Making Money
OS Module: Economics — Who creates, who earns
What will be the point of money in the age of AI?
Not earns it. Makes it.
Governments print currency. Central banks expand balance sheets. Everyone else trades time for tokens that already exist.
You can't print money. The rules say so.
This is the first truth. Some people make it. Everyone else earns permission to use what was made.
The Stack
Wealth isn't money. Wealth is assets that work while you sleep.
| Layer | What It Is | Leverage |
|---|---|---|
| Goodwill | Trust, reputation | Infinite |
| Data | Patterns that predict | Exponential |
| Know-how | What you know that others don't | High |
| Tools | Code, media, protocols | Permissionless |
| Capital | Money, tokens, equity | Permission-gated |
| Assets | Property, infrastructure | Linear |
Most people optimize the bottom. Slow compounding. Capped upside.
The opportunity is at the top. Goodwill, data, know-how. These compound without permission. They can't be inflated away.
The Shift
Elon says AI makes money "pointless" in twenty years. When robots do everything, what's there to trade?
Maybe. He usually sees farther than most.
But the people who say money won't matter are the ones who have it. They can wait. The rest need to eat today.
Here's the insight: money won't become pointless. The earning model becomes pointless.
When AI does most cognitive work, selling time for money is a losing trade. Your hour competes against AI that improves daily. Your time depreciates. AI appreciates.
Participation
For a long time, you earned by getting permission. Permission from employers. Banks. Governments. Someone said yes before you could play.
Crypto works differently.
You stake. Provide liquidity. Validate transactions. You earn.
No permission asked. No identity required. Just contribution.
This isn't earning. It's participating in money creation.
This is what governments do. Now anyone can.
What Remains
AI changes what's tradeable.
Before: cognitive labor. After: data, attention, coordination.
What's left when AI does the thinking?
- Verified data — AI needs training
- Human attention — the final bottleneck
- Trust infrastructure — knowing what's real
- Specific knowledge — what feels like play to you, work to others
All at the top of the stack. All compound without permission.
Three Bets
1. Build trust infrastructure. Same tools that enable deception enable verification. Whoever solves "what's real" wins.
2. Accumulate specific knowledge. Your patterns, your expertise. Not to sell once — to compound through AI amplification.
3. Participate in creation. Crypto networks aren't investments. They're participation in monetary expansion.
The Questions
The old game: work, save, invest, wait.
The new game isn't clear yet. Rules still being written.
But some things emerge.
Data becomes currency. Standards become moats. Networks become nations.
The makers of old money made old rules. The makers of new money make new rules.
You can wait for an invitation. It won't come.
What do you have that others need?
What can you do that machines can't?
Where will you go that others won't?
The answers are the new money.
5P Playbook
| P | Application |
|---|---|
| Principles | Governments create. Everyone else earns. Crypto changes this. |
| Performance | Earning or creating? That's the metric. |
| Platform | The stack. Optimize the top. |
| Protocols | Stake. Validate. Contribute. Build trust. |
| Players | Find where new money is made. Show up with something to offer. |
The Series
- Meta of Matter — Kernel
- The Tight Five — Interface
- The Knowledge Stack — Runtime
- Agents & Instruments — Execution
- Feedback Loops — Monitoring
- Making Money — Economics ← You are here
Crypto Agency maps the paths. Incentive Engineering is the lever.
Earning or creating?