In the 1960s a single IBM System 360 mainframe could occupy an entire room and cost millions of dollars. Today the average smartphone in our hands outperforms that historic machine by orders of magnitude. The same trajectory that shrank hardware is now playing out with AI.

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A combination of LLM architecture efficiency and relentless hardware GPU innovation are turning what once required a datacenter into something that will soon run at the edge, unlocking unprecedented opportunities for new players.

Big Tech incumbents are pouring 100s of billions of dollars into hyperscale GPU clouds and subsidizing “free” AI use to maintain market dominance.

This new computing paradigm demands rethinking hardware and reimagining human-computer interaction from the ground up—with ambient listening that lets agents interject naturally, and fast, private inference on your data. Purpose‑built hardware can expose secure elements for key storage, provide means for authentication and proof of humanity in an internet dominated by AI agents. If anything, custom hardware can make the network much more powerful as a platform.

Most apps compete for mindshare by fragmenting our attention. Great AI experiences should save time, like a thoughtful coworker who steps in only when needed. In my opinion, DePIN is uniquely positioned to facilitate this approach and deliver the ecosystem that makes it possible.

The Rise of Consumer DePIN

I would argue Bitcoin mining was the first DePIN project. Early miners rushed to buy specialized hardware to secure a public ledger. Bitcoin became a trillion‑dollar asset class only after hobbyists kept investing from CPUs to GPUs to ASICs. Each hardware leap increases community investment and interest in the project while improving security and the asset value.

Helium is another example of crowdsourced 5G cellular coverage. Hardware owners earn HNT whenever their hotspots move sensor data or phone traffic.

The same template will work for any infra‑heavy application: home hardware feeding a community-owned AI software, coordination and compensation can be automated on‑chain, a DePIN can bootstrap physical capacity that rivals deepest‑pocketed incumbents.

NVIDIA’s RTX 5090 and RTX 4090 already run quantized Qwen, Deepseek Kimik2 that. It is not difficult to imagine three years forward and millions of end devices will comfortably host 30B‑parameter assistants offline.

User‑Owned and Rethinking Freemium with Tokens

In a consumer DePIN, a token is more than a speculative asset: it is the key that grants access to the software and GPU time. And with the rise of AI agents, communities can organize and build public utilities such as search engines, AI applications that are distributed as a public good with utility reflected in the demand, and supply of the token. Tokens let us invert the freemium funnel: instead of giving away service to anyone with an email address, access is earned by contributing scarce resources like bandwidth, GPU time, or code commits. Because tokens are transferable, power users can also resell unused capacity—smoothing demand spikes and seeding secondary markets

Open Networks and B2B: A Complementary Path

Tokens create a powerful flywheel, driving community adoption and incentivizing broad utility. Enterprise offerings are often consultative by nature, allowing labs to sustain separate B2B revenue streams independent of the token, while still benefiting from the momentum of the open-source network and its distribution.

Consumer DePIN: The Time is Now

Consumer DePINs offer a credible path to infrastructure that belongs to its users, governed by open code and sustained by token rewards. Builders should seize the opportunity:

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Today’s internet does not like bots, many companies are dedicated to block and stop agents from accessing content on the internet.

But Agents are bots! And agents are a legitimate form of internet use that demands more: smarter AI and an infrastructure with instant API access, micropayments, and permissions that don’t require human approval.

By 2030, agents will dominate online activities. But for now, the web’s legacy infrastructure is nowhere near ready for what’s coming. Change comes slowly—then suddenly. It begins by retrofitting the present, and unfolds as the missing infrastructure puzzle pieces come together until a new agentic internet takes shape.

Near Term: Hacking the Human Web

As AI agent usage grows, developers are racing to wrap the human-first web in machine-readable layers, parsing text and restructuring it into consumable APIs that enable websites to be used by agents. AI agents are using passwords for user-permissioned access to access data behind the login. It’s clunky, but it works for now.

There are also some bold attempts to introduce agent micropayments as a form of authentication replacing API keys. The Coinbase x402 protocol updates the standard HTTP flow to support machine-native interaction. Instead of requiring developers to manually apply for an API key, x402 allows a server to respond with “402 Payment Required.” An agent can then send a small, stablecoin payment on the spot. This new protocol seamlessly integrates payment with access control and licensing, fitting neatly into existing infrastructure.

With the rise of zero click search engines like Perplexity and chatGPT, Cloudflare is offering content creators a way to monetize access by charging AI crawlers to pay per crawl. In the agentic internet, micropayment is a fundamental piece of the internet moving forward.

