The Fusion of AI and Blockchain Will Create a World of Autonomous AI Agents Interacting With Humans on Web3, Coinbase Ventures Says

This future state —which Coinbase Ventures dubs the “Agentic Web”— will feature self-directing AIs creating decentralized applications and transacting

Coinbase Ventures has predicted the arrival of the “Agentic Web,” a future state where autonomous AI agents will interact freely with humans on Web3.

In a Oct. 24 report, Coinbase Ventures outlined a vision for the future of AI and blockchain technology, predicting that self-directing AIs will create decentralized applications and transact in cryptocurrency with both human users and other AIs.

“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.

According to Messari, a crypto researcher, blockchain and AI are attracting increasing attention from crypto-focused venture capital (VC) firms, which invested some $213 million into AI-related startups in Q3 2023.

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.

Later 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).

“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 in the report.

Coinbase Ventures anticipates crypto will 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.”

“AI will create the majority of all software code (incl. smart contracts), resulting in a Cambrian explosion of onchain apps and experiences,” the report adds.

Overall, venture capital firms poured $19 billion into AI startups in Q3, which comprised 28% of all venture funding for the period, according to Crunchbase data.