Software is a vital component in ensuring digital economies function smoothly and meet user demand; however, that relationship is changing. Today, the economy itself has become the software, so what happens when autonomy mixes with finance?
Programmable economies, rather than blockchains or more advanced models, will be the growth factor in Web3 and artificial intelligence (AI) as autonomous developer stacks emerge. Systems where value, development, and governance all become autonomously executed by code, and this is where 2025 is leading the industry.
Developers now deploy AI agents that can manage liquidity and capital without intervention, coordinate compute workloads, and even negotiate contracts with minimal human oversight. The days of old, featuring manual integrations, toolkits, and frameworks, are giving way to a network that’s self-governed and capable of creating, monetizing, and maintaining itself.
Despite the positive outlook, a Stack Overflow developer survey revealed that, although 80% of developers now use AI coding tools, fewer than one-third actually place their trust in these tools. The tension between control and efficiency is unyielding as agents begin writing and deploying software autonomously.
So, what does this mean for authorship, accountability, and the creation of value itself?
The Programmable Economy
The programmable economy differs greatly from the fading traditional models, where developers built applications as users paid for services. Today, code becomes capital as AI agents exchange value for data, liquidity, or compute for further tasks and workflows.
The role of humans must shift in this new economy, transitioning from that of a coder to what is effectively an architect of incentives. What started as simple smart contracts for financial products in isolation has now evolved into a self-governing, revenue-generating system where agents execute trades, distribute rewards, and allocate computing resources.
A CoinDesk analysis in February described this as the logical next phase of digital markets, where software doesn’t just automate processes but actually becomes an autonomous participant in creating value. In practice, this means every function becomes a service that’s traded in real-time, whether that’s as simple as routing data or balancing liquidity depth.
As this new autonomous development stack emerges, developers are now building modular systems that can self-monetize and self-maintain, where intent is expressed through objectivesrather than lines of code.
The boost to productivity is obvious, but what isn’t at first are the systemic risks, and they must be taken into account. A report from MIT Technology Review reinforced this message, stating the need for autonomous accountability wherever autonomous code might appear.
Systems built for tomorrow must transparently show where tampering has occurred (if it has occurred), and must be reproducible to test the limits of such autonomous systems. In the realm of programmable economies, compliance is mandatory where autonomous agents write the systems.
Building Trust in Autonomous Systems
In traditional software, trust was simply a task easily crossed off when suitable oversight was applied; however, with autonomous systems where the code writes itself, trust must be embedded.
Programmable economies make this possible through the process of verification, where each agent can be identified, observed, and every move it makes linked to a verifiable purpose. This transparency is key for building trust in an autonomous system since it becomes a measurable metric, where proof becomes proof of compliance.
Plans are already underway to establish this level of trust, as seen in the Ethereum Foundation’s work on ERC-8004. This proposed communication and verification protocol for AI agents aims to establish a new standard, where every autonomous system can demonstrate that it has performed a task and that it did so within predefined constraints.
As programmable economies develop and mature over time, accountability will be where credibility is found. Platforms that prove regulatory compliance, ethical alignment, and integrity of their autonomous system(s) will be the ones to earn higher monthly active users.
The Way Forward
All entities from today onwards that integrate autonomous systems into their services and daily workflows will be evaluated on how effectively they establish autonomous accountability. Governance must be treated as code, provenance as a feature, and trust as a byproduct of accountability.
The promise of programmable economies is just that, software that functions well because it serves a purpose without flaws and gaps in oversight. Developers who design incentives, rather than just interfaces, in their autonomous stacks will thrive in the economy of tomorrow.
Establish accountability and verifiability today, before the foundations harden and become impossible to reshape. Every system we build now will either empower us with clarity and oversight or lock us into mechanisms that operate beyond our reach. The longer we delay, the more we invite a future where critical decisions are made by structures we neither understand nor influence.
