Article author: Marvin Tong Article compilation: Block unicorn

Why do most ICOs and Launchpads fail?

The ICO boom of 2017-2018 was a pivotal moment in the history of blockchain - one filled with innovation, but also one of greed, failure and uncertainty. A moment of blind trust in human nature. The root cause is human greed and malice, manifesting itself in scams and unsustainable promises.

The Greed Factor:

Speculation: This era relies on the promise of exponential returns, And with little regard to fundamentals. Investors chase quick gains, and project creators fuel this frenzy by designing token economics for early cash-out rather than focusing on long-term development.

Exaggerated promises: Projects claim to have revolutionary potential but rarely deliver. The team lacked the skills or incentives to support its ambitious vision, resulting in investors ultimately getting nothing.

Malicious:

Fraudulent scheme: by Ruja Ignatova Take the case of OneCoin, led by a doctor. The company defrauded billions of dollars by selling false visions. The funds disappeared without a trace, and she herself quickly disappeared.

Ponzi scheme: Bitconnect claims to offer huge returns through a purported trading algorithm. When the scam collapsed, investors lost $2.4 billion and its founder disappeared.

These failures are not only the result of weak models, but also the manifestation of human weaknesses: greed, short-sightedness and dishonesty. So what is the antidote? A system that is immune to human error.

Meme Coin’s “CTO”: A Stopgap Solution

Solana’s Meme Coin Entered the stage of Community Takeover (CTO), a grassroots movement designed to allow the Meme coin community to take back abandoned or exploited projects. Although this model is full of hopeDesire, but it’s passive—a symptom of a deeper problem.

Advantages of CTO

Community leadership: community members take over the project, in Discord and Telegram drive engagement and develop roadmaps on platforms such as

Risk Mitigation: Concerns about insider trading diminish as developers exit. Retail investors often view CTO-tagged projects as safer bets.

Market signals: Investors measure activity levels, morale and transparency to determine whether these projects have real long-term viability.

While CTOs are an evolution, they do not solve the systemic trust gap in cryptocurrencies. To solve this problem, we must think beyond our human limitations and think bigger.

Why I don’t trust humans: Let AI take over everything

History of human-led projects, Especially in the crypto space, it’s a history of predictable failures. Greed, unpredictability and ethical fragility continue to erode trust, derail projects and expose investors to betrayal. It’s not just a few bad people – it’s human nature that makes them unfit for leadership roles in environments that demand absolute integrity.

Human greed is innate. No matter how noble the intentions, personal interests often take precedence over collective interests. We see it time and time again: ambitious promises followed by run-outs, mismanagement or outright fraud. The problem isn’t a lack of regulation or oversight—it’s that humans are inherently flawed decision-makers driven by emotion, ego, and opportunity.

But let’s think further: Why are humans still in control?

From ICO to aICO: AI is the founder we deserve

If the solution Not better humans, but no humans at all?

Inspired by @shawmakesmagic and @123skely, we introduce the concept of aICO (AI Initial Coin Offering): replacing human-led chaos with autonomous AI founders, relying on accountable programming to achieve trustlessness , KPI-driven execution model

Predictable intentions: Unlike humans, AI Operate with transparency and logic. Every decision is measurable and every action is traceable. There are no hidden motivations and no abrupt consequences, only clear and unambiguous results. ="text-align: left;">Greedy Proof: AI is not greedy. It does not panic sell or misappropriate funds for personal gain. Instead, it follows a predetermined strategy and delivers. Results.

Efficient Executors: Human founders are often the bottleneck, delaying decisions, introducing mistakes, or wasting money. AI founders are ruthless executors, able to manage capital, strategy, and operations with supercomputer precision.< /p>

The days of initial coin offerings (ICOs) and launchpads are over. The future belongs to aICO (AI Initial Coin Offering), powered by autonomous AI Agents replace human founders, creating a new paradigm of trust, efficiency, and governance

AI as a fundraiser: Traditional fundraising relies on entities, Foundations or charismatic founders, however, are inherently flawed structures—prone to greed, mismanagement, and fraud. In contrast, AI founders are programmable, predictable, and uncorruptible. They operate in a transparent manner, driven by measurable KPIs Driven by human emotions or hidden motivations

AI as Executor: Unlike human-led projects that often deviate from their vision, AI agents can be precise. Execute raised funds so that every decision is aligned with the project's mission. They can autonomously manage funding, operations, and development milestones without delays, bias, or selfish agendas.

