There’s an opportunity coming at the intersection of AI, crypto, and programmable social networks like Farcaster and Lens. While many crypto circles are talking about AI with social handles—agents that can tweet, interact, and even manage crypto wallets—the broader business world has been more focused on how AI can reduce costs and turbocharge revenue (the classic B2B play). 

But there’s a place where the two meet, where AI both creates novelty and amplifies business-model logic and ROI. Programmable social networks allow onchain communities with shared goals and value flows to be supercharged by AI tools.

Communities: Old Buzzword, New Superpower

Despite the buzzword, “community” is as old as humanity itself. And they’ve been the cornerstone of the internet since Web 1.0—from early forums and chat rooms all the way to Reddit and Discord.

What crypto brought to online communities is the free flow of monetary value. Suddenly, groups online could share, trade, invest, and build entire economies without friction. That concept blossomed into DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). While most DAOs didn’t fully live up to the hype, the promise of digitally native, value-creating communities remains.

And now AI is about to give these communities superpowers:

1. Automation of processes: from governance to content moderation to treasury management.

2. Insights and intelligence: using AI to parse community sentiment and data for better decision-making.

3. Scalability: enabling communities to coordinate and grow in ways that aren’t possible with purely human bandwidth.

Why Programmable Social Protocols are Different

Emerging “programmable social” protocols such as Farcaster and Lens allow anyone to custom-build clients connected to them. While most have been twitter clones (or myspace…), the potential remains for creating more robust community experiences—like Discord servers or Reddit-like forums—on this open, composable infrastructure. Instead of a walled garden, communities have the potential to:

1. Interact with each other

   • Communities aren’t isolated. They can cross-pollinate ideas, data, and value with other groups on the network.

2. Tap into shared tools

   • AI agents, apps, and new services built on top of the network can be easily integrated, giving each community a suite of ready-to-go capabilities.

3. Own their distribution channel

   • Because these communities are built on open protocols, they can’t be “rugged” or cut off. They own their social graph, ensuring longevity and higher willingness to invest and innovate.

For the average user, this ownership might not be critical. But for communities aiming to be company-like, with meaningful budgets, treasuries, and products, it’s a big deal. They need guarantees of stability and control to justify deep investment of time and capital.

The B2B AI Opportunity for Onchain Communities

Traditionally, B2B AI companies thrive by selling solutions to businesses that want to cut costs or increase revenues. Onchain communities, with their treasuries, governance structures, and potential for economic activity, represent an emerging B2B-like market:

• Profit Motivation: Many onchain communities are trying to build sustainable economic models. They’re not just hobby clubs; they want to earn revenue, manage projects, and distribute rewards. An AI solution that helps them do that is valuable.

• Data Access & Ownership: Relying on centralized APIs (like Twitter or Discord) can be risky—policies can change, or API access can be revoked. But in an open protocol ecosystem, data and interactions are public or permissioned under clear conditions. AI providers can tap into this data seamlessly and reliably, building robust services without fear of sudden disconnection.

In the onchain community space, you have a steady pipeline of groups that want sophisticated tools for governance, knowledge management, tokenization, and more.

Looking Ahead: The Promise of AI-Powered Onchain Communities

We’re still in the early days of merging AI with decentralized communities. But consider the potential:

• Network effects: Social networks like Farcaster and Lens can replicate the virality and user growth of Twitter or Reddit. AI solutions that plug into these networks also enjoy that growth.

• Composability: Because the underlying data and protocols are open, AI services can build on each other’s innovations, much like DeFi protocols composably lock, lend, and trade assets.

• Alignment of incentives: Onchain communities have treasuries, tokens, and governance structures that reward value creation. If your AI solution helps the community create real value, it’s easier to measure, track, and reward that contribution.

Fun, lighthearted communities can use tools like these, but so might digitally native collectives that operate with a strong emphasis on business-model logic. They can hold real funds, manage real operations, and need real solutions. With the combination of programmable social and AI, we have a recipe for a new wave of innovation—merging the network effects of social media, the economic power of crypto, and the intelligence of AI.

Online communities are evolving into robust ecosystems for innovation and entrepreneurship. The superpowers are coming; it’s time to build and then harness them.