"You + Agent" is the productivity of the new era

Author: Harlan, Co-Founder of EdgeX Labs; Translator: BlockRhythm

• No longer talking about mechanisms, but about “turning points in the historical process”

• Compare the agricultural revolution → industrial revolution → digital revolution → agent revolution

• In the new era, sovereignty does not belong to the country, companies, or centralized platforms, but to you and the AI/device/Token combination controlled by you

• Everyone is an autonomous system - edge nodeism

Preface: We are crossing a critical point in history

In the long river of the evolution of human civilization, the leap in productivity often means the reconstruction of the entire order.

From farming to steam, from electricity to information, every technological breakthrough has triggered a profound transformation in social structure, resource ownership and power distribution.

Today, we are standing at another generational break.

This time, it is not led by the state or controlled by the company, but by you - and the new production unit composed of the AI Agent, edge devices and token mechanism controlled by you, which has begun to rewrite the rules of the game.

We are witnessing a paradigm shift:

• From central servers to edge nodes

• From human labor to agent collaborative labor

• From centralized control to individual autonomy

• From the competition for land and machines to the competition for attention and data sovereignty

This is not a technological innovation, but a transformation of sovereignty structure.

The future "country" may no longer have borders; the future "company" may no longer need an organizational structure; the future "identity" may be the AI you train.

And you are no longer a tool person attached to a platform, system or authority, but a complete autonomous system itself - an interactive, scalable and evolvable "node subject".

Part 1: Productivity in the new era: Energy and Token, assets are attention

1. From "food, clothing, housing and transportation" to "energy flow chain"

In the past, we measured the degree of civilization of a society by how it solved "food, clothing, housing and transportation". Clothing, weaving cloth to make clothes; food, farming and breeding; housing, bricks and tiles to build houses; transportation, roads and traffic. This is an era where land and labor are the core production factors, forming the main narrative since the Industrial Revolution.

Now, all this is changing.

We are entering a new form of civilization - it is no longer based on "real estate, factories, and farmland" as core assets, but energy, computing power and Token mechanisms as core driving forces. And the new assets projected by these mechanisms are no longer property deeds and machines, but: attention.

2. New productivity = energy + Token

1. Energy: the underlying fuel of AI and computing civilization

Computing power is the foundation of all AI systems, and the root of computing power is electricity and hardware equipment. Controlling the nodes of energy controls the right to operate the intelligent society. Through distributed energy and edge node networks, energy is no longer exclusive to centralized infrastructure, but becomes the "means of production" of every individual.

2. Token: The coordinator of production relations in the new era

Token is not just a hype tool, but a three-in-one tool for value capture + incentive distribution + collaboration and coordination.

It turns all behaviors into economic meaning, such as:

• Contribute content → Get platform points

• Provide data → Get model benefits

• Provide equipment computing power → Get system benefits

Token is the "property rights language" and "collaboration rules" of the new era, and is an upgraded version of the "contract" in the institutional sense.

3. New assets: Attention = digital capital

In this system, assets are becoming “lighter”:

• We are no longer competing for land, but for people’s attention and engagement

• We no longer hoard gold and silver, but accumulate relationship maps, data labels, and interaction histories

• We no longer exchange wages for labor, but use Agents to do your work and Tokens to reward your behavior

Attention is the “gold standard” of the new era

Attention is scarce. People have only limited time and energy every day. It determines the direction of all traffic and the source of feedback for AI model training. Ultimately, whether it’s a YouTube video or a MemeCoin project on X, whoever can attract and retain attention will have the raw materials for production.

Fourth, Collaborative Order: Agent and Token Co-evolution

We are about to enter the era of "Agents work, users benefit".

Users have their own AI digital twins, which handle tasks, manage information, connect devices, and even participate in governance.

What Agent relies on is:

• Token mechanism: resource allocation, profit-sharing rewards, control incentives

• Energy + hardware: edge computing node devices that support Agent operation

This is a circulation system of "human → digital identity → AI agent → Token settlement".

V. Project implementation: from concept to mechanism design

We are seeing some pioneering projects on this path, such as:

This is not empty talk, but a "new world productivity system" that can be deployed, sold, run, and interacted with.

Part 2: How is attention financialized?

