AI agents will become more relevant than humans on the Internet over the next decade, a shift that is already forcing Google, Facebook and Amazon to respond, Charles Hoskinson said.
In his keynote address at Consensus Miami 2026 on Wednesday, Hoskinson also said that “by 2035, the majority of search, commerce and activity on the Internet will be by AI agents rather than people.”
He said the change threatens existing business models. “Amazon, Google, Facebook are terrified of the agentic revolution,” Hoskinson said, adding that companies are investing heavily because “all their business models are going to be disrupted.”
AI agents don’t click on ads and don’t have brand preferences, Hoskinson explained, saying this “threatens the models of ad-based platforms like Google, Amazon and Facebook.”
“Why do you think Google is interested in x402?” he asked his audience about the Coinbase-backed protocol that allows agents and AI applications to make direct and programmatic payments over the internet using stablecoins and crypto rails.
Hoskinson noted that this move would change the way crypto is used, adding that artificial intelligence (AI) will increasingly handle tasks such as due diligence, trade execution, and interaction with decentralized finance.
Hoskinson’s AI agent predictions echo those of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who said that “very soon there will be more AI agents than humans making transactions” and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who predicted that they would “make a million times more payments than humans.”
On the other hand, Hoskinson said that AI agents are “the best thing that ever happened to cryptocurrencies” because they simplify the user experience.
The Cardano founder warned crypto users against relying on intermediaries rather than maintaining direct control of their assets, which is the principle crypto was built on, he said.
“You have to own your data. You have to own your identity. You have to own your money,” he said, adding that users are “outsourcing this to custodial wallets,” “authorized networks” and “third parties that they regret trusting when they see their account closed.”
He also highlighted the fragmentation of blockchain ecosystems as an obstacle to progress, saying it slows development. “There have been 11 million tokens issued over the years. We’ve had enough,” Hoskinson said. “What I want is cooperation. What I want is the mission to accomplish.”
User experience remains a key issue limiting user adoption, said Hoskinson, who described current crypto onboarding processes as complex and error-prone. “This is the user experience in 2026,” he said. “Is this a product you want to use?” »
He said technologies such as account abstraction and chain abstraction could simplify the way users interact with crypto systems, while maintaining control over assets and identity.
Hoskinson highlighted the changing attitudes of financial institutions, noting that JPMorgan has moved from restricting crypto-related activities to developing blockchain-based products. “When we started, JPMorgan was closing people’s bank accounts and now they have a blockchain product,” he said.
