a16z Maps 11 Paths Where Crypto Meets AI
Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto workforce over the week outlined 11 areas the place blockchain networks may intersect with synthetic intelligence, laying out how crypto instruments would possibly form id, funds, and possession as AI programs unfold throughout the web.
The agency framed crypto much less as a speculative asset class and extra as infrastructure that would counter rising centralization in AI by giving customers management over information, id, and financial participation.
a16z Lays Out Use Cases as AI Power Concentrates
In a January 20 publish on X, a16z crypto argued that the net is shifting towards interfaces dominated by AI prompts, elevating questions on who controls information, distribution, and income as conventional web sites lose visitors.
The agency stated blockchains can present a impartial base layer for AI programs by supporting persistent person context, transportable identities for AI brokers, and on-chain funds that work with out platform gatekeepers.
Several of the concepts centered on id and belief, with one instance being decentralized proof of personhood, which goals to assist platforms distinguish people from bots with out counting on centralized ID suppliers.
The publish pointed to current tasks resembling World’s Proof of Human and newer programs just like the Solana Attestation Service, which lets customers hyperlink off-chain credentials to wallets whereas conserving information non-public.
Payments have been one other recurring theme. a16z described how blockchains may help micropayments between AI brokers, content material creators, and finish customers. That consists of income sharing when AI instruments depend on third-party content material, in addition to programs the place net crawlers pay websites instantly for entry to information.
The agency famous that just about half of web visitors now comes from automated sources, whereas extra web site operators are blocking AI scrapers, a rigidity that has pushed firms like Cloudflare to promote blocking instruments.
The publish additionally highlighted decentralized bodily infrastructure networks, or DePIN, as a technique to pool unused compute and vitality sources for AI coaching and inference. By aggregating {hardware} from gaming PCs and information facilities, these networks goal to cut back reliance on giant cloud suppliers.
Why Identity, Payments, and Ownership Keep Resurfacing
Many of the concepts echoed issues raised elsewhere within the crypto business. For instance, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin just lately stated that he plans to leave centralized social media behind in favor of decentralized platforms, arguing that shared information layers permit competitors with out locking customers right into a single interface. His feedback mirrored a broader push to separate id and content material from platform management.
The Ethereum Foundation has additionally moved on this course. Last 12 months, it launched a brand new AI workforce centered on agentic funds and coordination, with the acknowledged aim of creating Ethereum a settlement layer for AI brokers and machine-to-machine transactions. Foundation developer Davide Crapis stated on the time that AI programs want impartial infrastructure for worth switch and repute, reasonably than counting on a number of giant expertise corporations.
a16z’s map doesn’t declare these programs are near mass adoption. Several use circumstances, together with AI companions owned by customers or totally open agent-to-agent markets, are described as longer-term concepts. Still, the agency’s define reveals the place traders and builders assume crypto may match as AI programs transfer from remoted instruments into always-on intermediaries between folks, information, and cash.
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