The agentic age is quickly approaching.
Many are not aware of the transition that is taking place. They are still mired in a world where humans are at the center of everything. This is something that has been declining over the last 40 years. While we can get into the dystopian, Sci-Fi narrative, why don't we simply follow the trend of what took place to see if we cannot forecast where it is going?
The Dead Internet Theory appears to be taking place. This will only be multiplied by the introduction of real world AI.
For this reason, the upcoming financial system will have to incorporate this concept. Much of that world is already automated, with different layers starting to mimic the trading world.
In this article we will dig into these concepts along with how Coinbase is laying the foundation for the "agentic age".
Coinbase Leading The Way For AI Agent Payments
To give some idea of what we are talking about, let's see what Grok says about the Dead Internet Theory:
The Dead Internet Theory is the idea that the internet, particularly social media and online content, is increasingly dominated by automated bots, AI-generated content, and algorithmic manipulation rather than genuine human interaction. It suggests that much of the online activity—posts, comments, likes, and trends—is artificially created or heavily influenced by non-human entities, leading to a decline in authentic human engagement. The theory posits that this shift creates an illusion of a vibrant online community while the "real" internet, driven by human users, is fading or already "dead."
This sounds like a negative and based upon what was written online about this theory, I can see why the chatbot came up with these results. However, to take as a negative is a mistake.
We saw the automation of different facets of our lives. For example, phone calls are no longer manually routed. There was a time this was commonplace.
Of course, the efficiency of the system skyrocketed. There is no way we could see as many connections in global communications if we were dependent upon humans.
The same is true for calculations. Consider all the stock trades throughout the world. That alone would be impossible to tally if there were no computers. In fact, we can say that about every number we read online. It was reached through the calculations done by a machine.
Ai agents are the next step in the evolution. "Bots" have a bad name because, thus far, they are basically annoying pests that are designed to "spam" us. The advertising/marketing world was quick to get on board. Social media is filled with bots, as is the gaming industry. It tends to frustrate those who are seeking a human connection.
That said, what if we frame it differently.
Do you hate bots if they are shopping at your commercial site and giving you money? Are you only biased towards humans? Do you care where the money comes from?
Most likely not.
Bots are well liked by the creators who benefit. The feeling is not mutual by those who are harassed by them. The agentic age is one where everyone will have bots (agents) working on their behalf.
An agent is nothing more than an automated task. With AI, this capabilities expands to something more than simply posting the same comment repeatedly online.
Imagine a agent (bot) that did your grocery shopping? How many people would be upset with that?
Coinbase - AI Agent Payments
Brian Armstrong and Coinbase were early to the AI agent payment game. The company was the first to complete a payment done by an agent. Since that time, it is expanding its buildout of a platform to facilitate these future transactions.
Payments MCP connects MCP-compatible agents to Coinbase onramps, wallets, and blockchain rails via prompt, enabling flows without API keys or developer setup. The company says supported environments include systems such as ChatGPT and Claude via MCP tooling.
Coinbase positions the release as a step beyond its Agentkit, noting that Payments MCP works wherever MCP tools are supported and adds sign-in with email and one-time passwords.
The company sees where things are going. Today we are looking at cloud services but who knows where it will end up down the road.
The protocol is intended to give agents controlled “financial autonomy,” such as paying for cloud services, retrieving paywalled data, tipping creators, or running basic operations without human intervention. Stablecoins are used to enable transfers.
Of course, the last part is something we discussed at length. Stablecoins will be the online medium of exchange. They will be tied to digital wallets, not bank accounts.
Another thing of note is the fact that Coinbase is setting it up to work with systems such as ChatGPT and Claude.
Why is this?
The fact remains that, in the medium term, these will be the programmers. If Eric Schmidt, ex-CEO of Google, is correct, there will be a time when we simple describe what we want and the chatbot generates the application, which will be nothing more than an AI agent.
Do you think ChatGPT is going to sign up for a bank account? The answer is very clear.
Coinbase realizes where things are going. Armstrong is getting ahead of the competition by creating the rails which can facilitate the agent transactions. Payments via agents will become the norm.
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Crypto marches on!
The way you framed bots as useful agents instead of just nuisances makes a lot of sense to me. Thinking of them handling payments, shopping, or even tipping creators feels less futuristic and more like the next logical step. Coinbase seems to be moving fast with this, and connecting it to tools like ChatGPT and Claude shows they see where things are headed. Also, the idea of agents having real financial autonomy is both a bit wild and pretty convincing.
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STOPCoinbase are not waiting to watch this AI moves from the window. One big move. Nevertheless from that early definition I read, indeed human online presence is really fading. It is also something I am looking at more expansively, the best things to stay online are bots of humans will want to live a life.
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Hm, just the fact that you mention the dead internet theory in every second post does not make it more likely. Yes, there is bot activity, but it is not the majority of meaningful content, like here on Hive. We have all these tipping bots, but people simply ignore it.
If an application is overtaken by bots, there is an auto-regulation. Like in Splinterlands: the bots took over and as a consequence the game is not as attractive anymore for humans, hence the collapse of the whole tokenomics (this is a bit simplified).
And "paying for cloud services" is not particularly exciting. Every smart contract is able to automatic payments. I am still waiting for some real interesting stuff.