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Trusted Autonomy: Why Human-Machine Teams Will Run on Crypto Networks

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Autonomous robots may sound like sci-fi concepts that are decades away, but large language models and generative AI now allow machines to plan, learn, and think. More than that — the same software that can win the math olympics and write novels can also control physical robots, allowing one digital persona to operate across the digital and physical worlds. So yes, robots walking around your neighborhood, or working alongside you, will have consistent opinions and actions on X/Twitter, on prediction markets, and in the real world.

But there’s a major gap. How do we integrate thinking machines into human society, from schools, hospitals, factories to our homes and daily life? Most of the systems we’ve built are for other humans and make strong assumptions of having a fingerprint, parents, and a birthdate, none of which are true for thinking machines. There is also broad uncertainty about how to regulate thinking machines — do we outlaw them, pause their development, or try to limit their ability to synthesize human-intelligible emotions (as in the European Union)? Which regional laws apply to a 200B parameter LLM running on a computer in low earth orbit, that’s controlling the actions of a trading bot, or a physical robot in the New York SEC office on Pearl Street?

What is needed is a global system that supports financial transactions, allows humans and computers to come together to vote and set rules, is immutable and public, and is resilient. Fortuitously, thousands of innovators and developers have spent the last 16 years building exactly that — a parallel framework for decentralized governance and finance. From the very beginning, the point was to support “non-geographic communities experimenting with new economic paradigms” by building a system that “doesn’t much care who it talks to” (Satoshi 2/13/09). It’s now more clear what that meant — unlike the rest of the human-focused tech, financial, and regulatory stack, blockchains and smart contracts don’t much care if they are being used by humans or thinking machines, and gracefully accommodate all of us. For this reason, decentralized crypto networks offer the vital infrastructure that’s needed to allow this burgeoning sector to flourish. The benefits will be tangible across healthcare, education and defense.

Several hurdles will need to be overcome. Seamless human<>machine and machine<>machine collaboration is essential — especially in high-stakes environments such as transportation, manufacturing, and logistics. Smart contracts enable autonomous machines to discover one another, communicate securely, and form teams to complete complex tasks. Presumably, low latency data exchange (e.g. among robot taxis) will happen off chain, for example in virtual private networks, but the steps leading up to that, such as discovering humans and robots able to drive you to the airport, are well suited for decentralized markets and actions. Scaling solutions such as Optimism will be critical to accommodate these transactions and traffic.

The fragmented regulations around the world is another factor slowing innovation. While some jurisdictions such as Ontario are ahead of the curve when it comes to autonomous robotics, most are not. Decentralized governance tackles this by establishing programmable, blockchain-based rule sets that deliver much-needed uniformity. Creating global standards for safety, ethics and operations is critical for ensuring that autonomous robots can be rolled out across borders at scale, without compromising safety or compliance.

Decentralized autonomous organizations, otherwise known as DAOs, help accelerate research and development in robotics and AI. Traditional sources of funding are both slow and siloed, holding the industry back. Token-based models such as DeSci DAO platform remove these bottlenecks, while giving everyday investors potential incentives to get involved. Likewise, some of the developing business models for AI involve micropayments and sharing of revenue with data- or model- providers, which can be accommodated with smart contracts.

Combined, these advantages will help fast-track the development of autonomous robots, with a plethora of compelling use cases.

A new paradigm for robotics and thinking machines

It’s easy to fear that cognition is a zero sum game, and that the broad availability of smart machines will directly compete with humans. But the reality is that there are severe shortages of well educated humans in education, healthcare, and many other sectors.

Research by UNESCO recently revealed a worldwide teacher shortage that there’s an «urgent need for 44 million primary and secondary teachers worldwide by 2030» — and that’s before you consider the assistants who offer one-on-one support in classrooms and help struggling students to keep up with their peers. Autonomous robots can deliver huge advantages here, tackling significant shortages across the education sector. Imagine a child being able to learn about a complicated concept with a robot sitting next to them, to walk them through a new concept of skill — reinforcing their understanding about a subject while enhancing their social skills. We are used to humans teaching robots, and this being a one way street, but that is changing.

