Blockchain ecosystems are walled gardens. Ethereum contracts can't talk to Solana. Solana can't read Avalanche etc. This forces devs to pick a chain. I've met a lot of devs and they're rarely as 'tribal' as bag holders. They want to be multi-chain. But this requires:

- Multiple deployments (one per chain) - Bridge protocols (hacks waiting to happen) - Different security models - Fragmented liquidity - Compatibility nightmares

Devs are better off building deep than wide. Build more features for your current users, than expand to more segments. Plus, crypto history is littered with the bodies of those who tried to go wide - mostly due to inherent failure of bridging ($2B+ stolen in 2022-2023).

AO actually does solve this. It operates above the chain layer. One smart contract, that can send prompts to any chain! No bridges needed. No redeployments. No fragmented liquidity. AO is not a blockchain. It's a computation layer. So what does this mean for devs?

Build once. Deploy everywhere. But it solves so much more than just the multi-chain problem. By separating computation from consensus users pay for security (cheap) and storage (one-time), with computation running at near-zero marginal cost. This unlocks many new use cases such as running AI models on-chain, complex scientific calculations and real on-chain gaming. Right now it's basically a testnet. But it's interesting tech worth watching imo.

Disclaimer: Persistence Capital holds AO tokens in its portfolio. DYOR. NFA. Investing in cryptocurrency is risky.