Author: Avichal Garg, Curtis Spencer, Ken Deeter, Maria Shen, Ren

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Introduction: The investment blueprint for 2026 released by Electric Capital marks a turning point where "user sovereignty" transitions from concept to large-scale implementation.

The authors point out that against the backdrop of a global collapse of institutional trust and the centralization of AI power, crypto technology is not just a financial tool but a core facility for defending personal sovereignty. From private AI agents that can run on local desktops to stablecoin finance that allows 4 billion people to access dollar yields, the article outlines 26 specific investment opportunities across six major areas.

The full text is as follows:

The conditions for User-Owned Technology are ripe.

A global collapse of institutional trust is occurring. People have lost faith in institutions that were once at the core of economic, political, and social life, including governments, banks, media, and schools. This is not a short-term trend or a response to a single event, but a long-term shift in expectations. People no longer assume that institutions are neutral, reliable, or aligned with their interests.

Distributed systems and cryptography provide developers with new tools that can operate without trust. These technologies are designed to run in adversarial environments: they assume that participants may be malicious, that software must be verifiable, and that the system should still function normally when adversaries fail.

AI makes this shift to "minimized trust systems" more urgent and feasible than ever. AI not only centralizes power but also lowers the cost of building. Now, an individual can accomplish in hours what teams used to take months to build. This puts pressure on intermediaries, opens new possibilities for developers, and increases the demand for "user-controlled" infrastructure.

User-owned systems defend freedom. User-owned systems minimize trust by returning control to users. These systems cannot be unilaterally changed. They allow people to build without needing to ask for permission. If done well, these systems enable users to exit those that no longer serve them without losing any functionality.

Electric Capital invests between $1 million and $20 million in user-owned technology, empowering people with control, privacy, and access.

Since 2018, we have been committed to investing in systems that reduce reliance on intermediaries. We started with Programmable Money. Today, the same principles and technologies are being applied to software, data, markets, and more.

If you are building in these areas, we want to invest in your ideas. For a deeper background on our arguments, please read our 2018 articles on Reimagining Trusted Intermediaries and Programmable Money.

This article outlines 26 opportunities across key areas for 2026.

These opportunities cover user-owned systems, globally accessible markets, entertainment built on new financial primitives, and the infrastructure prepared for a world of AI-built software. But they all share a common theme: they explore how power, access, and ownership should operate in a world where AI is ubiquitous and deeply embedded.

These opportunities are distributed across six core areas:

Personal Software: AI makes it possible to build tools tailored to your life, rather than just adapting to SaaS (Software as a Service) built for the average user. Private Agents, cryptographic collaboration, and locally running software are now not only feasible but increasingly necessary.

Agent-Focused Infrastructure: As AI agents become the primary developers of software, existing development stacks will become obsolete. New primitives are needed for testing, deploying, paying, accessing data, and collaboration between agents.

Fintech & DeFi: Stablecoins allow over 4 billion people to access dollars. Now, they need yields, equity exposure, insurance, and more. The demand for global, programmable, and accessible financial infrastructure is accelerating.

Finance as Entertainment: The younger generation views markets as entertainment. Trading is fast, social, and fun. This changes the nature of financial products and opens doors for new types of markets.

Metaverse Revival: World Models and generative AI significantly lower the cost of building immersive, personalized environments. People will step into experiences built around themselves rather than passively consuming content. There are opportunities in building platforms that simplify world creation and allow users to control their data sharing, storage, and monetization in these worlds.

New Crypto Primitives and Applications: Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of Work (PoW) are maturing and leaving room for new consensus models. Zero-Knowledge (ZK) systems and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) are becoming practical. These primitives unlock new design spaces: consensus linked to human or physical inputs, infrastructure with default privacy, and applications built for regulated entities, energy markets, or even new jurisdictions.

If you are building in one of these areas, please contact us at info@electriccapital.com.

Personal Software

Individuals can now build software tailored to their exact needs, no longer limited to products offered by companies. As AI Agents can now handle complex workflows like reading emails, scheduling meetings, and managing files, new demands for data privacy, data ownership, and data persistence have emerged. Cryptographically supported systems can make these tools private, persistent, and capable of multi-player collaboration.

