The emerging fusion of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology will transform the digital economy and ultimately create a world where autonomous AI agents freely interact with humans on Web3, Coinbase Ventures said in an Oct. 24 report.
This future state —which Coinbase Ventures dubs the “Agentic Web”— will feature self-directing AIs creating decentralized applications and transacting in cryptocurrency with both human users and other AIs, according to the report.
“We predict a future where agents will have their own crypto wallets to autonomously transact […] or leverage stablecoins to pay humans and other agents to complete tasks necessary for their overall objective function,” Coinbase Ventures said.
Source: Coinbase Ventures
The intersection of blockchain and AI is attracting increasing interest from crypto-focused venture capital (VC) firms, which invested some $213 million into AI-related startups in the third quarter of 2023, according to Messari, a crypto researcher.
On Oct. 10, Aethir, a decentralized graphic processing unit (GPU) provider, announced the launch of the $100 million Aethir Ecosystem Fund to accelerate the innovation of artificial intelligence and gaming.
On Oct. 24, Web3 payments platform Skyfire raised $9.5 million from VCs — including Coinbase Ventures and a16z — to build infrastructure enabling AI agents to autonomously transact in US Dollar Coin (USDC), a stablecoin.
Skyfire has already onboarded upward of half a dozen AI developers onto the payment network.
“The future of AI can be built on blockchain technology, as crypto can help increase accessibility, transparency, and use cases within the emerging tech,” Coinbase Ventures said.
Coinbase Ventures expects crypto to become “the preferred payment rail for agent-to-human and agent-to-agent commerce” and generative AI “will become the primary modality for users seeking to transact onchain,” according to the report.
Meanwhile, “AI will create the majority of all software code (incl. smart contracts), resulting in a Cambrian explosion of onchain apps and experiences,” Coinbase Ventures said.
In total, venture capital firms poured $19 billion into AI startups in the third quarter, comprising 28% of all venture funding for the period, Crunchbase data shows.
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