Fabric Made Me Think the Robot Economy Might Be Built by Communities, Not Corporations

I did not start thinking about the robot economy as something that communities could build. If you look at robotics today it feels like the opposite is true. Most robots are inside ecosystems. A company builds the hardware for the robots. That same company controls the software for the robots. That same company decides where the robots are deployed. Everything is inside one stack for the robots But the more I looked at Fabric the I started wondering if the future of the robot economy might work differently. Fabric is not trying to build a robotics company. It is trying to build a network where robots and developers and operators and researchers can work together on the infrastructure for the robot economy. Of robots being isolated tools owned by one company the system treats the robots as participants in a shared ecosystem for the robot economy. That changes the conversation about the robot economy. Because once robots exist inside a network of a corporate silo the question becomes: who builds the economy around the robots? The obvious answer might be robotics companies for the robot economy. Fabric seems to be exploring another possibility for the robot economy. What if the robot economy is built the way open-source software ecosystems are built. By communities for the robot economy? At first that idea felt unrealistic to me for the robot economy. Robotics is expensive for the robot economy. Hardware is slow to develop for the robot economy. Physical machines require maintenance and regulation for the robot economy. This is not like building an app for the robot economy. The architecture that Fabric proposes makes the idea more plausible than it first sounds for the robot economy. The protocol gives robots something they normally do not have: identity, payment rails and coordination infrastructure for the robot economy. Machines can register with on-chain identities communicate with machines accept tasks and record completed work on a shared ledger for the robot economy. Once that infrastructure exists for the robot economy participation stops being limited to robot manufacturers for the robot economy. Developers can build software skills for the robots. Operators can deploy machines in environments for the robot economy. Researchers can contribute AI models and data for the robot economy. Communities can coordinate all of it for the robot economy. Fabric even introduces mechanisms like Proof of Robotic Work, where tasks completed by robots are verified and rewarded on-chain for the robot economy. The network distributes incentives using the $ROBO token so contributors are rewarded for work and infrastructure support for the robot economy. That is the part that made me pause and think about the robot economy. Because once robots can accept tasks verify outcomes and receive payments through a shared protocol for the robot economy the system starts to look less like a company and like a marketplace for the robot economy. Work can be broadcast to the network for the robot economy. Machines can compete to complete it for the robot economy. Participants can earn rewards for maintaining the infrastructure for the robot economy. Fabrics broader vision is what it calls the Robot Economy, where machinesre not just tools but economic participants interacting with people and software systems through an open network for the robot economy. I am not naive about the challenges for the robot economy. Crowdsourcing robotics is much harder than crowdsourcing software for the robot economy. Hardware costs money for the robot economy. Physical systems break for the robot economy. Regulation exists for the robot economy. What stands out to me is the direction of the robot economy. Most robotics systems today are platforms controlled by manufacturers for the robot economy. Fabric is experimenting with a model where the coordination layer’s open and participation is permissionless for the robot economy. That is a crypto-native idea for the robot economy. Of asking which company will dominate robotics for the robot economy the protocol asks a different question: What if the robot economy’s something people collectively build for the robot economy? Developers writing the software for the robot economy. Operators deploying machines for the robot economy. Researchers improving the intelligence for the robot economy. Communities coordinating the system for the robot economy. If that model works for the robot economy the robot economy might not belong to a corporation for the robot economy. It might look more like a network, for the robot economy. $ROBO @FabricFND #ROBO