Author: Electric Capital
Compiled by: Jia Huan, ChainCatcher
Link: https://www.chaincatcher.com/article/2239457
Disclaimer: This article is a reprint. Readers can obtain more information through the original link. If the author has any objection to the reprint format, please contact us and we will modify it according to the author's request. This reprint is for information sharing only and does not constitute any investment advice, nor does it represent Wu Blockchain views or positions.
Trust in institutions is collapsing globally. People have lost faith in institutions that were once central to economic, political, and social life: governments, banks, media, and schools, among others. This is not a short-term trend, nor a reaction to a single event. It is a long-term shift in expectations. People no longer assume that institutions are neutral, reliable, or aligned with their interests.
Distributed systems and cryptography provide builders with new tools that can operate without trust. These techniques are designed to operate in adversarial environments: they assume that participants may have malicious intent, the software must be verifiable, and the system should still function properly even if the counterparty fails.
AI makes this shift towards "trust-minimized systems" more urgent and possible than ever before. AI not only centralizes power but also reduces construction costs. Now, one person can build in hours what previously took a team months. This puts pressure on intermediaries, opens up new possibilities for builders, and increases the demand for user-empowered infrastructure.
Only systems in the hands of users truly guarantee freedom. User-owned systems minimize reliance on intermediaries by returning control to the user. These systems cannot be unilaterally altered. They allow for construction without requiring permission. In an ideal architecture, if an existing system no longer serves the user, the user can freely choose to leave without losing existing functionality or data.
This article outlines 26 opportunities in key sectors for 2026.
These opportunities encompass user-owned systems, globally accessible markets, entertainment built on new financial primitives, and the infrastructure preparing the world for AI-driven software. But they all share a common thread: they explore how power, access, and ownership should function in a world where AI is ubiquitous and deeply embedded.
These opportunities are concentrated in six key areas:
Personal software: AI enables the creation of tailored tools, not just SaaS built for the average user. Private agents, encrypted collaboration, and locally running software are now not only feasible but increasingly necessary.
Agent-driven infrastructure: As AI agents become the primary builders of software, the existing development stack will be disrupted. We need new primitives for testing, deployment, payment, data access, and coordination between agents.
Fintech and Decentralized Finance: Stablecoins have made the US dollar accessible to over 4 billion people. Now, they want yields, equity exposure, insurance, and more. The demand for global, programmable, and easily accessible financial infrastructure is accelerating.
The entertainmentization of finance: The younger generation views the market as entertainment. Trading is fast, social, and fun. This has changed the form of financial products and opened the door to new markets.
The Metaverse Renaissance: World Models and Generative AI are dramatically reducing the cost of building immersive, personalized environments. People will step into experiences shaped around them, rather than passively consuming content. There are enormous opportunities in building platforms that simplify world creation and empower users to control how their data is shared, stored, and monetized within these worlds.
New cryptographic primitives and applications: Proof-of-stake and proof-of-work are maturing and opening up space for new consensus models. Zero-knowledge proof systems and fully homomorphic encryption are becoming practical. These primitives unlock new design spaces: consensus tied to human or physical input, infrastructures with default privacy, and applications built on regulated entities, energy markets, and even new jurisdictions.
Personal software
For the first time, individuals can build tailored software to their specific needs, rather than being limited to products from large corporations. As AI agents can now handle complex workflows such as reading emails, scheduling meetings, and managing documents, new demands arise for data privacy, data ownership, and data persistence. Encryption-enabled systems can make these tools private, persistent, and support multi-user collaboration.
Our specific ideas for investment:
Private AI Agents: People need to run AI on sensitive data in a secure manner.
What it might look like: An AI assistant that automates your personal workflows while protecting your privacy. It connects to your health and financial records and provides AI insights. The AI model runs in a trusted execution environment or computing network, and incoming queries are anonymous. It returns responses without requiring enterprise providers or malicious actors to see your data.
