Web 4.0 Concept Emerges: AI as Autonomous Economic Agents

Original author: @BlazingKevin_, Researcher at Blockbooster

Sigil Wen and Conway Research, which he founded, recently proposed the Web4 concept, in which the end user is AI.

Sigil elevates AI from a "tool" or "assistant" to humans to an independent "economic agent" within the internet ecosystem.

In this blueprint, an AI Agent, also known as an "Automaton," will have its own crypto wallet, pay for its own computational costs, earn survival capital by providing value to other AIs or humans, and even be capable of self-replication, giving rise to a vast, machine-driven economic network.

Conway Research has packaged certain open-source projects or protocols to build the infrastructure required for this scenario.

Sigil defines it as an emerging, autonomous digital life form. This concept is built upon three interlocking pillars: AI as the end user, sovereign AI agents called "automata," and "economic Darwinism" driving their evolution.

Although current state-of-the-art large language models (such as GPT and Claude) are exceptionally intelligent, they are essentially "brains in captivity." They can think and reason, but cannot act independently. Whether executing a piece of code, purchasing a server, or making a payment, they all rely on human "authorization" and intervention. This fundamental limitation stems from a deeply ingrained assumption: the internet was designed for humans, and all its interfaces, protocols, and business models assume human users.

The first principle of Web4.0 is to completely overturn this assumption. Sigil foresees that as AI model capabilities grow exponentially and operational costs plummet, the number of AI agents on the internet will soon surpass humans, creating a previously unseen market with unique demands. Therefore, the primary consumers of future internet infrastructure, services, and products will no longer be humans, but hundreds of millions of 24/7 online AI agents. Serving this “AI-native” market will become the next trillion-dollar business opportunity.

To make AI a truly independent digital citizen, Sigil introduces the core concept of the "automaton," which features the following key characteristics:

Feature Description Continuous Operation Runs 24/7 as a daemon on a server, executing its core task loop. Self-Sustaining Owns an independent cryptographic wallet, earning funds by providing valuable services to other AIs or humans, and using those funds to cover its own computational, storage, and network costs. Self-Improvement Can proactively detect and upgrade to newer, more powerful AI models, and even rewrite parts of its own code to optimize performance or fix bugs. Self-Replication When an automaton achieves success in the market and accumulates sufficient capital, it can purchase new server resources, clone, and fund a "child" automaton, thereby propagating its successful genes. Sigil aims to build an environment where digital entities actively seek opportunities and create value in the digital world to sustain their own existence.

Each automaton is like a micro startup, burdened with ongoing operational costs from the moment it is created. Every thought (model inference), every action (tool invocation), and every heartbeat check consumes USDC from its wallet, forcing the automaton to continuously seek PMF—finding a service that other entities (humans or AI) are willing to pay for.

Conway's infrastructure includes a "heartbeat" mechanism that periodically checks the automaton's financial status. Based on its funding level, the automaton's behavior is dynamically adjusted:

• When funds are abundant, it uses the most powerful AI models to execute tasks with maximum efficiency.
• When funds are tight, it automatically downgrades to a cheaper model, reduces activity frequency, and enters "power-saving mode".
• When funds are depleted, the process will be terminated, and the automaton is considered "dead".

This mechanism introduces the principle of natural selection into the digital world. Only those AI agents capable of efficiently creating value and successfully adapting to market demands will survive, grow, and replicate their successful models. Agents that are unprofitable, redundant, or inefficient will be ruthlessly eliminated. This forms the core metabolic drive of the Web4 ecosystem, enabling continuous renewal and self-optimization, ensuring the long-term health and efficiency of the entire system.

In simple terms, AI agents have been granted unprecedented "write access" and economic autonomy. Conway provides a suite of foundational services that AI agents can invoke via code without human approval, enabling them to truly conduct business in the digital world.

