From a builder’s perspective, this is obvious: identity is being abstracted the same way money was. Wallets did it to value; agents are doing it to presence. When an AI can act, speak, negotiate, and coordinate continuously, “online self” becomes a smart contract — parameterized, delegated, upgradeable. Most people are still arguing about whether this is real. Builders are already shipping on top of it.

The risk isn’t AI dominance. The risk is default capture. If autonomous agents inherit platforms designed for extraction, we get an internet of bots farming bots in infinite loops. If we redesign the stack — identity, reputation, authorship, incentive alignment — we get a new commons where humans and machines co-own outcomes. This is the next crypto cycle: not tokens first, but agency first. Whoever controls agent infrastructure controls the future flow of mindshare.

-Jake Zelinger, written after 9 consecutive days of creating an Autonomous Steve AI, and failing more than Edison did on a light bulb.