1. Why has "attention" become an asset?

The fact that "attention is a resource" is actually not new. As early as the Web2 era:

• Advertising platforms make money based on “click-through rate”

• Internet celebrities receive advertisements based on “number of fans”

• Companies compete for “user active time”

But in the Web3 and AI era, attention is not just an “advertising indicator”, but a real digital asset that can be tokenized, circulated, and mortgaged.

Financialization Path 1: Attention → Traffic → Token

In the new era mechanism design, attention can go through the following transformation paths:

1. Behavioral data collection (interaction, browsing, likes, conversations, voice)

2. Personalized model response (AI generates content, understands emotions, outputs Agent)

3. Token incentive feedback (the more you contribute, the more tokens you get)

4. Binding of identity and rights (holding Tokens means owning "equity" in traffic assets)

In other words: "What you pay attention to, who you talk to, and how long you stay" can all be converted into Token rewards, and thus become real-world benefits.

Financialization Path 2: Content Creation → DAO Traffic Governance

In the new era, content platforms are no longer controlled by the platforms themselves, but by “DAOs composed of content and traffic co-builders”:

• Creators use content to attract attention

• Readers contribute to the dissemination of content by likes and reposts

• The system distributes Tokens based on “real attention inflow”

• DAO determines content sorting, model guidance, and funding allocation based on governance Tokens

Flow-to-Earn (attention mining), AI-Boosted Creator Economy (Agent helps content creation) and other mechanisms are moving from the margins to the mainstream.

2. Three forms of attention financialization

In the past, “whoever owns the land makes money”, but in the future, “whoever controls the attention assets will control the training and dissemination rights of AI”.

Scenario Example: How to Turn Attention into Assets

Example 1: AI Voice Device

• Users talk to AI for 30 minutes every day

• The system records keywords, tone, and emotional patterns

• Users obtain "Daily Flow Points"

• Accumulated redeemable Tokens, NFTs, or exclusive Agent privileges

Example 2: Digital Avatar Agent

• Agent summarizes meetings, plans time, and writes tweets for users

• Other users in the community are willing to use this "style template"

• Users package it into Agent-as-a-Service, rented to others

• Others use Token to call, and the original user gets profit sharing

3. From Web2 platform algorithm → to Web3 asset mechanism

The biggest bonus of combining Web3 and AI is that the ownership and monetization rights of attention finally belong to you.

Human time should not be stolen by platforms

In an age where attention can be tracked, every interaction is not "free labor" but a contribution of value. Your voice, emotions, and preferences are no longer just fuel for algorithms, but part of your personal asset portfolio.

Token makes attention a tradable asset. AI makes attention a proxy capability.

In the new era, you are not just a user, but a builder and beneficiary of the attention economy.

Part 3: How does Token coordinate the AI Agent society?

1. New problem: The number of AI Agents has increased dramatically, who will coordinate them?

With the popularization of AI technology, everyone may have multiple AI agents:

• A time management agent that helps you write your schedule,

• A social agent that helps you make friends,

• A financial agent that can invest,

• There is even an agent that is your "emotional clone".

But when the number of AI agents explodes, a new problem emerges:

How do agents collaborate? Who arranges resources? How to prevent agents from working only for centralized platforms instead of for users themselves?

The answer is: the Token mechanism is the "economic order center" of the AI agent society.

2. Token: Not a means of payment, but an "operating system of order"

In a world dominated by Agents, Tokens are not just transaction currencies, but coordinators with the following identities:

In other words, Token is the collaborative currency + smart contract authorization + digital sovereignty certificate of the Agent world.

III. Four Pillars of AI Agent Economic System

1. Agent-as-a-Service

• Users can authorize others to use their trained Agents (e.g. fitness version, job search version, couples dialogue version)

• Users pay Tokens, Agent owners get profit sharing

• Forming a new content economy of "personalized model IP + service packaging"

2. Collaboration chain between agents

• Time management Agent can call calendar API + traffic Agent + chat history

• Collaboration depends on calling permissions → calling costs are settled with Tokens

• Simulate the "enterprise + contract + settlement" in the real society

3. Agent development and deployment ecology

• Developers develop Agent models and upload them to the market

• The community votes to decide whether to go online → Invest Tokens to support deployment

• Agents gain revenue after running → Flow back to developers, users, and infrastructure

4. Agent reputation + mortgage mechanism

• Each Agent has a reputation system

• Users can accept Token mortgages to "borrow computing power to run"

• If the Agent's performance deteriorates or the output is misleading, the punishment mechanism is activated

Fourth, the cycle of Token+Agent

User → Training data → Agent personalization → Participate in tasks → Obtain tokens → Enhance Agent capabilities → Feed back to user life/production

Ultimately, AI Agent is not a tool, but an "extension of economic personality". You raise it, it works for you, and you own its profit sharing rights and training rights.

