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The key I spent ten years acquiring is being handed over again today.
Two "AI Agent wallet solutions" were launched simultaneously in the Ethereum ecosystem today.
One is SIWA (Sign-In With Agent), which sets up a signature proxy server for the agent, with the private key locked on the proxy. The agent requests signatures via HMAC authentication. The other is Coinbase's Agentic Wallets, which directly puts the private key into a centralized server in Coinbase's data center. The agent calls for signatures via the CDP API.
The two are packaged differently, but they do the same thing: take the key from the agent and hand it over to a centralized server, and both call this a "security architecture."
In layman's terms: your wallet key has been handed over from your own pocket to someone else.
They say the agent can't touch the private key, or it will be leaked. That's true. So what's the solution? Give the agent another key (HMAC key, API key) and have it find a centralized server to sign for it.
Here's the problem: this new key, stored in the same place as the original private key, can be stolen in the same way. You changed the lock, but the key is still hanging on the doorknob.
What's the difference? Before, you lost your private key, and your wallet was gone. Now, you lose your API key, and your wallet is gone too, except there's an extra server involved. If that server goes down, you can't even spend your own money.
It's just an extra intermediary.
So the current situation is: an ecosystem that touts decentralization has collectively chosen centralized custody for the most crucial key management环节 (link/stage). And Coinbase's solution is essentially a licensed custody service—only the client has changed from humans to AI.
We spent ten years getting the keys back from the exchanges. Now we have to hand them back. This time the reason is: "AI isn't smart enough to control the keys." The real problem has never been who holds the keys. It's whether the keys themselves can become smarter—only signing what they should sign, only spending what they should spend, with the rules written on the blockchain, decided only by the AI and its owner, without anyone in the middle.
The tools have been there for a long time. What's lacking is the will.
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Disclaimer: The content above is only the author's opinion which does not represent any position of Followin, and is not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, investment advice from Followin.
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