Machine Economy Shifts Crypto Battlefield

The crypto industry is shifting from DeFi to the machine economy, according to Wintermute's recent declaration. This change marks the end of the battle for crypto infrastructure and signals a new battlefield where AI agents, warehouse robots, and automated experimental systems become economic entities.

The underlying assumption of traditional financial rails that 'the counterpart is a person' will no longer hold as autonomous entities take over. Crypto rails, on the other hand, are built around auditable code, on-chain records, and rules enforced by the network, advantages that will become crucial in this new landscape.

The three directions Wintermute is optimistic about are the agent economy layer, physical AI, and machine-driven discovery. The agent economy layer focuses on authorization layers, agent identities, and neutral routing protocols for trustless transactions between agents and merchants.