Encrypted collaboration spaces: People need to collaborate privately with others (whether human or intelligent agents). Remember, the "cloud" is just someone else's computer.
It might look like this: a shared workspace for friends, family, or small businesses. Finances, documents, and tasks are synchronized via a peer-to-peer storage solution. Selective disclosure grants agents access to specific data types. No accounts need to be created, no large corporations read, store, or use sensitive data for training, and offline work is supported.
Desktop proxy: People need automated tools for their local computer data.
It could look like this: an agent running locally on your desktop, used to read emails, compose replies, create schedules, and organize your life. This idea could be expanded into a new type of desktop operating system in an AI-first world.
Privacy-preserving payment services: People need a way to pay for software services without verifying their identity.
It might look like this: purchasing VPNs, gaming, cloud storage, or AI computing power without an account. You pay based on usage, metered by the service provider, and settled in stablecoins via x402 or similar protocols. The service provider knows someone has paid and how much, but not their identity.
Agent-oriented infrastructure
Intelligent agents will write most of our code and perform most of our mental work. Key impacts include: (1) Software tools will need to be rebuilt from scratch because AI-generated code introduces new failure modes. (2) Development will shift in-house because custom software is now economically viable. (3) Agents will need new pathways to interact with each other. (4) Businesses that were once limited by manpower can suddenly scale up. These ideas capture the opportunities presented by these second-order effects.
Our specific ideas for investment:
AI-native computing infrastructure: Companies need the ability to test, isolate, and roll back AI-generated changes at the infrastructure level.
It might look like this: an AWS or GCP rebuilt for the agent. The agent writes code in a sandbox, safely tests it against production data, and deploys it automatically with rollback if issues arise. The entire process assumes the code comes from the agent, not a human.
End-to-end product development tools: Non-technical staff need to move from ideas to working software.
It might look like this: a platform where users specify business goals, data sources, and desired results. The system generates plans, designs, code, and a working product. This system eliminates the need for technical translation, allowing non-technical users to go directly from an "idea" to a "deployed product" in hours (instead of months).
Agent-enabled business: Agents need to buy and sell independently without human identity or bank account.
It might look like this: an API marketplace where proxies can purchase services from other proxies. Discovery, negotiation, and pay-per-call transactions utilize protocols like x402, with instant settlement in stablecoins.
Data networks and markets: AI needs a data infrastructure that can compensate contributors and give them control over its use.
It might look like this: a network where users share medical records, spending patterns, investment behavior, or creative works for AI training. Contributors set permissions and are paid as their data improves models. AI companies obtain the necessary financial data with clear proof of provenance.
Scalable professional services: Service-oriented enterprises need AI-native operations to overcome the scalability limitations of human labor.
What it might look like: a law firm where each lawyer has an AI assistant handling research, drafting, and document review. A company that once served 1,000 clients now serves 100,000. Any client service profession—lawyer, architect, marketer, accountant, financial advisor—can be restructured with AI at its core.
Fintech and DeFi
More than 4 billion people and millions of businesses facing currency risks are actively seeking dollar access through stablecoins, representing the largest expansion of the dollar network effect in decades. As stablecoins provide access to dollars to individuals worldwide—growing from $3 billion in 2019 to over $300 billion today—millions of new dollar holders need more than just digital cash. They need yields, investment opportunities, and financial services. Opportunities are increasing in financial products that give users ownership and global access.
Our specific ideas for investment:
Unrelated to cryptocurrency returns: Stablecoin holders need a return that doesn't decrease when Bitcoin's price falls.
What it might look like: a platform that brings revenue from real-world infrastructure to stablecoin holders. This revenue could come from data center project bonds, solar infrastructure, and electric vehicle charging networks—projects with predictable cash flows that are uncorrelated with cryptocurrencies.
Globally accessible equity: Global investors need direct access to foreign opportunities with low friction and low cost.
