The Age of the Hypercorn
Long, long ago in ancient India, there lived a wise man—or so the apocryphal tale of chess begins. As recognition for his ingenuity in creating this captivating game, the king, feeling generous, offered him any reward he desired. The wise man considered briefly and humbly asked for but a single grain of rice on the first square of the chessboard, two grains on the second, four on the third, and so on and so on, doubling each time until the final, 64th square. The king, amused by the seemingly modest request, readily agreed.
One can vividly imagine at precisely which square the king's amused smile began to falter, replaced by an unsettling realization. Perhaps around square 16 or 17, when single grains swiftly turned into bags, one bag doubled into two, then into four, then eight—his confident grin giving way to a dawning apprehension that he'd gravely miscalculated.
Yet, even then, he couldn't have comprehended the sheer scale awaiting at square 64: a staggering debt exceeding 9 quintillion grains of rice, equivalent to about 400 years of today's global rice production. As a child, this story was how exponential growth was introduced to me. It described a force quietly accumulating beneath the surface until it erupts spectacularly into view. Also, it is the function which best describes the dynamics underpinning everything from compound interest and viral contagion to the rapid dissemination of groundbreaking ideas. Quite importantly, it describes human technological progress as one technology builds upon another compounding its gains.
At Firinne Capital, as investors and forward-thinkers, predicting and harnessing these exponential waves is our life's passion. Since our founding three years ago, we've recognized that we stand poised at precisely such a moment, witnessing the convergence of two groundbreaking technological revolutions: blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). Currently subtle, this exponential wave isn't yet clear to all—but it soon will be.
Blockchain technology is breaking into the mainstream, particularly through watershed legislative moments like the landmark stablecoin bills making their way through the US Congress. This marks the initial, albeit imperfect, acceptance by policymakers that self-sovereign digital assets are integral to the financial landscape, counteracting some of the more dystopian possibilities presented by central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which threaten to tighten governmental control over individual autonomy.
Simultaneously, AI's impact is rapidly becoming undeniable. Casual users, positioned metaphorically at square 14, where they have enough rice to fill a cup, notice slightly improved Google searches or unusually intuitive digital assistants, are now sensing something intriguing stirring beneath the surface. More active users at square 15, with full bags of rice, are regularly harnessing ChatGPT, grasping the enormous potential. At Firinne, we are already heavily leveraging AI for research and infrastructure, giving us a unique vantage point far down the chessboard. From here, the elephants burdened with rice bags stretch in an endless parade toward the horizon. It is clear to builders in the space that AI is now poised to fundamentally redefine work, society, and everyday life.
Remarkably, these two technologies - blockchain and AI, though seemingly distinct, powerfully complement each other. AI inherently centralizes, shifting power toward capital-intensive corporations capable of training ever more sophisticated models. Blockchain, conversely, decentralizes, empowering individuals, through immutable mathematical protections, from corporate or governmental overreach. Moreover, future transactions will predominantly be machine-to-machine, driven autonomously by AI agents selecting blockchain-based stablecoins as the most efficient transactional rails.
As our existence moves further into digital realms, blockchain will become indispensable—the only reliable mechanism to prove ownership, authenticity, or trustworthiness in a world where AI can effortlessly fabricate lifelike visuals, texts, and even voices.
Reflecting on these recent turbulent years, we've seen the crypto landscape swing dramatically from premature euphoria in 2021 to a near-catastrophic collapse in 2022-23. The implosion of high-profile failures, notably FTX, cast dark clouds and brought fierce opposition from establishment figures in the US pushing aggressively behind the scenes to debank the industry. Yet, through this storm, committed visionaries quietly persisted, unwavering in their belief in blockchain’s inevitable rise. Today, with the arrival of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, strategic involvement by giants like BlackRock, and critical legislative moves like the stablecoin bills, new growth is clearly sprouting from the ashes.
As we hit our three-year track record milestone and enter the fourth, we extend deep gratitude to our investors for their enduring trust and support. Firinne Capital is perfectly positioned to ride and shape the impending exponential waves at the convergence of blockchain and AI. Looking ahead, we leave you with some bold predictions:
Within five years, we'll witness the emergence of lone founder billion-dollar startups staffed entirely by AI agents—a new generation of unicorns, a “uni – unicorn” or let’s call them "Hypercorns."
An AI intelligence will achieve the remarkable feat of solving one of the Millennium Problems, famously challenging and important mathematical enigmas unsolved for over a century.
Blockchains will underpin the majority of machine‑to‑machine commerce, as autonomous agents default to cryptographically verifiable, politically neutral settlement rails.
The story of chess, from a purely human perspective wrapped up in 1997 when Garry Kasparov, humanity’s last great champion, succumbed to Deep Blue, heralding the "centaur" era—mythical beings fusing human intuition and machine intelligence. For a decade, these hybrids ruled supreme, until eventually, the human role diminished into irrelevance.
Today, we've just entered another centaur era—AI-enhanced productivity. The centaurs are already everywhere…. often hiding in plain sight. But the board is still unfolding. The grains are still doubling. And the 64th square, wherever it lies, will belong not to those who tried to predict it, but to those who remembered how compounding works, and who placed their grain early.
We’re honored to walk the board with you.
Firinne Capital