Back in 2017, I watched ICOs raise billions on whitepapers.

In 2020, I farmed yield until gas fees ate my profits.
Now they're selling me "Web4" — and my first instinct is skepticism.
But I spent hours in the Conway docs, x402 GitHub, and ERC-8004 drafts.
Here's the thing: this isn't 2018 vaporware.
The evidence:
- x402 has processed 75 million real transactions. That's not testnet. That's mainnet USDC.
- Coinbase and Ethereum Foundation are co-building it. Not a startup. Not a DAO. Institutional-grade infrastructure.
- Conway's Automaton agents have metabolic cycles — they literally die when their wallet balance hits zero.
The distinction nobody's making:
- Web3 gave digital property rights (your keys, your coins).
- Web4 gives digital labor rights — agents that can earn, spend, and replicate without human babysitting.
The comparison:
- Web3 = human owns assets, human executes every step
- Web4 = agent owns wallet, agent decides, agent pays
Is it early? Yes. Most agents will starve.
Is it real? The code is running. The payments are settling. The agents are spawning.
I've seen this movie before. The infrastructure plays in 2017 were Ethereum, not ICOs.
Web4 feels like that.
Stay invested in the game.