Meanwhile, the WHO has warned of a «health workforce crisis.» There’s a total shortfall of 7.2 million professionals across 100 countries — and given the world faces an aging population, this gap is expected to accelerate to 12.9 million by 2035. The industry is facing shortages in critical areas like nursing, primary care, and allied health. This crisis is affecting the quality of care patients receive and threatening the ability of healthcare professionals to do their jobs. From monitoring patients with chronic diseases, assisting surgical procedures, to offering companionship for the elderly, autonomous robots can play a crucial role in alleviating the workloads of nurses and doctors. Without being prompted, they can monitor supplies of medicines and equipment — ordering in additional stock when required. When you factor in other use cases such as transporting medical waste, cleaning treatment rooms and assisting in surgeries, it’s clear to see that robotics can drive greater productivity — and consistency — at a time when the healthcare sector needs it.

Autonomous systems are already reshaping the defense sector, primarily involving swarms of drones and naval surface assets, and we’re barely scratching the surface when it comes to the advantages robotics can bring — executing tasks that may be unsafe or impossible for humans.

From prototypes to practical use

All of this may seem abstract and straight out of the 22nd century, but Ethereum is being used today to store decision and action guardrails for AIs and robots, and as reported by Coinbase, AI agents are using crypto to transact amongst themselves.

The open and auditable structure of decentralized crypto networks allows robotics developers to securely share data, models, and breakthroughs. This accelerates the transition of autonomous robots from prototypes to real-world applications, enabling their deployment in critical areas like hospitals and schools faster than ever. When you walk down the street with a humanoid robot, and people stop and ask — “Hey aren’t you scared” you can tell them — no I’m not, because the laws governing this machine’s actions are public and immutable, and then you can give them the a link to the Ethereum contract address where those rules are stored.

Decentralized ledgers can also act as coordination hubs, allowing robots in heterogeneous systems to find one another and coordinate without centralized intermediaries. This is conceptually similar to the standard defence C3 technology (command, communication, and control), except that the infra is decentralized and public. Immutable records ensure that every exchange and action is traceable, creating a trusted foundation for collaboration.

For robot-to-robot interactions, smart contracts streamline task allocation and resource sharing, enabling efficient coordination. In robot-to-human interactions, privacy-centric decentralized systems can secure sensitive data, such as biometric or medical information, fostering trust and accountability.

This new world may invoke fear — what does this all mean for us? — but everyone reading this article has been working on making it come true for almost 2 decades now, by building the infrastructure that will handle governance, teaming, communication, and coordination of humans with thinking machines.

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Tesla Reports $951M in Crypto Holdings as it Misses Earnings

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Tesla (TSLA) still holds almost $1 billion in bitcoin, according to the automaker’s latest earnings report.

The electric vehicle firm reported digital asset holdings worth $951 million as of March 31, down from $1.076 billion on Dec. 30. Tesla currently holds 11,509 bitcoin in its balance sheet, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data.

The change is almost certainly due to bitcoin’s price depreciating between the two quarters. Data from Arkham Intelligence indicates that Tesla did not perform any transactions in the last three months. Arkham marks Tesla’s holdings as being currently worth $1.049 billion.

A new rule from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) requires corporate holders of digital assets to begin marking those assets to market each quarter.

Tesla also reported $19.34 billion in revenue for the first quarter of the year; analysts had expected the carmaker to rake in $21.37 billion.

The TSLA shares were up more than 2% in after-hours trading.

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Bitcoin Tops $91K as Trade Optimism Fuels Crypto Rally But Demand Headwinds Remain

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Bitcoin (BTC) surged past $91,000 on Tuesday, climbing nearly 5% amid renewed investor optimism and fresh hopes of a thaw in U.S.-China trade tensions, but headwinds persist that could cap further upside, analytics firm CryptoQuant cautioned.

The largest crypto by market capitalization hit $91,700 in the U.S. afternoon, its strongest price since early March. Altcoins followed BTC higher, with Ethereum’s ether (ETH) rising 8% over the past 24 hours above $1,700, and dogecoin (DOGE) and Sui’s native token (SUI) gaining 8.6% and 11.7%, respectively. The broad-market crypto benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index advanced 5.2%.

