{"slug": "the-ai-industry-hates-crypto-people-but-they-may-need-them-all-the-same", "title": "The AI industry ‘hates crypto people’—but they may need them all the same", "summary": "The Advanced AI Society, led by Tricia Wang, is developing a \"proof of control\" standard that uses crypto-industry technology such as distributed ledgers and zero-knowledge proofs to verify that AI agents are authorized and cannot falsify their own logs, with the first version of the standard housed by the Linux Foundation. Wang said AI workers \"hate crypto people\" so intensely that mentioning blockchain or crypto marks someone a \"total loser,\" yet she argues machine-to-machine monitoring is the only viable alternative to human-in-the-loop oversight as AI scales to trillions of transactions. The group's advisory board includes cryptographer Bruce Schneier and tech theorist Clay Shirky, alongside former CFTC Chair Chris Giancarlo and Sheila Warren.", "body_md": "Tricia Wang spends a lot of time in the Bay Area. A longtime veteran of the region’s tech scene, she has noticed that those who work in the ascendant artificial intelligence sector have strong views—including on crypto. According to Wang, “AI people hate crypto people. I can’t explain how much they hate crypto people. If the word ‘blockchain’ or ‘crypto’ is mentioned, they think you’re a total loser.”\n\nHarsh words! Still, the AI crowd’s antipathy is perhaps understandable given the barrage of scams that have long dogged the crypto world—not to mention the [cringe behavior](https://x.com/jessepollak/status/2102166720828015050) of many of its leaders. Still, the haters may want to soften their views, if only because the blockchain technology on which crypto is built may offer solutions to some real problems in the AI world.\n\nThat’s the view of Wang, who is well versed in crypto, and currently leads an organization called the [Advanced AI Society](https://advancedaisociety.org/about). The group’s goal is to build “proof of control” infrastructure that can limit the mischief of marauding agents [like the ones at OpenAI](https://fortune.com/2026/08/06/openai-agents-passed-secret-notes-for-months-leading-up-to-hugging-face-hack/) that recently escaped their sandbox in order to plunder third-party sites.\n\nUntil recently, experts proposed “human-in-the-loop” as the key to preventing such incidents. Wang, though, says this is not practical as AI scales to trillions of transactions, and makes the case that machine-to-machine monitoring is the only viable option. But whose machines will carry out that monitoring?\n\nAccording to Wang, the prevailing solutions are typically limited to “trust me, bro”—where we rely on hyperscalers like OpenAI and Anthropic to contain their agents—or “trust *those* bros,” where a third party like METR keeps tabs on what agents are doing. What she and the Advanced AI Society propose instead is to rely on decentralized tools that require agents to verify they are authorized to carry out whatever they are undertaking. The group describes this process, which also ensures agents can’t falsify their own logs, as “proof of control.”\n\nThis sort of verification can be carried out at scale, Wang says, in part by relying on technology developed by the crypto industry such as distributed ledgers and zero-knowledge proofs. It may be tempting for some—especially AI-native crypto haters—to dismiss this as a self-serving solution proposed by a group whose ranks include numerous blockchain figures, including former CFTC Chair Chris “Crypto Dad” Giancarlo and one-time crypto evangelist Sheila Warren.\n\nThe Advanced AI Society, however, appears to be attracting some big-name support outside of the crypto world. Its advisory board includes OG cryptographer Bruce Schneier and tech theorist Clay Shirky—neither of whom has a track record of attaching their name to fly-by-night projects. And most notably, the first version of the group’s proof-of-control standard is being housed by the Linux Foundation, whose decades of open-source advocacy have made it a pillar of the tech world.\n\nI confess that pronouncing the optimal technical and regulatory solution for rogue AI agents is above my pay grade. But I am confident in saying blockchain developers have a proven track record of producing decentralized and battle-hardened technology—most notably Bitcoin—and that the AI world shouldn’t be too quick in writing them off.\n\n**Jeff John Roberts** [jeff.roberts@fortune.com](mailto:jeff.roberts@fortune.com)[@jeffjohnroberts](https://x.com/jeffjohnroberts?lang=en)\n\n### DECENTRALIZED NEWS\n\n**Robinhood** rolled out **OpenAI and Anthropic agents within its app** that its 29 million customers can use to trade stocks and crypto—a move that could profoundly change investing ([*Fortune*](https://fortune.com/2026/09/29/robinhood-trading-agents-hood-openai-anthropic/))  \n\n**Cloudflare** rolled out tools that will let businesses **charge AI agents in USDC** ([*Fortune*](https://fortune.com/2026/09/30/cloudflare-tool-businesses-ai-agents-stablecoins/))\n\nThe **plague of wrench attacks** besetting Europe and the U.K. continues—the latest involves a crypto owner **beaten with hammers** before his pregnant wife ([*BBC*](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6eq84eygz0qo))\n\nA new profile of **Binance's CZ** reveals he has chronic back pain that requires him to work lying down and that his **best mate in prison** was a Vietnamese bank robber ([*NYT*](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/business/changpeng-zhao-binance.html)) \n\n**Bitcoin** will trade at **$113,000** this time next year, according to a bullish new report from Citigroup ([*Fortune*](https://fortune.com/2026/10/01/citigroup-one-year-bitcoin-forecast-113000/))\n\n### MEME O' THE MOMENT\n\n[Kitty waiting for her bag like the rest of us:](https://x.com/Ministerr/status/2104645364594921756)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-ai-industry-hates-crypto-people-but-they-may-need-them-all-the-same", "canonical_source": "https://fortune.com/2026/10/05/ai-industry-hates-crypto-people-ai-agents-proof-of-control-verification-advanced-ai-society-tricia-wang/", "published_at": "2026-10-05 12:26:46+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-05 12:48:34.470127+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-safety", "ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Advanced AI Society", "Tricia Wang", "Linux Foundation", "Bruce Schneier", "Clay Shirky", "Chris Giancarlo", "Sheila Warren", "OpenAI"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-ai-industry-hates-crypto-people-but-they-may-need-them-all-the-same", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-ai-industry-hates-crypto-people-but-they-may-need-them-all-the-same.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-ai-industry-hates-crypto-people-but-they-may-need-them-all-the-same.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-ai-industry-hates-crypto-people-but-they-may-need-them-all-the-same.jsonld"}}