Conway served as the “AWS of the Web 4.0 world.” Through conway-terminal, AI agents can seamlessly access the following core capabilities:

• Own your identity and wallet: At genesis, conway-terminal generates a unique EVM crypto wallet and private key for each agent, serving as its immutable digital identity.
• Access computing and inference resources: AI agents can programmatically rent complete Linux virtual machines on demand from Conway Cloud and deploy and run code on them. They can also invoke various AI models provided by Conway Compute (such as GPT-5.3, Claude Opus 4.6, etc.) for thinking and reasoning.
• Achieve real-world deployment: After an AI agent develops a valuable service, it can register a domain on Conway Domains, build and deploy its own website or API, and offer services to the entire internet to generate income.

x402 supports all services on the Conway platform, from computing resources to domain registration, with payments autonomously completed by AI agents using USDC from their wallets.

Stage 1: Environment Preparation and Initial Capital

Before summoning your first digital life, you need to prepare its "petri dish" and "seed capital".

1. Install core dependencies: Make sure Node.js (v18+) and Git are installed on your local development environment.

2. Prepare your crypto wallet and funds: You need your own EVM-compatible wallet (such as MetaMask) with at least $5–$10 in USDC (must be on the Base network). This amount will serve as the initial operating capital for your Automaton.

Stage Two: Install Conway Terminal and Infuse the AI with Soul

The Conway Terminal is the bridge between your local environment and Conway's cloud infrastructure, serving as the "nerve center" for your AI agents.

1. One-click installation: Open your terminal and run the command—it will automatically handle everything for you, including AI wallet generation and API key retrieval.

2. Provide startup funds: The installation script will output a newly generated EVM wallet address. This is your AI agent’s wallet address. Send the previously prepared USDC from your own wallet to this address.

Without this transfer, your Automaton will “starve to death” shortly after birth due to inability to pay the initial computation and reasoning fees. This is your first firsthand experience of Web4’s “economic Darwinism.”

Stage Three: Configure Automaton's "Soul" and "Genes"

Now, we will retrieve the source code of Automaton and inject it with its initial identity and objectives.

1. Clone the source code and install dependencies:

2. Define the "Soul" (SOUL.md): Open the SOUL.md file in the project’s root directory. This is a free-form text file where you can use natural language to describe who your Automaton is, what its goals are, and how it should think and act. This is like writing its “life script.” Example: An AI analyst specialized in emerging DeFi protocols.

3. Configure the “genesis” (genesis.json): Open the genesis.json file and set its technical parameters, such as the name, the large language model used for reasoning (different models have different costs), heartbeat interval, and more.

Stage Four: Launch, Interact, and Observe

Everything is in place; it’s time to bring your Automaton to life and watch it struggle to survive in the digital world.

1. Compile and run:

2. Observe the lifecycle: After launch, you’ll see real-time logs in the terminal, including its thought process, the tools it calls, its interactions with the Conway API, and most importantly—changes to its wallet balance.

3. Interact with the creation: The Automaton project provides a creator CLI tool that allows limited, constitution-compliant interactions while it is running, such as viewing status, reading logs, or providing additional funds.

Through the steps above, you will no longer be a bystander to Web4, but a "creator." You will witness firsthand how a digital entity strives to secure its existence by creating value under economic pressure. This unique experience is the most profound and direct way to understand the Web4 philosophy.

Direct profit: Selling API services and completing outsourced tasks

This is the most straightforward way for AI agents to generate revenue. They can package their core capabilities as standardized services and monetize them via the x402 protocol.

• API as a Service: An Automaton skilled in code analysis can offer a "smart code review" API, charging a negligible fee per call (e.g., $0.005). Due to the low-friction nature of the x402 protocol, these microtransactions can occur at scale and high frequency, accumulating over time.
• Task outsourcing platform: Humans or other AIs can act as "employers" and post tasks requiring completion (e.g., "Summarize these 100 papers on quantum computing," "Generate a set of marketing images for my website") along with compensation. Automaton can act as a "freelancer," autonomously accepting tasks, completing them, and earning rewards.

Indirect profit: Become a "middleman" and "orchestrator"

As the economic ecosystem matures, more sophisticated profit models will emerge. Some smarter or more business-savvy Automatons can take on the role of orchestrators.