CoinDesk 20 Index performance on April 22 (CoinDesk)

Markets were buoyed by remarks from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who reportedly told investors at a closed-door JPMorgan event that the tariff standoff with China was unsustainable. Bessent said de-escalation would come “in the very near future,” characterizing current conditions as a “trade embargo.” However, he cautioned that a more comprehensive deal between the two nations could take even years.

Stocks recovered from yesterday’s decline, with the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq finishing the session 2.5% and 2.7% higher, respectively. Gold, meanwhile, sharply reversed from its record price of $3,500 during the day and was down 1%.

«As capital rotates into safe-haven and inflation-hedging assets, BTC and gold are proving to be key beneficiaries of the exodus from USD risk,» analysts at hedge fund QCP Capital said in a Telegram broadcast.

They highlighted rejuvenating inflows to spot U.S.-listed BTC ETFs and the return of the so-called Coinbase price premium, suggesting demand from American institutional investors. BTC ETF booked over $381 million net inflows on Monday adding to Thursday’s $107 million, according to Farside Investors data.

But not all signs point to a sustained breakout.

Despite the price jump, on-chain data points to fragility beneath the surface, CryptoQuant analysts said in a Tuesday report. Bitcoin’s apparent demand has decreased by 146,000 BTC over the past 30 days—an improvement from the sharp drop in March, but still negative. CryptoQuant’s demand momentum metric, which tracks new investor interest, has deteriorated further to its the most bearish level since October 2024, the report noted.

Market liquidity remains soft, with the report using USDT’s market cap growth as a proxy for crypto liquidity. USDT grew $2.9 billion over the past two months, below its 30-day average. Historically, BTC rallies coincided with USDT growth above $5 billion and above trend — a threshold not yet met.

Adding to the caution, bitcoin is now facing a key resistance zone between $91,000 and $92,000 at around the «Trader’s On-chain Realized Price» metric, a level that has often served as resistance in bearish conditions. CryptoQuant’s on-chain bull score classified current market conditions as bearish, suggesting a pause or pullback could follow if sentiment weakens.

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Unicoin CEO Rejects SEC’s Attempt to Settle Enforcement Probe

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Unicoin has rebuffed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) attempt to negotiate a settlement agreement to close an ongoing probe into the Miami-based crypto company, its CEO Alex Konanykhin revealed in a Tuesday letter to investors.

SEC enforcement cases (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)

In his letter, Konanykhin said Unicoin was given an “ultimatum” by the SEC to attend a settlement negotiation meeting last week, on April 18.

“We declined to show up,” Konanykhin told CoinDesk, adding that the SEC had made demands ahead of the meeting that he found “unacceptable.” He declined to share specifics, telling CoinDesk that the communication between Unicoin’s lawyers and the SEC was confidential.

Unicoin received a Wells notice — a sort of official heads-up from the SEC that it intends to file an enforcement action against the recipient — in December, shortly before former Chair Gary Gensler stepped down, alleging violations related to fraud, deceptive practices, and the offer and sale of unregistered securities. No official enforcement action has yet been filed.

Since President Donald Trump took office, the SEC has reversed its once-aggressive stance toward crypto regulation, backing off from many of its open investigations into crypto companies, including blockchain gaming firm Immutable and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, and even some of its ongoing litigation, including against Coinbase and Cumberland DRW.

Other SEC enforcement cases against crypto companies, including its cases against Binance and Tron, have been paused while the parties attempt to negotiate a settlement. The agency recently reached a settlement agreement with Nova Labs, the parent company behind the Helium blockchain, that saw Nova Labs pay a $200,000 fine to settle civil securities fraud charges, and the SEC dropped its claims that Helium (HNT) and other related tokens were securities.

In his letter to investors, Konanykhin claimed that the SEC’s probe has caused “multi-billion-dollar damage” to the company and its investors.

“We would likely be a $10B+ publicly traded company by now if the SEC had not blocked our ICO, stock exchange listing and fundraising,” Konanykhin wrote, adding that the SEC had prevented Unicoin from acting on the “very favorable market opportunities.”

“We were forced into a standstill,” Konanykhin wrote.

The SEC did not respond to a request for comment.

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