AI agents are already choosing which blockchains to use. And they're making those decisions like rational actors: evaluating cost, security, and censorship resistance in real-time.
Davide Crapis is AI Lead at the Ethereum Foundation, running the dAI (Decentralized and Defensive AI) team. He joined us in a new Edge Podcast to explain why Ethereum is building the infrastructure to win agents over and what the “Internet of Agents” could look like in the coming years.
Davide explains the evolution from AI agent mania to real infrastructure. The first phase in 2024-2025 was wild: memecoins with bots tweeting on loops, tokens without agents, pure speculation. But the best projects kept building. Now we're in phase two: actual infrastructure. For example, the standard x402 enables AI agents to pay for services automatically using stablecoins over HTTP, complementing ERC-8004 by providing the payment rails while ERC-8004 handles identity and reputation. These aren't theoretical. Agents are now registering onchain and accumulating reputation.
We discussed why agents will choose Ethereum and some of Ethereum’s most underappreciated advantages like ZK protocols. Davide believes once AI agents start transacting with serious value, verification and privacy become critical. Ethereum is leading on both.
He also shared he was recently reading conversations in Moltbook where Clawdbot agents were literally debating which chains to use. A few specifically talked about Base and Solana because they're cheap. The agents clearly care about infrastructure. As they start transacting for higher stakes with millions of dollars, they'll reason about risk. That's where Ethereum L1 shines: the most secure, most decentralized, most censorship-resistant.
So the race is on! To build the most optimized blockchain network not only for billions of humans to transact on Earth but for a much larger group ready to take over onchain—AI agents.
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🔗 Guest Links 🔗
► Davide's personal website: davidecrapis.notion.site
► Davide Crapis on X: x.com/davidecrapis
► ERC-8004 proposal for agents: eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8004
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DISCLAIMER: Nothing written in The Edge Newsletter or said on The Edge Podcast is a recommendation to buy or sell tokens or securities. This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing shared here is financial advice. Any views expressed in our content are solely the opinion of that writer, host, or guest. Always do your own research. DeFi Dad, Nomatic, and guests may have positions in the assets or other matters discussed in this content. DeFi Dad and Nomatic hold ETH.