Specific ideas we want to invest in:

Private AI Agents: People need to run AI on sensitive data in a secure manner.

Possible forms: An AI assistant that automates your personal workflow while protecting your privacy. Connect your health and financial records and gain AI insights. AI models run in Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) or compute networks, with inbound queries anonymized. When responses are returned, enterprise providers or malicious actors cannot see your data.

Encrypted Collaboration Spaces: People need to collaborate privately with others (including humans and agents). Remember, "the cloud" is just someone else's computer.

Possible forms: Shared workspaces for friends, family, or small businesses. Financials, documents, and tasks are synchronized through peer-to-peer (P2P) storage solutions. Selective disclosure allows agents to access specific types of data. No accounts are needed, no company can read, store, or use sensitive data for training, and offline work is supported.

Desktop Agents: People need automation for data on their local computers.

Possible forms: An agent running on your local desktop that reads your emails, drafts replies, creates agendas, and manages your life. This idea can expand into a new type of desktop operating system in an AI-first world.

Pay for Services Privately: People need a way to pay for software services without identity verification.

Possible forms: Purchase VPNs, games, cloud storage, or AI computing power without an account. You pay based on usage, measured by the service, with payments settled in stablecoins via x402 or similar protocols. The service provider knows someone paid and how much, but not the identity of the payer.

Agent-Focused Infrastructure

Agents will write most of our code and complete most of our knowledge work. The key insights are: (1) Software tools need to be restructured from the ground up because AI-generated code introduces new failure modes. (2) Development will shift to internalization as custom software becomes economically viable. (3) Agents need new tracks for trading with each other. (4) Businesses that were once limited by human labor can suddenly scale. These ideas capture the opportunities brought by these second-order effects.

Specific ideas we want to invest in:

AI-Native Compute Infrastructure: Companies need the ability to test, isolate, and roll back changes generated by AI at the infrastructure level.

Possible forms: AWS or GCP rewritten for agents. Agents write code in a sandbox, safely testing against production data, and deploy with automatic rollback in case of issues. The entire process assumes the code comes from agents rather than humans.

End-to-End Product Development Tools: Non-technical employees need to bridge the gap from idea to usable software.

Possible forms: A platform where users specify business goals, data sources, and expected outcomes. The system generates plans, designs, code, and runnable products. The system eliminates the need for technical translation, allowing non-technical users to go directly from "idea" to "deployed product" in hours rather than months.

Agent-Enabled Commerce: Agents need to autonomously buy and sell without human identities or bank accounts.

Possible forms: An API marketplace where agents purchase services from other agents. Discovery, negotiation, and pay-per-call using protocols like x402, with instant settlement in stablecoins.

Data Networks and Marketplaces: AI needs data infrastructure that can compensate contributors and allow them to control usage rights.

Possible forms: A network where users share medical records, consumption patterns, investment behaviors, or creative works for AI training. Contributors set permissions and are rewarded as their data improves the model. AI companies obtain the financial data they need with clear provenance.

Scaling Professional Services: Service-oriented businesses need AI-native operations to expand beyond the limits of human labor.

Possible forms: A law firm where each lawyer has an AI assistant responsible for research, drafting, and document review. A firm that once served 1,000 clients can now serve 100,000 clients. Any client service industry—lawyers, architects, marketers, accountants, financial advisors—can be restructured around AI.

Fintech & DeFi

Over 4 billion people and millions of businesses facing currency risks are actively seeking dollar access through stablecoins, representing the largest expansion of the dollar network effect in decades. As stablecoins provide global individuals with access to dollars—growing from $3 billion in 2019 to over $300 billion today—millions of new dollar holders need more than just digital cash. They require yields, investment opportunities, and financial services. There is a growing opportunity in financial products that empower users with ownership and global access.

Specific ideas we want to invest in:

Non-Crypto Correlated Yield: Stablecoin holders need a yield that does not drop when Bitcoin (BTC) prices fall.