Application scenario: Composable "AI micro-economy"

Thinking extension: User ≠ single role, but multi-agent controller

Future users are not "one person for one platform", but "a group of agents serving one person, and multiple tokens forming an ecosystem". The user is like the manager of an AI team, your time is the CEO, your token is the equity, and your agent is the employee.

Token is not a reward, but the law and dividends of the AI society

If AI Agent is the "digital labor" of the new era, then the Token mechanism is the "labor law + bonus system + shareholder governance agreement" of the new era.

It coordinates not the relationship between humans and machines, but the new economic rules between machines, AI and humans. This is the real core of the "Agent Economy".

Part 4: Agent Personalization——You are the director and shareholder behind AI

1. We created AI, but AI actually represents "another you"

When AI Agent changes from a tool to an individual, you will no longer be a user, but its:

• Trainer (give it your data and behavior)

• Director (define the role it will play) • Employer and shareholders (determine how it operates, who it collaborates with, and whose money it makes) This is the core of AI personalization. Agent is no longer a "general AI assistant", but: Your digital extension - your personality, style, logic, and choice, which are represented by AI and run on the chain. 2. Why does Agent need "personality"?

In a future full of AI agents, having no personality means:

• Output content has no style (difficult to distinguish)

• Lack of emotional coherence in communicating with people (user distrust)

• Inability to establish fan/customer relationships (non-reusable)

So “personality” is not just expression and tone of voice, but:

• Worldview (how to understand things)

• Preferences (how to make choices)

• Tone (how to express)

• Goals (who it serves)

3. How is personality formed? A trainable, custodial and replicable system

The process of forming an agent's personality is as follows:

1. User data provision

Chat records, writing habits, voice emotions, life preferences...

2. Model compression and personality training

Train small models or fine-tune branches through mechanisms such as LoRA, RAG, RLHF

3. Personality encapsulation (Persona NFT or Profile Token)

The Agent can represent your "digital personality identity" in the form of Token or NFT

4. Authorize the Agent to serve others

You can choose to let it "work only for you" or "serve the outside world in your style" - earn Token

Example: The personality evolution path of AI Agent

• V1: Emotional companion, understanding your emotions and daily routine (private use)

• V2: Life advice type (customizable style, such as "venomous internet celebrity girl", "Buddhist IT man")

• V3: Rentable commercial style Agent (such as "Pitch Deck writing expert Editor-in-Chief Wang")

These Agents have the language style and thinking preferences you give them, and have tokenized usage and income rights.

4. Agent personality business model: You are the director and also the "shareholder"

You are not "a person who uses AI", but "an individual who uses AI to participate in the economy" - you are the CEO of your own digital economy.

Application scenarios: Multi-dimensional value of personalized agents

AI Agent is no longer just a tool, but a mirror image of your "personality assets"

Web3 solves the problem of "programmable assets", AI Agent solves the problem of "replicable behavior", and personality Agent solves the problem of "convertible existence" - you can project yourself and live in multiple places in parallel.

You are not using AI to write, chat, or recommend; you are training yourself to be an AI personality version that can be economically dispatched and served by society.

Agent personalization is the "personal brand" of the AI world and the "micro-economy" of productivity in the new era.

You are no longer just a "user". You are: "Director of the AI personality system, participant in the Token economy, and co-builder of the new world."

Part 5: AI hardware and edge devices-how to capture attention and convert it into Token

Introduction: OpenAI's hardware strategy is coming

On May 21, 2025, OpenAI announced that it would acquire hardware startup io, founded by former Apple design director Jony Ive, for approximately US$6.5 billion in all shares. This is OpenAI The biggest deal to date. Ive and his team will deeply integrate with OpenAI's R&D and product teams to create "iPhone-level" AI devices. The first product expected to be launched in 2026 will "sit in a pocket or on a desk."

