Problems.vc

Series

After the Platforms: The Agent Substrate

A short series on the agent transition's quiet structural question: who owns the data the agents run on, why the default is a multi-corporation data monopoly forming by compound interest, and what the substrate underneath an agent-era economy actually has to do.

The agentic economy is happening. The more important question — the one being answered right now in code, not in policy — is who owns the data the agents run on.

This series traces that question end to end. We start at the structural choice. We walk through a week in a founder's life with agents on both sides of every counterparty interaction. We work out the shape of the data substrate the problem actually wants. And we describe what we are building on top of that shape.

Parts release individually over the coming weeks. Subscribe via RSS to follow as they ship.

Contents

  1. Whose Data Runs the Agents?

    The most consequential question of the agent transition isn't what agents will do. It's who owns the data they run on. The default is a multi-corporation data monopoly forming by compound interest — and it's being decided right now.

    12 min

  2. Five Costumes, One Problem

    A week in the life of a founder with agents in the loop on every counterparty interaction. The friction is one problem in five costumes: operational facts no one can verify — and agents have made it worse, not better.

    14 min

  3. The Shape the Problem Wants

    If you were starting from scratch, what would the data substrate underneath an agent-era economy actually have to do? Three fields converge on one shape: a metagraph with cryptographic provenance and capability-mediated access.

    12 min

  4. The Work

    Two things that compose into one. Metagraph: an open-standard, sovereign-first substrate for the shape the problem wants. Paperstreet: the first commercial network running on it.

    Forthcoming