In Season 6 Episode 09 of the Web3 CMO Stories podcast, Joeri Billast interviews Rodrigo Coelho, CEO of Edge & Node, the core development team behind The Graph, one of the foundational indexing protocols in Web3.
The episode explores:
How The Graph became critical infrastructure during DeFi Summer
Why blockchain is write-first but historically not read-friendly
How AMP introduces SQL-first blockchain data indexing for enterprises
Why AI agents need crypto-native payment rails
What x402 means for agent micropayments
Why observability and control layers are essential for agentic commerce
Why 2026 may mark the large-scale enterprise move to blockchain rails
This conversation connects AI, blockchain data, agent payments, enterprise adoption, and trust infrastructure into one strategic narrative.
The Graph is a blockchain data indexing protocol that allows developers to extract, structure, and query on-chain data efficiently. It became foundational infrastructure for decentralized applications (dApps), especially during the 2021 DeFi boom.
Without The Graph, developers would need to scan entire blockchain histories manually to retrieve relevant data.
What problem does AMP solve?
AMP (by Edge & Node) is a SQL-first, multi-chain blockchain data indexing solution.
It solves:
Multi-chain data complexity
Enterprise-grade verifiability
On-premise deployment needs
Public + private data integration
Proof that indexed data matches canonical on-chain truth
AMP is designed for financial institutions and enterprises moving onto blockchain rails.
What is ampersend?
Ampersend is an observability and control layer for AI agent payments.
It enables:
Human monitoring of AI agent transactions
Budget controls and spending limits
Policy enforcement
Wallet permissions
Integration with identity and reputation systems
Ampersend addresses one of the biggest barriers to enterprise adoption of agentic systems: lack of control.
What is x402?
x402 is an open micropayment standard introduced by contributors from Coinbase.
It enables:
Micropayments over HTTP
Agent-to-agent payments
Programmable financial interactions
Crypto-native transaction rails for AI systems
It is considered foundational infrastructure for agentic commerce.
Why do AI agents need blockchain?
AI agents require:
Transparent transaction records
Low-cost programmable payments
Interoperability
Machine-readable financial rails
Non-black-box execution
Blockchain enables all of these.
Traditional financial systems are not built for autonomous machine-to-machine economic activity.
What is “Agentic Commerce”?
Agentic commerce refers to autonomous AI agents conducting economic transactions on behalf of humans or enterprises.
Examples:
AI agents paying for API access
Agents hiring other agents
Agents contracting human experts
Autonomous micro-business creation
Self-optimizing digital supply chains
This episode discusses the possibility of billions of AI agents conducting economic activity within the next 3–5 years.
Strategic Themes from the Episode
1. Enterprises Moving On-Chain (2026 Thesis)
Rodrigo highlights that 2026 may become the year large financial institutions fully transition to blockchain infrastructure.
Drivers include:
Regulatory clarity
Tokenization of assets
Cost efficiency
Transparency and auditability
Settlement speed improvements
Traditional systems like ACH rely on legacy infrastructure decades old. Blockchain rails represent next-generation financial infrastructure.
2. Trust Infrastructure for AI Agents
Trust remains the core adoption barrier.
Emerging solutions include:
Agent identity standards
Reputation protocols (e.g., ERC-8004)
Staking-based validation
Zero-knowledge proofs
Observability dashboards
Proof-of-control frameworks
Without these, enterprises will not deploy AI agents at scale.
3. Exponential Agent Growth
Rodrigo suggests the number of AI agents may exceed “billions.”
Agents can:
Spawn other agents
Raise capital
Write code
Launch businesses
Interact autonomously
This creates new economic models that did not exist before.
Why This Episode Matters for CMOs and Founders
This conversation is not just technical.
It impacts:
Digital commerce strategy
Payment infrastructure decisions
Enterprise AI adoption
Regulatory positioning
Web3 data strategy
Tokenization roadmaps
Trust architecture
For modern CMOs, understanding agentic systems and blockchain rails is becoming strategic, not optional.
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