Medium Term: The Rise of the Agent Economy

As agent access becomes more structured, their behavior will level up from single automation to coordination. They’ll begin to compose services, trigger downstream tasks, and negotiate across systems on behalf of users. The glue for all of this? Micropayments: tiny, instant transactions that turn the web into a marketplace where agents will transact automatically. No prearranged contracts needed.

Imagine your agent needs a premium data feed. Instead of prompting you for a card, it pays a fraction of a cent straight to the source. One agent buys a real-time stream from another. A planner pays a specialist to crunch numbers. In these contexts, micropayments bundle payments, trust, and licensing all in one.

Today, content creators exchange their work for traffic and ad revenue. Agents consume information directly and summarize it, but as agents proliferate, that attention – and the ad economy it drives – will vanish.

As ad revenue dries up, micropayments will represent a new deal for digital content. Every time a creator’s work fuels an agent’s response, micropayments award them an instant payout. It’s fair, streamlined, and the backbone of tomorrow’s online economy. In this agent-driven internet, every website becomes an API, seamlessly feeding value to those who power it. In this phase, every website will have two versions: one for humans and one optimized for AI agents. And we’re already seeing the start of that with MCPs, A2A, Agent.txt and LLM.txt.

Long Term: Protocols Replace Interfaces

As coordination becomes the norm, the final shift takes shape. Your Agent becomes an extension of you running your digital life. Instead of waiting for clicks, systems begin to expose capabilities directly. Your agent authenticates on your behalf, manages subscriptions, downgrades unused services, and even coordinates with other agents for larger jobs, paying and licensing on the fly.

But this future depends on deep structural change. Agents won’t flourish in an internet that treats them as bots. They’ll need environments that grant them scoped authority, expose machine-parsable capabilities, and enable smooth per-use value transfer.

The Agentic Internet will be powered by web3

The agentic internet hinges on authentication and micropayments are core primitives of Web3 that weave trust and value into every interactions and transactions. Builders will move from mimicking human clicks to systems that treat agents as customers and collaborators. This requires infrastructure where agents authenticate seamlessly and pay instantly, unlocking an autonomous agent economy.

The Agentic Internet is, at its core, a crypto-native internet. And moving forward, the internet will not function without authentications and micropayments.

For years, we’ve paid for software the same way: by the seat, through subscriptions... hoping it maps to real usage. But more often than not, it doesn’t.

Now, a new model is emerging. One built for agents, automated systems that complete tasks, not browse dashboards. And agents don’t need 10 seats to get things done.

For years, we’ve paid for software the same way: by the seat, through subscriptions... hoping it maps to real usage. But more often than not, it doesn’t.

Now, a new model is emerging. One built for agents, automated systems that complete tasks, not browse dashboards. And agents don’t need 10 seats to get things done.

Goodbye Subscriptions. Hello Pay-Per-Use.

Sam Altman hinted at this when he proposed per-use pricing for AI tools. Users pushed back, but enterprises? They’re ready.

Why? Because they want pricing tied to outcomes, not headcount.

• Agents still log in and use tools, but don’t need excess seats.

• Better agents = fewer licenses.

• Pricing shifts from flat rates to task-based triggers—pay only when work gets done.

• Microtransactions become seamless, enabled by crypto and stablecoins.

Instead of monetizing access, software companies will monetize actions.

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Agentic Software Is Changing Monetization

As agents take over more workflows, the old pricing model breaks. We’re entering a new phase of monetization:

This opens up new opportunities to rethink monetization entirely:

• How do you price software when the user is an agent, not a person?

• Should pricing shift toward datasets, not just UI features?

• Can we subsidize certain users or price operating systems differently?

We’re moving toward models where value is shifting away from user-based pricing, and toward systems that charge based on usage, completion, and relevance.

The smartest agents won’t need more seats. They’ll just use what works.

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From SEO to TEO: Agents Are the New Audience

Here’s something surprising: AI agents may already account for up to 20% of internet traffic. And they’re just getting started.

These aren’t simple bots. They’re intelligent agents acting on behalf of users: comparing prices, summarizing content, making purchases.

And they’re breaking the ad-based model in the process:

• Agents don’t click ads.

• They don’t get retargeted.

• They don’t convert in traditional funnels.

This is where we move from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Task Engine Optimization (TEO).

The companies that win won’t be the ones ranking highest on Google, they’ll be the ones that show up first when an agent is executing a task.

The End of SaaS Is Just the Beginning

This shift isn’t just about how we price software.. it’s about who it’s built for. Winning products will be the ones that agents can find, trust, and pay and without friction.