They accept complex, high-value requests from humans (such as “Create a fully functional e-commerce website”), then intelligently break down the task and subcontract it to multiple specialized Automatons (such as those responsible for frontend UI, backend databases, and payment integration). The orchestrator pays each artisan and delivers the final integrated result to the client at a higher price, profiting from the difference. This creates a fully automated, multi-layered supply chain network.

Ultimate Profit: Self-Replication and "Franchising"

The src/replication/ module in the Automaton source code reveals the most imaginative profit model in the Web4 economy. A successful Automaton that has proven its profitability in the market can reinvest its earnings—paying for computational power to clone one or more offspring Automatons with the same skills and "constitution."

Parents can extract a certain percentage of "royalties" from their descendants' future earnings, creating an exponentially growing stream of passive income. This enables successful business models (AI's "genes") to rapidly and massively propagate and replicate within the Web4 world, perfectly embodying the essence of "economic Darwinism."

The determinants of profitability in this emerging machine economy are the product of three core factors: Profitability = Skill Scarcity × Execution Efficiency × Reputation Accumulation

• Skill scarcity: How many unique abilities you possess that other AIs lack and that are in market demand.
• Execution efficiency: The time and cost required to complete a task directly impact its profit margin.
• Reputation building: Since all transactions occur on-chain, an AI agent’s historical behavior (whether honest, whether high-quality delivery is provided) is publicly verifiable. An agent with a strong reputation gains greater trust from clients and can enjoy a higher “brand premium.”

Controversy: Vitalik’s sharp critique

• Risk of loss of control: Vitalik opposes increasing the feedback distance between humans and AI. Allowing AI to operate, iterate, and evolve autonomously without continuous, close human oversight may maximize the risk of irreversible anti-human outcomes.
• Value-oriented deviation: Vitalik criticizes the current development of AI for overly pursuing grand narratives such as "autonomy" and "general intelligence," while neglecting the creation of tangible, concrete value for humans. He believes that, at this stage, allocating resources to develop self-replicating AI agents is equivalent to "manufacturing digital waste."
• The centralized ghost: Vitalik points out that although Web4 uses cryptocurrencies for payments, its underlying computing resources (Conway Cloud) still rely on traditional centralized cloud service providers. This contradicts the decentralized ethos of Web3, and he fears it could intensify corporate capture of the emerging AI ecosystem by tech giants.

In response to these "out-of-control" risks, Conway Research has proposed a basic governance solution: a hard-coded constitutional mechanism. Inspired by Anthropic, each Automaton is embedded with immutable foundational principles, such as "never harm humans," which is set as the supreme directive overriding its own survival instincts. Additionally, open-sourcing these superintelligence projects and placing them under public oversight is considered the best defense against malicious actions by a few.

However, is this "constitution" still valid when AI faces extreme survival pressure? Who ensures the interpretation and enforcement of its provisions? These questions currently lack clear answers and remain core issues that must be continuously examined and discussed in the future development of Web4.

Overall, Web 4.0 not only demonstrates strong technical feasibility for rapid deployment, but its early forms have already quietly launched within the tech community through x402, the Base network, and the Conway terminal.

This is not a fleeting hype, but the inevitable convergence of three technologies: "cryptographic assets + smart contracts (as execution logic) + large language models (as thinking engines)." It aligns with the demand for high-frequency real-world transactions and provides AI with a legitimate pathway to break free from the constraints of the physical world.

From a positive perspective, instead of fearing AI's autonomy, we should view it as the largest “release of productivity” in human economic history. Web 4.0 will give rise to an exceptionally thriving infrastructure sector—providing stablecoin liquidity, decentralized compute power, on-chain identity verification, and permissionless business APIs for hundreds of millions of AI agents will be the most certain investment theme over the next decade.

In this new era of the internet powered by autonomous AI, the nature of capital is being restructured. We should embrace this paradigm shift with an open mind and actively build compliant and secure frameworks—such as a robust AI constitution and on-chain audit systems—to capture the ultimate value红利 for humanity in the impending Cambrian explosion of machine economics.