a16z Maps 11 Paths Where Crypto Meets AI

The agency argued crypto can counter AI centralization by giving customers management over identification, knowledge possession, and funds.

Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto staff over the week outlined 11 areas the place blockchain networks might intersect with synthetic intelligence, laying out how crypto instruments would possibly form identification, 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 might counter rising centralization in AI by giving customers management over knowledge, identification, and financial participation.

a16z Lays Out Use Circumstances as AI Energy Concentrates

In a January 20 publish on X, a16z crypto argued that the online is shifting towards interfaces dominated by AI prompts, elevating questions on who controls knowledge, 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 consumer context, transportable identities for AI brokers, and on-chain funds that work with out platform gatekeepers.

A number of of the concepts targeted on identification 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 present tasks reminiscent of World’s Proof of Human and newer programs just like the Solana Attestation Service, which lets customers hyperlink off-chain credentials to wallets whereas holding knowledge non-public.

Funds have been one other recurring theme. a16z described how blockchains might assist micropayments between AI brokers, content material creators, and finish customers. That features income sharing when AI instruments depend on third-party content material, in addition to programs the place internet crawlers pay websites straight for entry to knowledge.

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The agency famous that almost half of web visitors now comes from automated sources, whereas extra web site operators are blocking AI scrapers, a stress that has pushed firms like Cloudflare to promote blocking instruments.

The publish additionally highlighted decentralized bodily infrastructure networks, or DePIN, as a method to pool unused compute and vitality sources for AI coaching and inference. By aggregating {hardware} from gaming PCs and knowledge facilities, these networks goal to scale back reliance on giant cloud suppliers.

Why Id, Funds, and Possession Hold Resurfacing

Most of the concepts echoed issues raised elsewhere within the crypto trade. For instance, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin not too long ago stated that he plans to leave centralized social media behind in favor of decentralized platforms, arguing that shared knowledge layers enable competitors with out locking customers right into a single interface. His feedback mirrored a broader push to separate identification and content material from platform management.

The Ethereum Basis has additionally moved on this route. Final yr, it launched a brand new AI staff targeted on agentic funds and coordination, with the said purpose of constructing Ethereum a settlement layer for AI brokers and machine-to-machine transactions. Basis developer Davide Crapis stated on the time that AI programs want impartial infrastructure for worth switch and fame, somewhat than counting on a number of giant expertise corporations.

a16z’s map doesn’t declare these programs are near mass adoption. A number of use circumstances, together with AI companions owned by customers or absolutely open agent-to-agent markets, are described as longer-term concepts. Nonetheless, the agency’s define exhibits the place buyers and builders assume crypto might match as AI programs transfer from remoted instruments into always-on intermediaries between individuals, knowledge, and cash.