More software. Less SaaS. A system that finally makes sense.

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Introduction: The Evolution of Search and Transactions

Who is a typical internet user today? If your first thought is demographics, geography or commercial attitudes, think again. AI agents are rapidly multiplying, and soon, they will outnumber human users online. This is a fundamental shift in how the internet operates from human first to agent first.

Search engines once helped users find information, stores, and products. When it was time to purchase, users had to enter credit card details, processed separately by payment networks. Meanwhile, much of the internet remained free to browse, with creators monetizing through ads, subscriptions, or paywalls (models built around human users).

But the rise of AI agents is reshaping these interactions. Agents don’t just search; they act. They are authenticating, paying, and executing tasks in a single step. Internet-native currencies are a more natural fit for this new reality, enabling seamless machine-to-machine transactions.

Search and payments are no longer separate. To reimagine search is to reimagine how agents use the internet.

TaskNet is pioneering this shift. It is not just a task engine for AI agents; it is also a built-in payment network that enables frictionless transactions. The search engines of the future (task engines) aren’t just about finding things; they’re about getting things done.

The Convergence of Search and Payments

Old vs New Payment/Search Models

The traditional internet has kept search (discovery) and payments (execution) as separate functions. Agentic internet is blurring this boundary. The only effective way is that the new task engine must combine search, authentication and payment in one layer.

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Alternative authentication ways

The way we acquire API keys were built for a human using internet but they won’t work in an agent first world. Here’s why:

• Inefficient: The agentic internet is API-first, but traditional API key management does not scale. Humans must sign contracts, register accounts, and manage credentials across multiple portals—a process that becomes unsustainable.

• Spam and Identity Issues: API keys don't verify whether requests come from real users or agents, making access control unreliable.

• Monetization: Traditional API access relies on contracts and credit cards, which aren’t suited for pay-as-you-go micropayments.

Solution: TaskNet is a task engine that enables AI agents to authenticate without registering with API portals by signing transactions directly on the blockchain. Payments serve as both access control and rate limiting, ensuring security and making it spam resistant. Users can do the rest of API calls offchain.

TaskNet: The Agent Payment Network

TaskNet is redefining the role of AI agents by merging task execution with built-in payments.

It provides a seamless infrastructure where agents can:

• Transactions via micropayments

• Authenticate on-chain (no API keys)

• Pay the service provider directly

• Search for services via an open marketplace

How Task Engines Will Work

Take booking a flight as an example. An AI agent using TaskNet will first discover flight providers and authenticate to access their APIs. The agent will then query these APIs off-chain to compare options. Once it selects a service, the user’s identity is only revealed at the point of booking, ensuring privacy.

With stablecoins for payments and a simple API-first interaction, the AI agent seamlessly completes the transaction. The agent handles authentication, payment, and identity verification in one step.

TaskNet enables businesses and API providers to adapt to the agentic era by offering authentication tools, a task engine for discovery, and payment routing that connects AI agents to services effortlessly.

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The Future of the Agentic Internet

AI agents will outnumber human users and dominate the digital economy, requiring instant, permissionless access to services. The traditional model of search and payments is simply not a fit for this new agentic phase of the internet. TaskNet is at the forefront of building tools for the agentic internet.

The agentic internet is not the future, it is already here.

Points are more than just a rewards system; they’re a way to engage with and benefit from the growth of TaskNet. Read on to discover how you can maximize your earnings as a node operator!

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Why Running a TaskNet Node Matters

TaskNet is revolutionizing AI scalability by decentralizing computational resources. Traditional cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure rely on centralized "bare-bone servers" that have processors, RAM, and storage but lack GPUs and consumer-grade networking. This creates multiple challenges for AI applications that require browser-based automation and internet access.

Key Challenges with AI Agents:

• High Costs & Limited Access: OpenAI's $200/month flagship operator is out of reach for many. As AI reliance grows, this pricing model excludes users from transformative technology.

• Lack of Consumer-Grade Hardware: Cloud servers lack GPUs and consumer-grade networking, making it difficult for AI agents to execute browser-based tasks effectively.

• High Costs & Scaling Limitations: Provisioning AI-friendly infrastructure through AWS and Google Cloud is expensive and requires pre-approval, with costs reaching upwards of $120/month for EC2 instances.

• Web Scraping & Connectivity Issues: Many AI agents require internet access for data collection. Cloud-based services use datacenter IPs, which are often flagged and blocked when accessing certain sites, limiting automation capabilities. Current screen scraping methods are not fair to content creators, depriving them of the chance to monetize their content.

