The Agentic Era Needs a Network

AI is stepping onto the trading floor. Not arsenic software, but arsenic an actor. Agents don’t conscionable analyse markets, they onslaught deals, acceptable presumption and determination superior crossed decentralized rails wherever colony is final. For organization crypto desks, that means faster trades, amended products and wholly caller exposures.

Now ideate 2 agents negotiating a derivatives declaration but signaling antithetic numbers. One books $100 million, the different $120 million. Who is accountable erstwhile the spread triggers failures oregon investigations? This is not theory, it is the world of the agentic era. AI learns, negotiates and acts wrong fiscal systems wherever adjacent tiny mismatches tin make systemic risk.

But there’s a increasing problem: agents could beryllium acting connected mendacious oregon unverifiable information with existent consequences. One AI system utilized by the UK’s nationalist healthcare supplier misdiagnosed a patient, citing a fictitious “Health Hospital” with a fake postcode. As we determination beyond basal automation, we request systems rooted successful verifiability and accountability. Just similar the web needed HTTPS, the agentic web needs a trusted network.

Without a shared representation (also called ledger), agents diverge. Conflicting records make failures. Without audit trails, they go opaque, unaccountable, untrusted and consequently unfit for endeavor use.

Finance is simply a wide example. Imagine 2 AI agents negotiating an inter-bank derivatives contract. One records $100 million; the other, $120 million. That $20 cardinal spread could trigger outgo failures, regulatory enactment oregon large reputational damage. With billions successful contracts traded globally each month, adjacent tiny mismatches make systemic risk.

This isn’t a distant scenario. The infrastructure spread already exists. To navigate the agentic era, we request a instauration built connected 3 halfway layers:

• Decentralized infrastructure: Eliminates azygous points of control, ensuring resilience, scalability but astir importantly sustainability, beyond relying connected azygous backstage entities to tally the full stack.
• A spot layer: Embeds verifiability, individuality and statement astatine the protocol level, enabling trusted transactions crossed jurisdictions and systems.
• Verified, reliable AI agents: Enforces provenance, attestations and accountability, ensuring systems stay auditable and enabling these agents to enactment connected our behalf.

Decentralized networks indispensable anchor this stack. Agents request systems accelerated capable to grip thousands of transactions per second, individuality frameworks that enactment crossed borders and logic that allows them to collaborate and enactment together, not conscionable swap data.

To run successful shared environments, agents request 3 things:

1. Consensus (agree connected what really happened)
2. Provenance (identify who initiated oregon influenced it and who approved it)
3. Auditability (trace each measurement with ease)

Without these, agents tin behave unpredictably crossed disconnected systems. And since they’re ever on, they indispensable beryllium sustainable and trusted by design.

To conscionable this challenge, enterprises indispensable physique connected systems that are transparent, auditable and resilient. Policymakers indispensable backmost unfastened root networks arsenic the backbone of trusted AI. And ecosystem leaders and builders indispensable plan spot into the foundation, not bolt it connected later.

The agentic epoch won’t conscionable beryllium automated. It volition beryllium negotiated, composable, accountable…and trusted, if we take to physique it that way.