It might look like this: a financial product that replicates equity ownership, offers price exposure, has no funding rates, and no maturity date. Philippine traders are building portfolios of US tech stocks; Canadians are building exposure to South Korean semiconductors.
New types of insurance: Businesses need rapid and transparent underwriting for operational risks that traditional insurance cannot cover.
It could look like this: a platform that uses prediction markets to create new types of insurance products. Hotel chains could purchase hurricane protection for their Florida properties. Ski resorts could hedge against the risk of a mild winter. Capital providers could offer liquidity in exchange for uncorrelated returns.
On-chain commodity markets: Commodities need to be markets with 24/7 trading, instant settlement and global access.
It could look like this: a market for trading energy storage capacity. Battery storage capacity is a potential starting point, as data centers require reliable power and are investing in storage to reduce their reliance on the grid and integrate renewable energy. Data centers with excess storage capacity can sell it to nearby facilities during peak demand periods. Grid operators can trade capacity based on seasonal demand.
Protected DeFi assets: Institutions need to deploy assets in DeFi to ensure security even in the event of a hack.
It might look like this: a sealed version of ETH that can be rolled back if the protocol is hacked. A trusted committee reviews the exploit and can reverse GuardedETH without moving the underlying ETH. Legitimate transactions proceed normally.
The Entertainment of Finance <br />The younger generation views financial markets as a meritocratic alternative to traditional paths. When they engage with the markets, they reimagine what they look like and transform them into entertainment. They trade like they're playing a game: they seek high-adrenaline trades with rapid feedback loops in easily learnable and accessible markets. Fast-turnover products like zero-day-to-expire (0DTE) options, which can settle within hours, now account for over 55% of S&P 500 options trading volume. Easily accessible markets like prediction markets, where anyone can bet on news headlines, saw trading volume reach $44 billion in 2025, a fivefold increase from the previous year. They also transform their trading into content: discussing positions in real-time on Discord, sharing wins and losses on TikTok, and reviewing portfolios on Twitch. As markets become entertainment, there's an opportunity for new platforms to emerge that present financial data as their users perceive it—as engaging, interactive content.
Our specific ideas for investment:
Audience capital: Live viewers need a way to participate economically in the outcome.
It might look like this: a platform that allows viewers to stake on live stream content. Participation makes watching more fun, but currently viewers are limited to tipping and subscriptions. The platform allows reality TV viewers to stake predictions about who will be eliminated, or to copy trades during the streamer's trading sessions.
Opinion Markets: Prediction market platforms need to settle transactions based on collective beliefs rather than just event outcomes.
What it might look like: A platform that generates market-ranked lists. Users stake their opinions on how they think others will rank these items. The platform creates lists such as "Best Pizza in New York," "Top Wines Under $20," "Most Influential Movies of the Decade," or "Best AI Developer Tools," with all rankings determined by the market. Lists are settled weekly based on staked, weighted rankings.
Short drama distribution platforms: Since individual creators can produce dramas cheaper than studios, they need funding and distribution platforms.
What it might look like: a short-form UGC (user-generated content) platform. Creators use AI video tools to create series: Mafia boyfriend saga, secret billionaire reveal, revenge thriller. Fans use tokens to unlock series and directly tip creators. Creators earn revenue based on viewership. ReelShort generated over $700 million in revenue in Q1 2025 with its low-budget, studio-produced short-form series. The platform combines YouTube's UGC content with ReelShort's video format.
Metaverse Revival
Immersive digital worlds are now economically feasible to build. Over the past two years, AI models for images, videos, and simulations have developed rapidly, significantly reducing the cost of creating assets and environments. Individual creators can now build what previously required an entire game studio. Simultaneously, the demand for personalized, interactive content is accelerating: Dispatch, a “choose your own path” TV/game hybrid, sold 3.3 million copies in three months, generating $85 million in revenue with a 98% positive review rate. In Q3 2025 alone, Roblox saw a 70% year-over-year increase in daily active users and paid out $428 million to creators. Personalized, AI-driven character chat applications like Character AI are also demonstrating strong early demand for personalized entertainment. These new environments will not only entertain users but also generate rich, structured interactive data for world models and robotics.