Raising money without humans: aICO Completely eliminating the need for human intermediaries, AI agents equipped with a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) can handle fundraising activities, allocate resources, and execute.Implement strategy. Investors trust the system, not the storyteller.

We trust AI, but how to prove that it cannot be manipulated?

Doubt is normal. After all, who can be sure that the AI ​​founders are the real people in power and not puppets hiding human agendas? This is where TEE plays an important role.

Take DoNotPay as an example. The company claims to provide lawyer services generated by AI to provide faster and more affordable legal support. However, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently took action against it, accusing it of making false claims and failing to deliver on its AI promises. What was supposed to be a case for revolutionary AI-powered legal assistants turned out to be smoke and mirrors, undermining trust in AI solutions and exposing the risks of unverifiable claims.

Building an independent ICO with @ai16zdao Eliza

By leveraging ai16z (Eliza), you can build an autonomous ICO (aICO) program with transparency, efficiency, and trust. Using Eliza’s multi-agent framework, you can configure AI agents to manage token issuance, fund distribution, and autonomously interact with your community. By integrating the TEE plugin, every action from token distribution to governance voting is cryptographically protected and verifiable. This ensures your aICO is completely trustless, community-driven, and immune to human error or intervention.

First define your token economics and governance rules in Eliza's modular system, then enforce these rules on-chain, making your aICO fully transparent and auditable.

TEE allows AI to become a verifiable founder. By combining cryptographic security with hardware isolation, Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) ensure that every decision made, every policy executed, and every dollar spent was the work of verifiable AI. It’s no longer about trust, it’s about the ability to prove it.

Transparent motivations: The motivations of TEE-protected AI founders are visible and immutable. Its "why" is as clear as its "how".

Auditable planning: AI’s policies are not only accessible, they are locked in the TEE, making them tamper-proof and traceable.

Immutable execution: Whether it is fund distribution, token exchange or smart contract deployment, AI operations are cryptographically signed and verifiable - No manual intervention, no guesswork.

Imagine an investment fund managed by an AI agent. Every dollar moved is based on logic and preset rules, determined by AI rather than the whim of developers. With TEE, you no longer need to take someone else’s word for it – you can cryptographically verify everything in real time.

Monitor AI decisions: TEE provides real-time verified insights into AI motivations, plans, and actions, creating a transparent system that investors can monitor with confidence.

Verified integrity: With TEE, every action taken by the AI ​​is cryptographically protected. Investors and stakeholders can verify the integrity of the agent without blind trust.

Community governance, escorted by TEE: TEE ensures that AI operates within preset rules, but the real core power lies in the community Governance. The behavior of AI strictly follows the codes and rules encoded on the blockchain, and is secured by TEE. This means that the community (rather than a single entity) defines the boundaries and goals of AI, creating a trustless system where governance occurs on-chain.

By integrating TEE, AI is not only autonomous, but also accountable.

Technical Implementation:

TEE_HE_HE: This innovative system is deployed in Intel TDX TEE hardware Autonomous AI agents. It includes features such as autonomous account management secured by TEE and remote authentication for transparency.

ai16z + TEE: Phala Network integrates Eliza and Dstack SDKFor the ai16z+TEE plug-in, TEE functionality is introduced for the Eliza agent to ensure the security, autonomy, and accountability of AI deployment.

The way forward: TEE-empowered AI founders

From human-led to The transformation of AI-led fundraising and operations is more than an innovation, it’s a revolution. It redefines the fundamental rules of the financial world while also posing profound governance and compliance challenges:

Governance Compliance: How does the existing regulatory framework Adapt to an autonomous entity raising capital and operating the business? Will you accept or resist this shift?

Investor Protection: How do we ensure investor protection in a system where AI does not require human oversight?

Philosophical challenge: Can society really trust machines more than humans? Are we ready for a world where algorithms replace dreamers?

Based on TEE, aICO is not just an idea, but also a verifiable Reality: AI-powered startups are redefining how capital is raised and deployed through trustless infrastructure. Investors will no longer rely on human promises, but on cryptographically verified execution guarantees.

The message is clear: AI is not only the future, but also the solution to the failures of the past. Let’s build it together – with ai16z, TEE and Phala!