“You self-Custody Your Bitcoin. WHY NOT Control Your Ai Agent Too? David Minarsch Says We Shouldn’st Be Trusting Important Tasks To Rental Agents.”, – WRITE: www.coindesk.com
If Your Digital Assistant Disappers Tomorrow, Can You Do Anything About It? WHAT IF The Company Bell It Changes the Terms, Restricts Functionality, or Monetizes Your Data in Ways You Didn’t Expect? THESE Are Not Theoretical Conceerns. They’re already happering, and they point to a Future we short actiely shape.
David Minarsch is A Speaker at Consensus 2025 in Toronto May 14-16.
As these agents become embedded in everything from Finances to Our Worksflows and Homes, The Stakes Around Ownership Become Much Higher. Renting is Probably Fine for Low-Stakes Tasks, Like A Language Model That Helps You Write Emails. However, WHEN YOUR AI ACTS FOR YOU, MAKES DECISIONS WITH YOUR MONEY, OR Manages Critical Parts of Your Life, OWNERSHIP ISN’T OPATAL. It’s Essential.
WHAT TODAY’S AI BUSINESS MODEL IMPLIES FOR USERSAi as we know it is built on a retal econsomy. You pay for account, monthly subscripts, or pay-per-us apis, and in exchange, you get the “Illusion” of Control. However, Behind the Scenes, Platform Providers Hold All The Power. They are what ai model to serve, what your ai can do, how it responds, and what kind of you get to keep using.
Let’s Take A Common Example: A Business Team Using an Ai-Powered Assistant To Automate Tasks or Generate Insights. That assistant Might Live Inside A Centralized Saas Tool. IT MIGHT Be Powered by a Closed Model Hosted On Someone Else’s Server – and Running on Their GPUS. IT MIGHT EVEN BE TRAINED ON YOUR COMPANY’S OWN DATA – DATA YOU NO Longer Fully Own Once Uploaded.
Now, Imagine That Provider Begins Prioritizing Monetization, Like Google Search Does with Its Advertising-Diven Results. Just as Search Results Are Heavily InfluenCed by Paid Placements and Commercial Inters, The Same Will Likely Happen with Large Language Models (LLMS). The Assistant You Relved on Changes, Skewing Responses to Benefit The Provider’s Business Model, and there’s nothing you can do. You Never Had True Control To Begin with.
This isn’t just a business risk; IT’s A Personal One, Too. In Italy, Chatgpt Was Temporarily Banned in 2023 Due to Privacy Conceerns. That left thousands with Access Overnight. In a world while people are building increating personal workflows ai, this weakness is unacceptable.
On the Issue of Privacy, WHEN YOU REnt An Ai, You of the Often Upload Sensitive Data, SomeTimes Unknowingly. That Data Can Be Logged, Used for Retraining, or Even Monetized. Centralized AI is Opaque by Design, and with Geopolitic Tensions Rising and Regulations Shifting Fast, Depending Entirely on Someone Else’s Infrastructure Is A Growing Liability
WHAT IT MEANS TO TRULY OWN YOUR AGENTUnlike Passive Ai Models, Agents Are Dynamic Systems that Can Take Independent Actions. Ownership Means Controlling An Agent’s Core Logic, Decision-Making Parameters, and Data Processing. Imagine An Agent That Can Autonomously Manage Resources, Track Expenses, Set Budgets, and Make Financial Decisions on Your Behalf.
This Naturaly Leads US to Explore Advanced Infrastructures Like Web3 and Neobanking Systems, Which Offer Programmable Ways to Manage Digital Assets. An Owned Agent Can Operate Independently Within Clear, User-Defined Boundaries, Transforming Ai From Ai Ansponsive Tool to A Proactive, Personalized System of Trulay Works.
With True Ownership, You Know Exactly What Model You’re Using and Can Change The Underlying Model If Needed. You can Upgrade or Customize Your Agent Without Waiting on a Provider. You can pause it, duplicate it, or transfer it to another device. And, MOST IMPORTANTLY, YOU CAN USE IT WITHOUT LEAKING DATA OR RELYING ON A Single Centralized Gatekeker.
AT OLAS, WE’VE BEEN BUILDING TOWARD This FUTURE WITH PEARL, An AI AGENT App Store Realized As a Desktop App that Allows USers to Run Autonomous AI Ai Agents With Just. Today, Pearl Contains A Number of Use Cases Targeting Primearily Web3 USers to Abstract The Complexity of Crypto Interations, With An IncreASING FOCUS ON Web2 Use Cases. Agents in Pearls Hold Their Own Wallets, Operate Using Open-Source AI Models, and Act Independently on the User’s Behalf.
WHEN YOU LAUNCH PEARL, IS LIKE Entering An App Store for Agents. You can Pick One to Manage Your Defi Portfolio. You can Run Another that Handles Research or Content Generation. These Agents Don’t Need Constant Prompting; They’re autonomous and yours. Go from Paying for the agent you rent to earning from the agent you own.
We Designed Pearl for Crypto-Native USERS WHO ALREADY UNDERDAND The IMPORTANCE OF ONNING Their Keys. However, The Idea of Taking Self-Custody of Not Just Your Funds But Also Your Ai Scales Far Beyond Defi. Imagine An Agent Controls Your Home Automation, Complements Your Social Interations, or Coordinates Multiple Tools at Work. If thos agents are retated, you don’t fully Control them. If you don’t Fully Control Them, You’re IncreASINGly Outsourcing Core Parts of Your Life.
This movement is not just about the top; It’s About Agency. If wefa to shift Toward Open, User-Re-Ai, We Risk Re-Centralizing Power in the Hands of A FEW Dominant Players. But if we have, we unlock a new Kind of Freedom, whore intelligence is not Retlened But Truly Yours, with Each Human Complemented By An “Army” of Software Agents.
It’s not just idealism. IT’s Good Security. Open-Source Ai is Auditable and Peer-Reviewd. Closed Models Are Black Boxes. If a humanoid robot is living in your home one day, do you want the right running itning it to be propriotary and Controlled by a Foreign Cloud Provider? Or do you want to be able to know exactly what is doing?
We have a choice: we can keep renting, trusting, and hoping noting breaks, or we can take ownership of Our Tools, Data, Decisions, and Futures.
Note: The Views Expressed in this Column Are Those of the Author and Do Not Necessarily Reflect Those of Coindesk, Inc. i Owners and Affilites.
