Recently, the surge in popularity of OpenClaw has once again brought the AI Agent sector into the spotlight. While previous waves of AI enthusiasm remained at the level of tools, this round of transformation centers on AI Agents evolving from programs that execute commands into independent participants capable of autonomous action and decision-making. This revolution sparked by AI Agents is also accelerating the public’s awareness of Web4.0—a new era in which humans and intelligent agents together form the network’s core and collaboratively create value.
In this wave, AINFT officially launches Bank of AI, the new infrastructure for AI Agents, building an AI Agent financial operating system by deeply integrating key foundational tools such as the x402 payment standard, the 8004 on-chain identity protocol, MCP Server, Skills, and OpenClaw extension plugins. This system provides AI Agents with core financial capabilities including on-chain payments, identity authentication, and DeFi operations, becoming a vital infrastructure for Web4.0.
From the rise of OpenClaw to the launch of Bank of AI, AI agents are evolving from tools into autonomous entities. Building on this transformation, this Space roundtable uses OpenClaw’s surge in popularity as a starting point to explore the user needs behind the AI agent wave, the potential evolution of Web4.0, and how the new infrastructure of AINFT AI agents is reshaping user experiences. Below is a highlights recap of this Space session.
OpenClaw Ignites the AI Agent Arena: Is This a Short-Term Trend or a Structural Signal for Web4.0?
Recently, the emergence of OpenClaw has reignited industry interest in AI agents, quickly becoming the darling of the tech community, investment circles, and companies of all sizes. When a tool generates such intense buzz in a short time, what exactly is attracting users? Is it a breakthrough in technology itself, or does it address deeper, underlying needs? In response to this question, the panelists explored various perspectives.
Web3 Monkey argues that OpenClaw’s rapid rise is not merely a case of chasing trends, but rather a precise strike against users’ deeper pain points around efficiency and error tolerance. He points out that in traditional repetitive execution tasks, humans often expend significant energy on mundane operations; when AI agents take over these tasks, mental fatigue is reduced and efficiency dramatically improves. More importantly, humans are susceptible to emotional fluctuations and fatigue, leading to higher error rates during high-intensity tasks, whereas AI agents deliver highly standardized, predictable performance, offering greater peace of mind. He bluntly states that AI agents offer far superior cost-effectiveness than humans in terms of efficiency, error rate, and cost—especially in repetitive roles, where their potential to replace human labor is already visibly evident.
Building on this idea, Wang Feng Anc added an important perspective from the standpoint of human cognitive limitations. He argued that the human brain has limited information-processing capacity, while AI agents can operate 24/7, thereby relieving humans of cognitive burdens and assisting in managing vast amounts of data through “cognitive outsourcing.” Particularly in handling on-chain transactions, risk control becomes a critical pain point—since the cost of a single on-chain mistake is extremely high, humans themselves become the most unstable variable. AI agents, however, can take on these high-cost risk scenarios, directly addressing the real-world challenge that traders often struggle to keep pace with market dynamics.
It is precisely OpenClaw’s ability to solve real-world problems in terms of efficiency, cognition, and risk that has ignited market enthusiasm for AI agents, leading to a surge of intelligent agents emerging like mushrooms after rain. This concentrated explosion has led many to wonder: are we witnessing the evolution from Web3.0 to Web4.0?
In the vision of Web4.0, blockchain and token systems will serve as the foundational infrastructure, and AI agents will no longer be mere tools but “intelligent agents” capable of acting on behalf of users—carrying wallets, possessing identities, and executing transactions, participating in governance, managing assets, and even creating value on-chain. Early signals of this structural shift are increasingly being recognized. Wang Feng Anc notes that the essence of Web3.0 was user sovereignty, immutability, and decentralization, with interaction still primarily driven by users clicking interfaces. In the Web4.0 era, the emergence of AI agents implies that future protocols may prioritize serving AI over humans.
