Web3 was not designed for humans on scale; It was built for machines. Its complexity has limited its adoption, but the “post web” battery is taking shape with AI agents that emerge as autonomous economic actors.
Smart contracts, decentralized networks and verifiable calculation will remain. But now they are being optimized for execution, coordination and automation based on the intention based on AI.
The question is not whether it is happening, but how fast we need to adapt.
During the last decade, we have tried Beta decentralized systems and applications. While millions of people get involved with blockchain networks, Defi protocols and decentralized applications (DAPPS), the reality is that web3 is still very underutilized.
Although approximately 10% of the world supposedly has a crypto, only a fraction of these holders actively uses decentralized applications such as a real alternative to web2 or centralized platforms. This disconnection is not due to the lack of capacity in Web3 technology, but rather its challenges of usability and inherent complexity.
In retrospect, web3 was never designed for human users on scale. It was designed for machines.
Now, with AI agents that emerge as autonomous economic actors, the sleeping giant of web function is awakening. The “post web”, a term that we coined in Outlier Ventures, creates a world where agents execute tasks, manage assets and perform transactions in our name. Each web stack component will be reused. Once hindered by complexity, the infrastructure built for a decentralized world is now ideal for an optimized internet for machines.
AI agents will not only use web3. They will unlock their full potential.
The giant awakens
Web3 has been misunderstood. Many expected it to be a more decentralized version of web2, where users have their assets, participate in the government and interact with applications without permission.
In practice, web3 has revolutionized back-end systems. So far, its technology is still too complex for the average user to drive. Intelligent contracts, Autocustody and the bridge in chains require time, effort and technical understanding that most people simply do not have.
This is where AI agents change everything. Unlike humans, agents thrive in complexity. They can process large amounts of information, automate intricate workflows and operate without problems through decentralized networks. While human users fight with incorporation, agents can integrate directly with intelligent contracts, optimize for efficiency and execute frictionless transactions.
For the first time, web3 will have users who can completely take advantage of their abilities. IA agents will interact without problems with decentralized infrastructure, allowing web3 to function at the scale at which it was always destined to.
The post web technology battery: built for machines
Web3 has spent the last decade building decentralized infrastructure without considering AI. With the emergence of AI autonomous agents, our thoughts on this pile must change fundamentally.
On the post web, where the agents of IA replace humans as main users, the pile suffers two critical transformations:
- Optimizing the existing Web stack for AI agents: Decentralized infrastructure update to admit transactions driven by the machine, execution of intention and autonomous coordination.
- Building a new Agent layer at the top: a new computational and coordination layer to house, administer and orchestrate AI agents who handle social and economic activity on behalf of users.
In our broader work in Outlier Ventures in Post Web, we have examined this evolution in greater detail. In a nutshell, the post web stack consists of three main layers, each essential to allow an optimized internet for machines.
1) The agent layer: AI as the new interface
On the post web, users will not have to navigate in wallets, exchanges or pursuers; The agents of AI will do it for them. These agents act as personalized digital intermediaries, executing transactions, manage assets and make complex economic decisions.
For this to work, the agent layer will be the bridge between intention and execution. Users will express objectives and objectives based on intention and high level, such as investing in assets, reserve trips or negotiate contracts, and agents will handle the rest.
Smart wallets will evolve towards sovereign identity centers, storing personal data, assets and permits, allowing agents to act precisely. This change means that, instead of trusting centralized platforms, people will delegate actions to the sovereign, giving them complete control while eliminating the need for direct interactions with complex systems.
The agent layer is the largest green field opportunity for bold founders who have the desire and the ability to combine probabilistic abilities with intelligent contracts and DLT. There is the need for markets, coordination layers, frames and more, all of which must be developed and improved.
2) The confidence layer: Smart Contracts & DLT as the spine
If AI agents must execute real world tasks, they need deterministic and verifiable environments where transactions and agreements can be enforced without ambiguity. This is where Blockchain and intelligent contracts become critical.
Today’s models work with probabilistic logic. According to training data, they predict the following most likely result. However, economic transactions require certainty and enforceability: a bank transfer, a legal contract or a trade must be executed with absolute purpose.
Smart contracts provide this missing piece. They offer immutable and self -executive agreements, allowing agents to carry out an economic activity with complete transparency and verifiability. More importantly, decentralized accounting books ensure that agent promoted are safe, without permission and minimized by trust, avoiding manipulation or central control over digital economies.
In summary, the post website cannot work without the confidence layer of decentralized networks. Agents need verifiable execution environments, and web3 provides precisely that.
The change is clear to those who are built on web3 today: their infrastructure must be friendly for agents. The protocols that enable composition, perfect execution and verifiable data will exceed those that depend on fragmented manual processes. In summary, the starting rules book is quickly evolving.
3) The infrastructure layer: Compute, Data & Depin
AI agents not only need intelligent contracts; They need resources. They require computer energy, storage and access to decentralized data networks to function autonomously. This is where decentralized physical infrastructure networks (Depin) come into play.
Depin provides computing, storage and bandwidth to order, allowing agents to operate at scale without depending on centralized cloud suppliers. Instead of some hyperscalers such as AWS or Google Cloud Controling AI Compute, Depin distributes these resources through networks without permits, optimizing cost, accessibility and resistance.
This layer ensures that AI agents are not only participating in digital economies. They are sovereign entities capable of operating without centralized guardians. From decentralized GPU networks such as Akash and rendering to data exchanges without permits such as the Ocean protocol, the infrastructure for the Agent autonomy is already being formed.
Startups that are built on the posterior web era should consider how their products are integrated with decentralized calculation and storage markets. AI applications will first require a cheap, scalable and without permissions infrastructure, and the projects that provide it will be fundamental for the new economy.
Outside these three layers, there are more granular components, such as technologies that improve privacy, modularity, middole, scale mechanisms, etc., which are widely found in one or more of these categories, which we discuss in detail in our other work.
Internet is rewriting
For decades, the Internet has been built around human interfaces, platforms, applications and centralized guardians that dictate how we interact with digital services. That time is finishing.
The web publications battery not only improves web3; It redefines it in a world where AI agents are the main users. With a layer of agent for execution, a layer of trust for verifiability and a layer of decentralized infrastructure for scale and resilience, we are witnessing the emergence of an autonomous internet driven by the machine.
This is not the next version of the web; It is the disappearance of the web as we know it. The question is not whether this change will happen, but if you are building for it.
