Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Unlocking the Potential of Crypto
The Rise of Agentic AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming one of the most significant paradigms in the new era of foundation models. By agentic, we refer to AI systems that can not only produce outputs but also execute actions in a given environment. Consider automation scenarios like responding to emails, interacting with a database, calling an API, or performing physical tasks in an embodied AI setting such as robotic tasks.
Unlike previous automation paradigms, agentic AI has the potential to enable agents to achieve semi- or full autonomy within their environments. We can envision a near future where tens of millions of semi-autonomous agents become integral to business and personal ecosystems. Crypto assets could serve as a fundamental representation of the world these AI agents interact with.
The Potential of Crypto
In other words, crypto holds the potential to become the currency of AI. But, while this notion is frequently promoted as a way to show the promise of crypto in powering a new intelligent economy, significant practical challenges lie ahead.
Many Demos, Few Products
To understand the potential of AI agents using crypto, it’s essential to assess the fragmented state of the current agent market. The promise of semi-autonomous agents has triggered an explosion of frameworks for building them, far surpassing market readiness. While most organizations recognize the potential of autonomous agents, they remain in the early stages of adoption. As a result, we see numerous agent demos but very few production-ready products.
This is significant because the intersection of crypto and autonomous agents relies heavily on the maturity of the latter market. In a world where millions of autonomous agents augment our business and personal tasks, crypto could enhance these capabilities. There are several hypotheses about this augmentation, ranging from coordination to monitoring. But the greatest opportunity lies in the financial domain.
Economic Layer of the Intelligent Internet
Payments have been central to the evolution of the internet. PayPal unlocked many early e-commerce workflows, and platforms like Stripe have fully catalyzed this transformation. If AI agents become the fabric of the intelligent internet, financial transactions will be a key component of this new layer.
The programmability of crypto makes it an excellent fit for enabling payment capabilities in AI agents. But what scenarios make crypto ideal for agentic workflows while highlighting the limitations of fiat?
Imagine a Situation
Imagine a situation where an agent engages another agent to perform a task, and upon completion, the first agent receives payment in a stablecoin like USDC or USDT. However, if the second agent fails to deliver on time or effectively, the dispute must be resolved outside the payment system.
Programmable Fiat vs. Stablecoins
We have three options in today’s market:
- Programmable Fiat: Programmable fiat platforms like Stripe offer a low barrier to entry for enabling financial transactions in multi-agent systems. However, programmable fiat presents limitations, such as challenges with cross-border payments, lengthy dispute resolution processes, and the complexity of performance-based payment triggers.
- Stablecoins: Stablecoins represent a natural intersection between AI and Web3. They address some of fiat’s limitations in agentic workflows, offering on-chain settlements, global availability, and enhanced programmability. However, stablecoins fall short in key areas, such as agent performance functionality.
- Native Agent Cryptocurrency and Payment Protocol: The true intersection of Web3 and agentic AI for financial transactions could emerge through new tokens and protocols tailored for this use case. These could extend stablecoin capabilities by integrating agent-specific functionalities.
Agents Are All We Need
Agentic AI has the potential to become one of the most fertile intersections between Web3 and AI. Semi-autonomous agents will become ubiquitous, requiring robust financial infrastructure for transactions. While programmable fiat may address initial needs, its limitations highlight crypto’s potential to shine.
Stablecoins offer a promising start, but they may not suffice in the long run. The rise of agentic AI is likely to drive the creation of custom tokens, wallets, protocols, and possibly blockchains optimized for agentic workflows. Agents could become the gateway for crypto to emerge as the true currency of AI.
Conclusion
The intersection of Web3 and agentic AI has the potential to unlock new possibilities in the world of finance. While we are still in the early stages of development, it is clear that semi-autonomous agents will play a crucial role in shaping the future of commerce. By harnessing the power of crypto, we can create a more efficient, secure, and transparent financial system – one that puts agents at its core.
Note
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.
