The Agentic Economy — Corpus Analysis

63 definitions · 6 categories · 8 coded dimensions · 3 visualizations

Settlement Fault Lines

Where does money move? Settlement assumptions across 63 definitions crypto-native fiat hybrid neutral unstated SETTLEMENT ASSUMPTION CATEGORY A Fiat-Layer 12 1 1 B Infra & Rails 1 7 Ccr Crypto-Native 10 1 Cs Crypto-Agnostic 1 D Normative/Reg 2 1 4 E Speculative 3 7 Cell opacity ∝ count (max = 12). Empty cells shown near-transparent.

Category Ccr is 100% crypto-native; Category A is 100% fiat-adjacent (12 of 14 entries coded fiat, 1 hybrid). Category B and E leave settlement unstated — infrastructure and speculative framings deliberately avoid the question. Only 6 of 63 entries span the hybrid middle ground.

When the Field Was Named

63 definitions, 2018–2026 — when the field was named 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 YEAR OF PUBLICATION C10 (Ccr) · 2018-06 · 1 xref C1 (Ccr) · 2021-03 · 3 xrefs C2 (Ccr) · 2021-06 · 2 xrefs E9 (E) · 2021-07 · 2 xrefs E2 (E) · 2024-11 · 2 xrefs B8 (B) · 2025-02 · 1 xref C7 (Ccr) · 2025-02 · 4 xrefs E1 (E) · 2025-04 · 3 xrefs A1 (A) · 2025-05 · 3 xrefs B2 (B) · 2025-05 · 2 xrefs B3 (B) · 2025-05 · 3 xrefs C3 (Ccr) · 2025-05 · 2 xrefs D3 (D) · 2025-06 · 2 xrefs D1 (D) · 2025-07 · 3 xrefs A7 (A) · 2025-08 · 2 xrefs B4 (B) · 2025-08 · 2 xrefs A2 (A) · 2025-09 · 3 xrefs A9 (A) · 2025-09 · 1 xref A12 (A) · 2025-09 · 1 xref A4 (A) · 2025-10 · 3 xrefs A11 (A) · 2025-10 · 1 xref B1 (B) · 2025-10 · 2 xrefs E5 (E) · 2025-10 · 1 xref E8 (E) · 2025-10 · 2 xrefs A10 (A) · 2025-11 · 1 xref B5 (B) · 2025-11 · 1 xref B7 (B) · 2025-11 · 2 xrefs D7 (D) · 2025-11 · 2 xrefs A6 (A) · 2025-12 · 2 xrefs C6 (Ccr) · 2025-12 · 2 xrefs A3 (A) · 2026-01 · 2 xrefs A8 (A) · 2026-01 · 1 xref C9 (Ccr) · 2026-01 · 1 xref D4 (D) · 2026-01 · 2 xrefs D5 (D) · 2026-01 · 2 xrefs E6 (E) · 2026-01 · 2 xrefs E10 (E) · 2026-01 · 2 xrefs A14 (A) · 2026-02 · 2 xrefs C5 (Ccr) · 2026-02 · 2 xrefs C8 (Ccr) · 2026-02 · 3 xrefs C11 (Ccr) · 2026-02 · 1 xref D2 (D) · 2026-02 · 2 xrefs E3 (E) · 2026-02 · 3 xrefs E4 (E) · 2026-02 · 2 xrefs E7 (E) · 2026-02 · 2 xrefs A5 (A) · 2026-03 · 2 xrefs A13 (A) · 2026-03 · 2 xrefs B6 (B) · 2026-03 · 1 xref C4 (Ccr) · 2026-03 · 1 xref C12 (Cs) · 2026-03 · 4 xrefs D6 (D) · 2026-03 · 1 xref 44 of 63 definitions published 2025-2026 Tick height = number of cross-references (1–4) A B Ccr Cs D E

The field has a founding moment and a naming moment. The founding: 3 Ccr entries in 2018-2021 (crypto-native definitions predating mainstream attention). The naming: 44 of 63 definitions were published in 2025-2026, with the densest cluster in Q4 2025 through Q1 2026. Tick height encodes cross-references — the tallest ticks (C7, A1, C8) are the most-cited anchors.

The Ideological Axis

Actor autonomy vs. temporal horizon — the field's ideological divide present near-future speculative TEMPORAL HORIZON human hybrid autonomous ACTOR MODEL The ideological axis A1 · present · human-in-loop A2 · present · human-in-loop A4 · present · human-in-loop A5 · present · human-in-loop A6 · present · human-in-loop A8 · present · human-in-loop A9 · present · human-in-loop A10 · present · human-in-loop A11 · present · human-in-loop E1 · present · ambiguous E2 · present · ambiguous C11 · present · hybrid C1 · present · autonomous C2 · present · autonomous C3 · present · autonomous C9 · present · autonomous C10 · present · autonomous B5 · present · autonomous B6 · present · autonomous E3 · present · autonomous E8 · present · autonomous C12 · present · autonomous A3 · near-future · human-in-loop A7 · near-future · human-in-loop A12 · near-future · human-in-loop A14 · near-future · human-in-loop A13 · near-future · hybrid D1 · near-future · hybrid E5 · near-future · hybrid E7 · near-future · hybrid B1 · near-future · autonomous B2 · near-future · autonomous B3 · near-future · autonomous B4 · near-future · autonomous B7 · near-future · autonomous B8 · near-future · autonomous C4 · near-future · autonomous C5 · near-future · autonomous C6 · near-future · autonomous C7 · near-future · autonomous D2 · near-future · autonomous D4 · near-future · autonomous D5 · near-future · autonomous D6 · near-future · autonomous E4 · near-future · autonomous E6 · near-future · autonomous E10 · near-future · autonomous B3 · speculative · autonomous C8 · speculative · autonomous D3 · speculative · autonomous D7 · speculative · autonomous E9 · speculative · autonomous Cat. A cluster present / human Cat. Ccr speculative A — Fiat-Layer Protocol (14) B — Infrastructure & Rails (8) Ccr — Crypto-Native (11) Cs — Crypto-Agnostic (1) D — Normative / Regulatory (7) E — Speculative / Sci-Fi (10) Hover a dot for entry ID. Dots jittered within clusters to avoid overlap.

Each dot is one of 63 definitions. Categories cluster along the diagonal: Category A (blue) sits at present/human-in-loop; Category Ccr (amber) and the speculative entries occupy near-future and speculative/autonomous. 40 of 63 entries (63%) code actor_model as autonomous — the field has already decided.