The Future of Economic Power - Circle’s Jeremy Allaire with Nicholas Thompson

Technological waves often arrive with a promise. The internet was going to democratize information. Blockchain was going to decentralize power. Now, AI's boosters say it will bring unprecedented prosperity.

Few people are better positioned to speak to that possibility than Jeremy Allaire. As the CEO of the fintech company Circle—issuer of the USDC stablecoin—and a longtime internet entrepreneur, Allaire has been at the center of the first two technological waves. With AI, he says we’re going through a change that’s “bigger than the Industrial Revolution.” He sees a future of financially-empowered agents—and believes this technology could be the one that finally fulfills the promise of shared wealth. 

In a conversation with Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, Allaire describes how the agentic economy might work, why regulation will be critical to its success, and what’s missing from the conversation around AI’s effect on society.

Produced independently of The Atlantic’s editorial staff. Supporting sponsor: PwC.

(00:00) Introduction

(03:33) Jeremy’s early fascination with open networks

(07:14) Creating the first online archive of Noam Chomsky's work 

(10:54) The promise of the early web

(17:00) How the internet centralized power through social media giants

(22:53) Founding Circle with the vision of creating "HTTP for money"

(31:18) Navigating crypto's reputation challenges

(38:18) Why Jeremy wrote The Agentic Economy Treatise