The end of ads? AI agents are about to change how we buy
web3 with a16zAgents can now do almost anything a human can do with a computer. So what happens when they start spending money on your behalf?
Sam Ragsdale (founder and CEO of Merit Systems, a startup building infrastructure for the agentic economy) joins a16z crypto's Eddy Lazzarin, Noah Levine, and Robert Hackett on the open agentic commerce stack, and why the internet's business model is about to get rewired.
00:00 – Intro
01:33 – Two flavors of agentic commerce
04:30 – What is an agent, actually?
12:57 – The headless merchant thesis
17:17 – What happens to existing friction?
24:45 – The economic contract of the web is broken
27:46 – Will agents get distracted by ads?
35:152– Stablecoins vs. credit cards
41:54 – Sam's bear case on interchange
49:11 – The killer app for agentic commerce
Sam Ragsdale on X: /samrags_
Eddy Lazzarin on X: /eddylazzarin
Noah Levine on X: /nlevine19
Robert Hackett on X: /rhackett
Follow a16z crypto: /a16zcrypto
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A podcast for anyone seeking to understand and go deeper on blockchains, crypto, and web3. But it’s really about how users and builders — whether artists, coders, creators, developers, companies, organizations, or communities — now have the ability to not just “read” (web1) + “write” (web2) but also “own” (web3) and build with pieces of the internet, unlocking a new wave of creativity and entrepreneurship.
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