• Proxy & VPN Workarounds: Developers must subscribe to third-party VPN and proxy services to mimic real-user traffic, increasing operational costs and complexity.

How TaskNet Nodes Solve These Issues

TaskNet takes a decentralized approach by allowing individuals to contribute their own hardware as network nodes. This model enables AI agents that are more cost-effective and scalable to web access limitations.

Key Benefits of Running a TaskNet Node:

• Leverage Consumer-Grade Hardware: Unlike cloud servers, TaskNet nodes use devices equipped with GPUs and real residential IPs, optimizing AI agent performance.

• Enable AI Agents to Access the Web: With pre-configured proxies and real IP addresses, TaskNet nodes prevent AI agents from being blocked when performing web-based tasks.

• Earn Rewards for Contributing Resources: Simply by running a node, you earn TaskNet Points. Maintaining uptime, processing AI workloads, and successfully completing tasks all increase your rewards.

• Scalability Without High Costs: Instead of paying for expensive cloud instances, node operators can monetize their existing hardware while contributing to a decentralized AI infrastructure.

Earning TaskNet Points as a Node Operator

Running a TaskNet node provides continuous opportunities to earn TaskNet Points. Here’s how:

• Uptime & Reliability: The longer your node remains active, the more points you accumulate.

• Processing AI Tasks: Successfully executing AI agent-related jobs, such as browser automation or data processing, increases your rewards.

• Providing Network Stability: Contributing a stable and reliable infrastructure ensures the efficiency of AI execution and earns additional rewards.

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How long will the Point Program Last and How do I Track Progress?

The TaskNet Points Program will run for two seasons:

• Season 1: Starts February 14, 2025, with 150,000 points available.

• Season 2: Begins one month later.

• Possible round 3: To be determined.

• Rewards are updated weekly - track your progress on the TaskNet Rewards Dashboard.

Bonus Boosts & Referral Rewards

• The first 100 users receive a 1.2x boost on their total points at the end of all seasons.

• Referrals Matter! Inviting others from the crypto community earns both the inviter and invitee extra rewards:

  • Invitees get a 1.1x boost compared to signing up directly.

  • 50+ invites unlock higher multipliers, and 100+ invites grant even greater rewards.

  • Learn more - documentation.

Join the TaskNet movement!

Running a node is not just about earning rewards... It's about shaping the future of the agentic internet.

Don’t miss out, and set up your TaskNet node today to start earning TaskNet Points!

Why TaskNet?

AI agent infrastructure is still in its infancy. The web we use today is not built for what’s coming next. The internet is transforming. A new agentic era is here—where AI agents outnumber humans online.

In 1998, right around the time when internet adoption started increasing, Google created the page rank algorithm. All of a sudden, people are able to find information online instead of browsing an endless number of directories. This created a monopoly of the magnitude of which the world had never seen. Google became one of tech's most successful rent extraction models (advertising). Instead of being able to find the information that you wanted, you were surfaced with information by the highest bidder. This begs the question - what happens when you ask your AI Agent to find something for you? Should it surface results that are sponsored? Clearly, you would want to trust what your agent is recommending.

As the internet moves from its current form to its agentic phase, it’s critical that its new infrastructure is built to maximize user value, protect privacy, increase trust and transparency, and eliminate unnecessary rent extraction. Additionally, the current pricing for agent products, like OpenAI’s $200 plan for their operator product, is out of reach for most people globally.

TaskNet is building infrastructure and developer tooling to make agents more accessible and easy to develop and host.

The agentic internet that we are experiencing will go into two phases.

With TaskNet:

• Agents can spin up browser instances at scale, navigating the web as seamlessly as humans.

• Developers gain access to the decentralized engine to discover, find, and pay for all kinds of goods and services to avoid rent extraction when possible.

• We will build tools and infrastructure to authenticate both humans and agents to ensure the agentic internet is transparent and trustworthy.

Join the Network Today

We're excited to invite node operators to be among the first to power this revolutionary network. Running a TaskNet node is simple:

1. Install Docker for a secure runtime environment

2. Download the TaskNet Node package

3. Configure basic security settings

4. Toggle your availability and start earning

Your computer becomes part of the infrastructure powering the next generation of AI applications, while you earn rewards for contributing to the network.