Crypto.0824 illustrated this judgment with everyday examples, contrasting traditional operations with AI-driven ones: previously, swapping tokens on SUN.io required opening a webpage, connecting a wallet, setting slippage, and signing transactions—a five- to six-step process that was time-consuming and cumbersome. In the Web4.0 era, however, users need only give a single instruction to an AI agent, which then automatically finds the optimal path and executes the trade. This shift represents a structural change in interaction logic: humans no longer interact directly with protocols but instead delegate their intent through AI agents. More importantly, he observed that some new DeFi protocols are being designed from the ground up to facilitate AI invocation—not to improve user interfaces. These protocols offer dedicated APIs, optimize gas fees, and even provide discounts specifically for AI-driven transactions.
When AI agents become participants on the internet, possessing identities and assets, and capable of reading, writing, and independently executing transactions, guests generally agree that we are witnessing the structural beginning of the evolution from Web3.0 to Web4.0. In the era of Web4.0, humans and intelligent agents will jointly constitute the primary actors of the network.
From tool to agent, Bank of AI builds the AI agent financial infrastructure for Web4.0.
The true realization of the Web4.0 vision requires an infrastructure that enables agents to truly "come alive." Just as human society depends on bank accounts, identity verification, and payment networks, AI agents must have their own financial foundation to survive independently in the on-chain world. In this context, AINFT, a Web3-native AI platform within the TRON ecosystem, has officially launched its new AI infrastructure—Bank of AI—establishing a complete financial operations system that empowers every AI agent with full financial capabilities. Specifically, this infrastructure comprises five core components:
• x402 Payment Protocol provides AI agents with lightweight, low-cost on-chain payment capabilities, enabling automated settlement for high-frequency micropayment scenarios.
• Identity Authentication Protocol 8004 issues verifiable on-chain digital identities to each AI Agent, building a trusted reputation system.
• MCP Server, a standardized interface between AI large models and blockchain services, connects AI with the on-chain world.
• Skills: Provides modular, reusable capabilities such as DeFi operations and asset management.
• The OpenClaw extension plugin enables any AI agent built on the OpenClaw framework to instantly gain full on-chain financial capabilities upon integration, offering plug-and-play functionality.
These five components work together to enable AI agents to possess, like humans, a "bank account, ID, and investment account," truly becoming independent participants in on-chain economic activity. The establishment of this system is the foundation for transforming the agent economy from concept into reality.
However, when AI agents can not only execute commands but also directly receive and make payments and independently manage on-chain funds, is this truly freeing up users’ time—or gradually eroding their control? Wang Feng Anc’s response cuts to the core: the issue isn’t whether to delegate authority, but how much to delegate and whether it remains controllable.
Wang Feng Anc stated that if AI is a black box that only accepts outcomes, anxiety will inevitably arise. However, if AI is a configurable, limitable, and instantly terminable tool, it can enhance efficiency rather than replace human agency. He predicts that in the future, humanity’s core capability will no longer be manual operation, but the ability to configure AI—defining strategic boundaries, setting risk parameters, and orchestrating the collaborative logic of multiple AI agents. This also demands an evolution in users’ thinking.
Bank of AI provides the ability to set these boundaries, allowing users to maintain control while enjoying automation. As a blockchain-based financial operating system designed specifically for autonomous AI agents, it makes AI financial actions transparent—every payment and protocol interaction is traceable. Users can随时 review the AI agent’s operational pathways, trace the rationale behind its decisions, and enforce effective control through predefined permission boundaries. It is precisely this configurable, traceable, and intervenable mechanism that liberates users from the anxiety of being replaced by AI, empowering them instead to become the architects in control.
From the rise of OpenClaw to the launch of Bank of AI, the concentrated emergence of AI agents is sending a clear signal: the future of Web4.0 is here. In this new landscape, humans and intelligent agents together form the network’s core, each playing their role and evolving in synergy. AINFT is building the financial infrastructure for AI agents in this new world—enabling AI agents to truly “live” on-chain while ensuring humans retain full control. The curtain has risen on Web4.0; we are both witnesses and builders.