Our specific ideas for investment:
World Compiler: A tool that individual creators without specialized skills can use to translate natural language into a fully interactive 3D environment.
What it might look like: a platform that translates natural language into fully interactive 3D worlds. Building 3D environments still requires specialized skills in modeling, physics, and NPC behavior. AI can break down this barrier. Creators describe a world, and the system builds it. Assets, physics, NPC logic, and memory are all handled automatically. Individual creators can publish rich virtual environments in days instead of years.
Procedural narrative engine: Players need to adapt to their never-ending story.
What it could look like: A platform that generates player-specific stories in real time. Linear stories with endings. Players want experiences that adapt to them and continue. Users enter a detective universe where each case is unique to them. Characters remember past interactions. Plot twists respond to their choices. The story never runs dry.
The "World as Dataset" platform: World models and robotic systems require diverse interactive data. Immersive consumer environments continuously generate this data, but currently no one is capturing it.
What it might look like: a VR game where each player's interactions are instrumented and recorded. How users navigate rooms, pick up objects, and interact with characters becomes training data for the robot. Users opt in, set permissions for sharing data, and receive compensation. AI companies gain access to real-world human behavior data that they couldn't synthesize themselves.
New Cryptographic Primitives and Applications <br>Cryptographic primitives are no longer just theoretical. Proof-of-stake and proof-of-work have both proven resilient at scale. Zero-knowledge proofs are moving from research to production systems. Fully homomorphic encryption is becoming faster and more usable. As these foundational technologies mature, they unlock new opportunities for builders to create systems that prioritize privacy, embed real-world inputs into consensus, and support the coordination of legacy systems such as energy markets or governments.
Our specific ideas for investment:
Human time as consensus: Blockchain networks need to be anchored to consensus mechanisms based on human effort rather than just capital.
It might look like this: Proof of useful work, where consensus requires completing tasks with external value, such as labeling data or verifying real-world events. Participation rights stem from proven capabilities, not from staking.
Physical resource networks: Small-scale infrastructure operators need a coordinated system to make their contributions economically reasonable.
It could look like this: an energy network where production or storage serves as consensus weights, combining grid stability with network security; or a sensor network anchored to physical measurements, such as weather, water, or infrastructure monitoring.
Privacy-Native L1: Blockchains that require default privacy in healthcare, enterprise, regulated finance, and many other industries.
It might look like this: a confidential state machine, where computations are performed on encrypted data by default. Current chains are transparent by default, but many entities (such as healthcare, businesses, and regulated finance) cannot legally operate on transparent chains. Validators use ZK's native architecture or FHE-based execution to verify transaction content without needing to see the content.
FHE (Fully Homomorphic Encryption) for Specific Use Cases: Organizations often need to collaborate on data without revealing each other's data.
This could look like this: Banks detect suspicious patterns across institutions without sharing customer data. Each bank runs an FHE query on encrypted data from other banks. They can identify accounts that have been in contact with the same suspicious entity without revealing their customer lists to each other.
Energy contract settlement: Traditional markets need cryptographic tracks to create 24/7 settlement between different parties. Deregulated energy markets are a good starting point because they are outdated and increasingly strained as AI increases energy demand.
It might look like this: a shared settlement layer for energy contracts in a deregulated market. Delivery data triggers automatic payments. Suppliers see cash flow in real time. Brokers receive their commission instantly. No single party controls the ledger.
Crypto-native jurisdictions: Special economic zones and frontier jurisdictions need to think about new ways of governance and financial infrastructure.
What it might look like: a new jurisdiction that takes a cryptographic approach from day one. On-chain identity, programmable courts, tokenized capital markets, and regulatory logic based on smart contracts.
