AI agents are already garnering attention. Platforms such as Meta and Coinbase are establishing foundations which people can build agents. This is going to become commonplace over the next 12 months.
There is a lot of speculation of how things will look. My thesis is we are going to see the death of the website. These will eventually be replaced with agents. Websites are for people, not computers.
The natural outcome is the way business is conducted will be forever altered. With the explosion in data, we will see the Internet become more personalized. Agents will serve individuals and companies through the continual feeding of data. This will allow for customization and personalization to degrees we never saw before.
With this change, like any other, where does value come from? How is it captured and distributed? My thought is tokenization will be the norm. As we sift through the different layers, we can see how this could emerge.
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Cryptocurrency and the Agentic Age
There are 4 layers that we can focus upon when it comes to AI agents. As noted, some companies are already working on different aspects to this.
They are:
- interface
- identity
- settlement
- stablecoin issuer
For interface, we can think of this as a platform. It will be a lot more than simply an application that provides the features of a website. This generation of interface applications will be able to integrate with a host of devices along with LLMs and FinTech.
Identity is crucial to separate the humans from the bots. This is already a problem and something that has to be solved.
Settlement is blockchain, which is self explanatory.
Finally, stablecoins will be the payment system that agents utilize. This is where liquidity and network effects enters. Those which are able to provide access to the units required, i.e. enough tokens, will see network effects kick off. This will attract developers who are building agents, providing a circular system for those stablecoin issuers.
Each of these provides an opportunity for value capture.
Tokenization Throughout the Internet
The major dispute right now appears to be Web 2.0 versus 3.0. As we dive into these layers, we can see how Web 2.0 fades away. It is only relevant, perhaps, at the interface layers.
As we know settlement on blockchain automatically places us in Web 3.0. So does the ability to use a stablecoin. Agents are digital, hence have no relevance to geography. This mean, for the most part, they will operate without the focus on location.
Identity will have to be universal. This is a problem with Web 2.0 since that is a siloed system. Google is not going to talk to X or vice versa. Meta has no interest in adopting Amazon log in. As for the database, they certainly are not sharing them.
Hence, for a truly personalized system to result, identity has to be tied to information across the entire spectrum of activity. Having separate identities for each interface does not achieve this end.
This means security (along with privacy) require addressing. We presently are without a solution. The one thing we can state is the fact that, as our digital lives grow in importance, the idea of control via many different technology companies is out. We simply cannot provide the ability for them to "murder" our digital twins in an instant.
Web 3.0 Applications
It is crucial to build platforms that start to address a multitude of issues. The goal is to create an epicenter where AI agents can come to life. We are no longer solely focused upon human users.
Consider the entire spectrum of online activity. Actually, simply look at the different forms of business that are conducted. This is going to be, ultimately, handled by AI agents. The question is where they are operating.
Those platforms that are designed in a manner to allow for this stand to benefit greatly. Actually, those who are holding the token will find their wealth growing exponentially. The key is to get the process started, focusing upon the components of AI along with the different layers mentioned.
These require a lot more than simply adding payments. The entire range of financial services must be available.
In the agentic age, an application needs to be a digital platform. This servers as the foundation for others to build upon.
Most cryptocurrency is actually a digital asset. Because of this, the majority are value capture tokens. In other words, they represent, based upon market activity, the value generated by that which it applies to. A coin such as ETH captures the value of the Ethereum network.
This is a model which will be built upon repeatedly. Of course, many of the agents can be tokenized, something that only adds to the opportunities within Web 3.0.