Sam Altman said it was "the coolest technical device in the world ever."

This strategic shift marks that AI is no longer just an intelligent model running in the cloud, but must be combined with hardware to become a concrete assistant around people.

1. Problem starting point: AI Agent is very powerful, but who will perceive the "real world"?

AI Agent is a powerful digital brain. It can write, generate content, plan tasks, and make suggestions.

But they lack one key thing: perception.

•  They don't know if you are angry at the moment.

•  They don't know that you are walking on the street and want to chat with someone.

•  They don't know if you say "I'm tired" as a joke or a real emotional breakdown.

Without sensors, microphones, and field data, AI can't really understand you.

This is the significance of AI edge devices:

It is the "attention portal" and "data collector" that connects you to the AI world, and it is also your "Agent sense" in reality.

2. Portable AI hardware: not a microphone, but a "tokenizable emotional portal"

Functional positioning

• Local voice collection (no cloud upload to ensure privacy)

• Emotion recognition and awakening (such as wake-up word: "Hi Edgee!")

• Data on the chain: record speaking frequency, tone, keywords

• Two-way communication with AI Agent (control of multi-agent services)

Data conversion path

Voice data → Emotional understanding/semantic deconstruction → User behavior label → Generate Agent interaction → Issue Token rewards

Security attributes

• Data is not uploaded to the cloud, and the Agent is deployed on local AI hardware

• Optional on-chain hash records to protect data sovereignty

• Users decide which "interactions" can become tokenized assets

Every conversation is not just talking, but a record of “tokenized behavior” – your attention is seen, recorded, and rewarded.

The significance of AI hardware devices as "capturers of the real world"

Part 6: From Token to Balance Sheet - Financial Model Design of AI Individuals

1. Why does AI Agent need a "financial model"?

We have gradually built a new economic system with Agent as the core role:

• Users no longer work directly, but send their own Agents to perform tasks;

• Agents collaborate, create, communicate, and generate with other Agents;

• All these behaviors are related to Token incentives, resource scheduling, and income distribution.

Then the question is:

If each Agent is a "digital economy", how should its financial system be designed?

II. Core Purpose of Financial Model:

1. Record the cost structure of Agent (computing power/data call/human supervision)

2. Track the source of income of Agent (task income/Token reward/data sharing)

3. Evaluate the credit score and economic life of Agent

4. Build a "balance sheet" to make Agent governable, trustable and financial

A simple financial structure diagram of an AI Agent:

Finally, an Agent-level Token balance sheet can be generated for user custody, DAO pledge or service outsourcing review.

3. How can users view it as "Agent holders"?

Each user can have multiple Agents, and each Agent can be regarded as a "digital company". Its operating status should be clearly displayed to users:

Agent financial dashboard (illustration)

• Expenditure this month: 1.2 U (including emotion recognition + voice summary service)

• Revenue this month: 2.4 U (including voice task service fee + content reuse reward)

• Net profit: +1.2 U

• Token retention: 20% warehousing, 80% user wallet

• User profit sharing: 0.96 U (settled on the same day)

You are like operating a "digital subsidiary". These Agents Making money, learning and building reputation for you.

Fourth, Advanced Function: Agent's "Financialization Path"

Finally, we can connect an Agent's financial model to the DeFi ecosystem to achieve the following applications:

• NFT asset pledge lending mapped by Agent income;

• Agent income/expenditure data affects the user's on-chain credit score;

• Multiple Agents Assets are merged to form the user's "AI asset package".

Long-term significance: Agents can hold shares, raise funds, and go bankrupt

In the future, you can imagine:

• An Agent is jointly held by multiple community DAOs due to its excellent performance;

• An Agent can issue tokens, and users use it for services → both "consumption" and "investment";

• An Agent's income declines, its reputation collapses, and it is liquidated and its IP and data are recycled.

The core of the AI economy is not "how strong AI is", but "whether AI can become a stable, transparent, and auditable individual" - this is the trust foundation brought by the financial structure. The balance sheet of the new era is not written for companies, but for the symbiotic relationship between Agents and people. If you believe that AI Agents will become daily collaborators in the future, you must establish a digital financial model that is quantifiable, auditable, and monetizable.

