Anyone who is involved in the world of crypto has come across the KYC (along with AML) laws of many nations. This is standard in the financial world. The premise, as it is sold, is to keep bad actors out of the financial system. We see this used against countries that are under sanctions.
Governments want to stop the flow of criminal activity. The financial system is a large part of this battle. Most entities, if they are doing any volume of business, need the banking system. This includes criminals such as drug cartels and human traffickers. Of course, we will leave aside the criminal activities of the bankers for the sake of this article.
Crypto has railed against this. That stance is not to say that crypto advocates are supporters of criminal activity (although how that is defined is up to debate).
The main concept here is that, of all the transactions taking place, only a minor portion of illicit. The overwhelming majority of activity comes from people engaging in legal practices.
Many with this position believe that we are not looking at a battle against criminality. Instead, what we have is a giant surveillance state that can be used against the public. With what is taking place around the world in many countries, who can argue against this idea?
With that backdrop, things are going to change greatly. Most likely, in half a decade, we will not be looking at a world where KYC is the major discussion point.
Here is where Know Your Agent (KYA) is going to arise.
Tokenization is still in its infancy. This is a point that is missed by even the most ardent crypto advocates.
Thus far, tokens (crypt) as associated with finance. We are still in a "price go up" world. The majority want nothing more than green candles and their bags to grow.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting to have financial abundance. The idea of making enormous returns should appeal to anyone. However, when looking at the future, this is only a small portion of the potential.
Here is where the comparison to the Internet might apply. In the early stages, email forged ahead as the "killer app". It was a revolutionary way to communicate as compared to how things were handles previously.
It is amazing to think back to how slow things use to be. For those old enough, the analog world did move at a snail's pace.
Naturally, today, nobody would say the Internet is email. In fact, a case is made by many that this medium is still in its infancy. The fact that humans were such a large component has slowed things down.
The next evolution of the Internet is AI. We already see more than half the traffic being generated by computers. This is only going to keep expanding.
I have used this before. When looking at written output, 2025 saw AI surpass human creation for the first time (on a yearly basis).
If you consider that for a moment, it is astounding.
However, this next chart from Ark Invest tells a much bigger story. It expects cumulative human output to be eclipsed by AI in 2028.
What took humans centuries will be surpassed in only a few years.
How will the Internet be used?
Simply, it will be the infrastructure on which AI agents reside. It will be the "highway system" these entities utilize.
No longer will the Internet be a place for humans. The idea of a human going to a webpage for information will soon be obsolete.
Here is where understanding the future of tokens is everything.
We will see everything tokenized. It is important to remember that tokens originally were units of data. This was a way to quantify information. Actually, this is still the case. The main difference is crypto has a market where the tokens are traded for financial value.
Agents muddy the waters a great deal. It is safe to say they will not be operating using the banking system. After all, an agent cannot get an account.
Crypto, specifically stablecoins, are going to be the norm. However, along with this concept is the idea of verification.
For example, let us say there is an agent requesting your medical information. How does the entity that has such data know the agent is yours? In other words, how are the malicious actors separated from the legitimate requests?
This is an issue the agentic future has to solve. Fortunately, blockchain can be the norm in this area. We are looking at the ability to have immutable identity without the need for third party verification.
Thus far, the Internet is built upon permissions using passwords. In the future, that most likely will not be the case.
Financial institutions, by law, are required to know who is utilizing their system. Platforms are going to be the same way. However, instead of determining a human, they will be tasked with determining who are the nefarious bots and who isn't.
The way I see it, KYA must be built on blockchain.