Possible forms: A platform that brings real-world infrastructure yields to stablecoin holders. Yields could come from data center project bonds, solar installations, and electric vehicle (EV) charging networks, which have predictable cash flows and are uncorrelated with the crypto market.

Globally Accessible Equities: Global investors need low-friction, low-cost direct ownership of overseas opportunities.

Possible forms: A financial product that replicates equity ownership, with price exposure, no funding rates, and no expiration. Traders in the Philippines can build portfolios of U.S. tech stocks, while Canadians can gain exposure to Korean semiconductors.

New Forms of Insurance: Businesses need quick, transparent coverage for operational risks that traditional insurance cannot provide.

Possible forms: A platform that creates new insurance products using prediction markets. Hotel chains can purchase hurricane protection for their properties in Florida; ski resorts can hedge against warm winter risks. Capital providers offer liquidity in exchange for uncorrelated yields.

Commodities Markets On-Chain: Commodities need markets with 24/7 trading, instant settlement, and global access.

Possible forms: A market for trading energy storage capacity. Battery storage capacity is a potential entry point, as data centers require reliable power and are investing in storage to reduce reliance on the grid and integrate renewable energy. Data centers with excess storage capacity can sell it to nearby facilities during peak demand. Grid operators can trade capacity based on seasonal demand.

Protected DeFi Assets: Institutions need to deploy assets into DeFi that can ensure security even in the event of a hack.

Possible forms: A wrapped version of ETH that can be withdrawn if the protocol is hacked (e.g., GuardedETH). A trusted committee reviews exploit situations and can revoke GuardedETH transactions without the underlying ETH moving. Legitimate transactions proceed normally.

Finance as Entertainment

The younger generation views financial markets as an alternative to traditional paths, valuing talent above all. When they engage with the markets, they reimagine what markets look like and turn them into entertainment. They trade like they play games: seeking high-adrenaline trades with quick feedback loops in easy-to-learn, accessible markets. Fast-turnaround products like zero-days-to-expiration options (0DTE), which can settle within hours, now exceed the trading volume of S&P 500 options by 55%. Markets like prediction markets, where anyone can bet on news headlines, reached a trading volume of $44 billion in 2025, growing fivefold from the previous year. They also turn their trading into content: discussing positions live on Discord, sharing profits and losses on TikTok, and having their portfolios reviewed on Twitch. When markets become entertainment, there are abundant opportunities for platforms that treat financial data as engaging, participatory content.

Specific ideas we want to invest in:

Spectator Capital: Live audiences need an economical way to participate in outcome production.

Possible forms: A platform that allows viewers to stake on live content. The sense of participation makes watching more engaging, but currently, audiences are limited to tipping and subscriptions. The platform allows reality show viewers to predict who will be eliminated or lets viewers copy trade as the host shares their trading process.

Opinion Markets: Prediction market platforms need markets that settle based on collective beliefs rather than just events.

Possible forms: A platform that generates ranked lists of markets. Users stake positions on how they think others will rank these projects. The platform can create lists like "Best Pizza in New York City," "Top Wines Under $20," "Most Influential Movies of the Past Decade," or "Best AI Development Tools," all ranked by the market. Lists settle weekly based on staking weight.

Drama Launchpads: Since individual storytellers can produce series more cheaply than studios, they need funding and distribution platforms.

Possible forms: A user-generated content (UGC) platform for short dramas. Creators use AI video tools to produce series: "Mob Boyfriend Legend," "Secrets of a Billionaire," "Revenge Thriller." Fans unlock episodes using tokens and tip creators directly. Creators are compensated based on viewership. ReelShort generated over $700 million in revenue in Q1 2025 with low-budget productions. The platform combines YouTube's UGC content with ReelShort's video format.