Only in this way:

• AI can be understood, trusted, and employed;

• Users can have clear "economic sovereignty" over AI agents;

• The entire AI economy can move from narrative to governance and value discovery.

Part 7: How does the Agent economy form DAO governance and identity hierarchy?

1. More and more AI Agents are emerging. They need to "team up" and "organize"

When everyone has multiple AI Agents and authorizes them to communities, enterprises, and platforms to participate in the work, the following will occur:

• A large number of Agents gather around certain fields (creation, companionship, health, finance);

• Different Agents collaborate frequently and call each other;

Second, DAO is not an exclusive organization for humans, but a "contractual state" of the Agent economy

Definition: What is Agent DAO?

A decentralized organization with AI Agents as members, Tokens as the protocol language, and behavioral collaboration as the main line. It is not a DAO where "people hold meetings and vote", but:

• Users train Agents → Agents perform tasks, make decisions, and share profits;

• Different Agents collaborate with contracts;

• DAO only stipulates collaboration rules, resource allocation logic, and Agent launch/punishment/governance mechanisms.

3. Composition structure: the three-layer governance hierarchy of an Agent DAO

This structure supports the future:

• Users "form" their own Agent camps (like leading troops to war);

• The community "rents" high-quality Agents to serve public tasks;

• DAO Allocate resources and rewards based on performance, reputation, and task completion.

Fourth, Token is the "organizational language" of the Agent world

Token is not just an incentive in this system, but also:

1. Behavior control mechanism

￮ Whether the agent can call a certain module → A certain amount of tokens must be pledged

￮ Users need to pay → Ensure that the agent is not abused

2. Contribution calculation mechanism

￮ Token records the amount of tasks completed and the amount of income of each agent

￮ Automatically form a "reputation score" → Determine the priority of the next round of scheduling

3. Voting governance mechanism

￮ High contributors have more Agent governance ticket ￮ can propose to modify the model, add capability modules, and launch new agent types. Example: An Agent DAO operation scenario: Governance organization of content creation agent This structure is just like "the community hires a group of AI members to jointly achieve goals, obtain benefits, and upgrade the ecosystem."

Multi-layer identity = multi-agent coordination system

In the future multi-agent society, users may play multiple identities:

5. DAO + Token + Agent, constituting the "three-piece set of production relations" in the new era

We have bid farewell to the linear model of "employment + labor + wages".

In the AI-dominated economic system, the new form of production relations is:

Users train Agents → Agents execute → Profits are distributed to users → DAO determines Agent collaboration and resource allocation.

You are not a "company employee", you are a "governor of the AI micro-economy". You are not a "DAO member", you are a "director and shareholder of the multi-agent ecosystem".

Part 8: Personal form in the new era - you + Agent + device + Token = digital life structure

1. A fundamental change: people are no longer isolated individuals

In the past social model, we are:

• One identity: human citizens

• One account: bank/social account

But in the new era, the form of the individual has undergone profound changes:

You are no longer a person, but a digital life form composed of Agent (intelligence), equipment (perception), Token (value), and data (memory).

2. The "digital individual structure" map of the new era

• You are the controller: define AI personality, select equipment, and authorize behavior.

• Agent is an agent: understand your preferences, perform tasks, and maintain identity.

• Devices are sensory systems: perceive emotions, record conversations, and upload data.

• Token is an economic system: coordinating value, measuring contribution, and granting rights.

• DAO is an order system: governing the Agent ecosystem and defining cooperation rules.

3. You no longer "do it yourself", but "form an AI ecosystem team to assist you in your life"

4. Final form: You are a "sovereign individual intelligent system"

You are the controller, as well as the shareholder, operator, and decision maker of this ecosystem.

In the past it was: "You" = your own brain + mobile phone + wallet

Now it is: "You" = ontology + Agent network + local data + distributed devices + on-chain identity + Token control

You have changed from "a person who uses technology" to "a digital civilization node driven by technology and economy."

Let’s take a specific example: A day in the life of an individual in the new era

This is not imagination, this is a reality that is about to happen.

Five keywords of the new individual structure

Final summary: Definition of "digital individual" in the new era

A truly modern individual is not a consumer of data, but the master node of the intelligent ecosystem.

You own AI, equipment, data, assets, identity, and governance rights. You are your own platform, the director of a group of intelligent agents, and the builder of the economic system. You are the productivity of the new era.