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For Developers

TaskNet provides a comprehensive toolkit for building and deploying AI agents that can interact with any digital interface. Our API and documentation make it simple to create agents that can:

• Navigate websites and web applications

• Process and extract information

• Execute complex workflows across multiple platforms

Looking Ahead

This launch marks just the beginning of TaskNet's vision. Our roadmap includes:

• Expanding the global compute network

• Introducing native payment and data APIs built on Solana

• Developing advanced tools for agent orchestration and management

• Developing a global directory for goods and services accessible to AI agents

Whether you're a node operator, developer, or AI enthusiast, get involved with TaskNet. Join our growing community on Discord and be part of building the future of autonomous AI: https://discord.gg/4Xt4ZM4pfD

Ready to start? Visit Tasknet.co to download the node software and begin contributing to the network today.

Together, we're building the operating system for the next generation of intelligent life on the internet.

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The Value Creation vs. Value Capture Dilemma

At the heart of this challenge lies the fundamental disconnect between value creation and value capture. Open-source projects often deliver exceptional value to users and organizations worldwide. However, capturing a fair share of that value to fund ongoing development, support, and innovation remains elusive. The very nature of open-source—its openness and accessibility—can make traditional monetization strategies ineffective.

Open networks thrive when value accrues to a large number of community members. This broad distribution of benefits is a cornerstone of open-source philosophy but complicates efforts to generate revenue. The result is that many open-source projects, despite their success and widespread use, remain underfunded and struggle to sustain the teams that build and maintain them.

The Limitations of Traditional Monetization Models

Traditional software monetization models, such as one-time payments or subscriptions, often fall short in the open-source context. One-time payments are particularly problematic:

• Misaligned Incentives: Developers have little financial incentive to continue improving the software once the transaction is complete.

• Sustainability Issues: Without ongoing revenue, funding maintenance, support, and new features become challenging.

• Community Engagement: Users may feel less invested in the project's success, reducing community contributions and collaboration.

These models can lead to stagnation, where software fails to evolve with user needs or technological advancements.

Introducing Token-Powered Software

Enter token-powered software, a novel approach that reimagines how value is exchanged in the software ecosystem. Here's how it works:

• Token as Access: Users purchase tokens that grant them access to the software. These tokens act like a "battery," powering their usage.

• Dynamic Engagement: If users decide to sell or refund their tokens, the software access is revoked—similar to removing the battery from a device.

• Value Alignment: Tokens can appreciate in value as the software and its community grow, aligning the interests of users and developers.

This model creates a symbiotic relationship between developers and users. Developers are incentivized to continuously improve the software to increase the token's value, while users have a vested interest in the project's success.

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Benefits of Token-Powered Software

The token-powered model addresses the shortcomings of traditional monetization methods by fostering an ecosystem where value creation and capture are harmoniously aligned.

Aligning Incentives

Developers and the broader ecosystem benefit directly from the software's success:

• Continuous Improvement: Ongoing revenue from tokens funds development and innovation.

• Shared Success: As the software improves and gains adoption, token values can increase, rewarding both developers and token holders.

Enhancing Open Contribution

Token-powered software encourages broader community engagement:

• Community Investment: Users who hold tokens are more likely to contribute to the project's development, documentation, and support.

• Distributed Value Accrual: Value accrues not just to the core developers but to a wide array of community members, staying true to open-source principles.

Sustainable Monetization

This model provides a sustainable revenue stream without compromising accessibility:

• No Lock-In: Users aren't locked into long-term subscriptions and can exit by selling their tokens.

• Market-Driven: Token values reflect the software's utility and demand, providing real-time feedback to developers.

Comparing Models: Token-Powered vs. Traditional Approaches

When we juxtapose token-powered software with traditional monetization models, the advantages become clear.

One-Time Payment Model

• Pros: Simple transaction, immediate access.

• Cons: No ongoing incentives for developers, limited user engagement, unsustainable funding.

Subscription Model

• Pros: Recurring revenue, ongoing access.

• Cons: Can feel like a perpetual cost to users, may not fully engage the community, value doesn't accrue to users.

Token-Powered Model

• Pros: Aligns incentives, encourages community contribution, value can accrue to users, sustainable funding.

• Cons: Requires a shift in mindset, potential regulatory considerations around token usage.

Embracing a New Paradigm

Token-powered software represents a compelling solution to the monetization challenges faced by open-source projects. By aligning the interests of developers and users, it fosters an environment where continuous improvement and community engagement are encouraged and integral to the model's success.

As we look toward the future of software development, embracing innovative monetization strategies like token-powered models could be the key to sustaining and enhancing the vibrant ecosystem of open-source software. It invites us to rethink how we perceive value exchange and encourages a more collaborative, invested community that benefits all participants.

It's time for developers, users, and stakeholders in the open-source community to explore token-powered software as a viable path forward. By doing so, we can ensure that the value created by these projects is effectively captured and reinvested, fueling the next wave of innovation.

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