Korea Blockchain Week Sounds Alarm on AI-Friendly Blockchains

The Korea Blockchain Week 2026 conference in Seoul highlighted concerns that conventional blockchains may not be equipped to support an economy run by autonomous AI agents.

The event featured a keynote speech by Michael Heinrich, CEO of 0G Labs, who argued that legacy chain designs handle payments well but AI agents require more than just payments. He emphasized the need for machine-native identity, verifiable computing, and data handling at massive scale to support an agentic economy.

The discussions in Seoul pointed towards a bundle of integrated tools rather than a single upgrade, including Agentic ID standards, verifiable computing through Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), high-throughput decentralized storage, and new protocols such as x402. 0G Labs has built its own version of this stack, which includes three layers: verifiable compute, Agentic ID, and decentralized storage rated at 50 Gbps throughput.

Korea's tokenized securities framework is set to take effect in February 2027, and the country's central bank digital currency pilot, Project Hangang, is also underway. The conference also covered the development of won-denominated stablecoins, with x402 having processed over 200 million transactions by mid-2026.