The blockchain sector is approaching a structural transformation that extends beyond smart contracts and programmable assets, according to John Wang, managing director of Neo Ecofund and head of Neo ecosystem growth.
Wang said the long-promoted Smart Economy model is giving way to what he describes as a Sentient Economy, where artificial intelligence agents operate as autonomous economic participants.
Speaking during discussions surrounding the launch of Neo’s Spoonos framework, Wang argued that future economic actors may increasingly be non-human and digitally native.
He explained that AI and blockchain are often treated as separate technologies despite their combined potential to form a new economic layer.
The Sentient Economy is defined by AI agents that can own assets, make decisions, and interact on-chain without direct human control.
Wang stressed that this shift is not about hype-driven integration but about enabling accountability, verification and composability for autonomous agents.
By existing on-chain, AI agents can establish identity, execute transactions and remain transparent through immutable code.
Neo introduced Spoonos as the technical foundation to support this transition, positioning it as the evolution of its Smart Economy vision launched in 2017.
The framework provides a developer runtime and unified data layer to allow AI reasoning to trigger blockchain-based actions.
Wang noted that Spoonos is already attracting interest through collaborations with projects including ChainGPT and Morph.
Despite progress, he acknowledged significant challenges around immature tooling, complex developer requirements and unresolved value-capture models.
Wang said developers must still overcome steep learning curves at the intersection of AI, blockchain and decentralised coordination.
He framed the shift as a natural progression, moving from programmable assets toward programmable intelligence.
Wang highlighted real-world experimentation at the Scoop AI Global Hackathon, which involved more than 500 developers across Silicon Valley and London.
He said the most promising applications focused on probabilistic intelligence rather than basic automation.
One example involved using Spoonos to derive mathematical curves from raw data to uncover hidden causal relationships.
To me, that’s the essence of the Sentient Economy—not just automating transactions, but building agents that perceive, reason and reveal structure in the world.
Wang said.
Wang predicted that the transition would unfold quietly rather than through sudden disruption.
By the time people realise it’s happening, the Sentient Economy will already be here.
Wang stated.
He described the current phase of Web3 as a civilisational shift driven by programmable cognition rather than digital property alone.
Wang said blockchain is evolving into a coordination layer for silicon-native agents rather than a simple financial ledger.
As carbon-based intelligence gives way to silicon-native agents, we’re no longer just building tools—we’re building minds.
Wang highlighted.