Korea Blockchain Week asks whether blockchains are ready for AI agents

Blockchains were built to move money between people. The next wave of users may not be people at all. That tension sat at the center of Korea Blockchain Week 2026 in Seoul. Speakers there argued that conventional, transaction-oriented blockchains may not be equipped to support an economy run by autonomous AI agents. The loudest version of that argument came from Michael Heinrich, CEO of 0G Labs. His view: legacy chain designs handle payments well, but AI agents need a lot more than payments. What happened in Seoul KBW2026 ran from September 29 to October 1 at Walkerhill Hotels & Resorts in Seoul. FactBlock hosted the event, and Upbit served as presenting partner. The organizing theme was the so-called agentic economy. The term describes a world where software agents act on their own, buying services, paying for data and settling bills with other machines. Heinrich delivered a keynote titled “The Trillion-Dollar Agentic Economy” on September 30. His core point was that most Layer 1 blockchains are designed primarily for financial transactions. Layer 1 refers to a base network, the foundational chain that everything else is built on top of. AI agents, the argument goes, need seve...