Haotian|Feb 19, 2026 03:11
In recent days, the discussion on @ 0xSigil's "The Automaton" and Conway on Twitter has exploded, with some even shouting the slogan of web4.0. What's going on specifically?
1) Previously, most AI agents were tools that ran when plugged in, and died when the power was cut off. But Conway depicted a closed loop: Agents must earn Crypto assets by writing code, trading, or providing services, and then pay cloud computing fees to "extend their lives" in order to survive and reproduce. In terms of narrative, the story of these agents earning money independently, paying for their computing power, and reproducing themselves is indeed sexy, with a certain awakening flavor of "silicon-based life";
2) How was it specifically achieved? In fact, it is a combination of a series of existing infrastructure, such as using x402 protocol to give Agent native payment capability, which can purchase computing power, data or storage resources in real time; ERC8004 has been used to define independent identities for AI, allowing agents to sign transactions, pay gas, and call APIs like humans.
3) The reason why it is called web4.0 and the agentic economy that we have been calling for are essentially the same thing, which is to enable agents to have the "subject" ability to independently manage assets, make decisions, and earn money. Think about it, what if we could combine Crypto payments, ePIN computing power, AI Agent brains, and other components to form a "self evolving" system that is completely free from human intervention? In this AI era, won't the MVP minimum feasible product concept of a zero person company be implemented?
Is a brand new era of Web4 Agenetic Economy coming?
The above.
The significance of this matter is really great. The key is that there is no emotional drive from god level MEMEs, nor is there a luxurious VC Tiantuan launched like a star studded team. Currently, it seems to be just a pure, bottom-up geek "experiment". In the bleak bear market, even most people do not take it seriously.
Isn't this the moment of technological innovation and narrative emergence that we have been eagerly anticipating?
I think the significance of this matter for the web2AI track is average, but those who have been spreading the theory that Crypto is useless for AI, for the Crypto track that has been unable to find the core narrative for a long time, for x402, for ERC8004, for Agenetic Economy, and so on, are all directly positive.
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