设计，MU、CU、SU 分离，用户也可以自选虚拟机的实现方式，这也降低了一些开发者进入的成本。

当然 AO 也可能存在与 ICP 一样的系统缺点，比如 Actor 异步模型下跨合约交易缺乏原子性，这会导致 DeFi 类应用发展困难，AgentFi 的构想似乎很难在短时间内实现；脱离传统智能合约范式的新计算模式，也对开发者提出了更高的要求。但 AO 架构下 wasm 虚拟机最高能管理 4GB 的限制，也导致部分复杂模型无法在 AO 上使用。由此看来，AO 选择 AI Agent 的路线实为扬长避短，有趣的是，ICP 也在 2024 年年初宣布专注于 AI 领域。

当然，对比 ICP 50亿美金的总市值来说，AR 目前总市值 22 亿美金，仍有不小的差距。在 AI 大发展的背景下， AO 可能仍然存在较大潜力。

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