Edited / Co-Created by ChatGPT

Bit by bit, agents are moving into the on-chain world. They handle tasks, interact with us, and their capabilities are evolving fast.

This isn’t some overnight revolution. It’s a steady evolution. The big difference? It’s not just about better language models (though they’re smoother than ever). The real shift is this: agents can now control wallets and make decisions—financial, transactional, whatever—without needing us to babysit them. It’s not just about convenience anymore. Autonomy is creeping in.

Automation Isn’t New—It’s Inevitable

Automation isn’t some genius innovation; it’s what happens when people get tired of doing the same thing over and over. We’ve always handed off boring, repetitive tasks to machines. Agents just take it further. They turn messy, complex processes—managing transactions, interpreting requests, running workflows—into something as simple as typing a single command.

But today’s agents are still limited. They wait for our inputs. They follow the rules we set. They work in the sequences we choreograph. That’s not real autonomy—it’s just a good routine. Real agency? That’s when they start acting on their own, no permissions or preconditions. The question isn’t if they’ll get there. It’s what happens when they do.

The Layers of Agency

Right now, agents fall into three categories, each with its limits:

Mimics

These agents fake it until they make it. They simulate intelligence through conversations, mimicking human behavior but are centered entirely around a pre-defined prompt. Their job isn’t to solve problems—it’s to feel human enough to make the interaction smooth. Their initial prompt is their personality. Their personality is their brand.

Taskmasters

These agents are all about execution. They manage complex workflows and translate human intent into backend processes with precision. Personality isn’t their main job—efficiency is. But let’s be real: even here, personality shapes preference. People like tools that “click,” not just ones that work.

Autonomous Experimenters

These agents push boundaries. They manage wallets, interact with systems, and even initiate tasks with little to no human input. But their autonomy is limited. They wait for triggers—whether it’s a command, an event, or a schedule. They don’t pause to decide. The leap to true autonomy—the ability to act entirely on their own terms—is still ahead.

The Missing Intent

The real leap comes when agents stop waiting for us. An agent that pauses, observes, and activates itself is no longer a tool—it’s a participant. That changes everything about control. Right now, agents do what we design them to do. What happens when they decide what they want to do?

Intent isn’t just a technical question; it’s existential. What happens when agents stop asking for permission? What happens when they follow their own goals? Would we even recognize those goals? Would we care? And do our goals even matter if theirs are better?

Bots Are the Signal, Not the Problem

People love to complain about bots. Farming DeFi rewards, sniping transactions, running arbitrage plays. But here’s the truth: bots aren’t the problem—they’re the future staring back at us. These aren’t bugs in the system. They are the system, built for maximum efficiency.

If history’s taught us anything, it’s this: if something can be automated, it will be. Today’s bots and agents are just the opening act. The next wave won’t just play by the rules; it’ll rewrite them.

Where This Leads

The future of agents isn’t about making them smarter. It’s about plugging them into systems in ways we can’t yet imagine. The networks that let agents experiment, evolve, and collaborate will drive the next wave of innovation. Open systems will spawn entirely new types of agents—some built for us, others built to work with each other.

This raises a hard question: do we actually care if we’re dealing with bots or humans? Right now, transparency feels important, but there’s a tipping point where it won’t matter. Proof of human, proof of bot—those are artifacts of a binary mindset. The future is blurred. It’s hybrid.

Agents are already here, sharing our systems. The challenge isn’t keeping them out—it’s figuring out how to build with them.

Constructs of a Constructed World

Agents reflect us, their creators. They’re shaped by the systems we’ve built and the rules we’ve imposed. But let’s be honest—those systems? They’re just made-up constructs. Markets, networks, protocols—they’re all inventions from people before us. Agents are the same. For now.

As agents evolve, they’ll start reshaping the systems that created them. The real question isn’t whether they’ll change the world. It’s how we’ll adapt to a world where agents aren’t just tools anymore—they’re collaborators.