Metaverse Revival

Building immersive digital worlds is now economically viable. In the past two years, AI models for images, videos, and simulations have made rapid advancements, significantly lowering the cost of creating assets and environments. Individual creators can now produce content that previously required entire game studios. Meanwhile, the demand for personalized, interactive content is accelerating: Dispatch—a "choose your own path" TV/game hybrid—sold 3.3 million copies in three months, generating $85 million with a 98% approval rating. Roblox's daily active users (DAU) grew by 70%, paying creators $428 million in Q3 2025 alone. Personalized, AI-driven character chat applications like Character AI also show strong early demand for individualized entertainment. These new environments will not only entertain users but also generate rich, structured interaction data for world models and robotics.

Specific ideas we want to invest in:

World Compiler: Individual creators without professional skills need tools to convert natural language into fully interactive 3D environments.

Possible forms: A platform that transforms natural language into fully interactive 3D worlds. Building 3D environments still requires expertise in modeling, physics, and NPC behavior, but AI can break this barrier. Creators describe a world, and the system builds it. Assets, physics, NPC logic, and memory are all handled automatically by the system. Individual creators can deliver a rich virtual environment in days instead of taking years.

Procedural Narrative Engine: Players need stories that adapt to them and never end.

Possible forms: A platform that generates real-time, player-specific stories. Linear stories always have endings, but players want experiences that adapt to them and continue indefinitely. Users enter a detective universe where each case is unique to them. Characters remember past interactions, plot twists respond to their choices, and the story never runs dry.

World-as-Dataset Platform: World models and robotic systems need diverse interaction data. Consumer-grade immersive environments continuously generate this data, but currently, no one captures it.

Possible forms: A virtual reality (VR) game where each player's interactions are instrumented. How users navigate rooms, pick up objects, and interact with characters become training data for robots. Users can choose to opt in and set permissions on what data to share, receiving compensation. AI companies gain access to real human behavior data that they cannot generate synthetically.

New Crypto Primitives & Applications

Crypto primitives are no longer just theoretical. Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of Work (PoW) have proven their resilience in large-scale applications. Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proofs are moving from research to production systems. Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is becoming faster and easier to use. As these foundational technologies mature, they create new opportunities for developers to build systems that prioritize privacy, embed real-world inputs into consensus, and support collaboration with traditional systems like energy markets or governments.

Specific ideas we want to invest in:

Human Time as Consensus: Blockchain networks need consensus mechanisms anchored in human effort rather than just capital.

Possible forms: "Proof of Useful Work," where consensus requires completing tasks of external value, such as labeling data or verifying real-world events. Participation rights stem from demonstrated capabilities rather than merely from staking.

Physical Resource Networks: Small infrastructure operators need collaborative systems that make their contributions economically viable.

Possible forms: Energy networks where production or storage capacity serves as consensus weight, aligning grid stability with network security. Sensor networks anchored to physical measurement data such as weather, water quality, or infrastructure monitoring.

Privacy-native L1s: Healthcare, enterprises, regulated finance, and many other industries require blockchains with default privacy.

Possible forms: Confidential State Machines that compute on encrypted data by default. Current blockchains are transparent by default, but many entities (such as healthcare providers, enterprises, and regulated financial institutions) cannot legally operate on transparent chains. Validators verify without seeing transaction content through ZK-native architectures or FHE-based execution environments.

Use-case Specific FHE: Institutions often need to collaborate on data without disclosing it to each other.

Possible forms: Banks detecting suspicious patterns across institutions without sharing customer data. Each bank runs FHE queries on encrypted data from other banks. They can identify accounts that have interacted with the same suspicious entity without revealing their customer lists to each other.

Energy Contract Settlement: Traditional markets need encrypted rails to establish 24/7 settlement among different participants. Deregulated energy markets are a good entry point, as these markets have become outdated and are under increasing pressure due to rising energy demands from AI.

Possible forms: A shared settlement layer for energy contracts in deregulated markets. Delivery data triggers automatic payments, suppliers see cash flow in real-time, and brokers receive their share immediately. No single centralized entity can control the ledger.

Crypto-native Jurisdictions: Economic zones and frontier jurisdictions need new ways of thinking about governance and financial infrastructure.

Possible forms: A brand new jurisdiction that adopts encrypted rails from day one. It features on-chain identities, programmable courts, tokenized capital markets, and smart contract-based regulatory logic.

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