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The Breakdown

Crypto, AI and the Permanent Underclass | The Breakdown

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Business, Investing

4.8806 Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2026

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Some worry that AI could create a permanent underclass. Can crypto’s next primitive change that — or will value accrue elsewhere? Plus, insight from Daniel Shapiro, Blockworks Research analyst Thanks for tuning in! As always, remember this podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely their opinions, not financial advice. – Follow Blockworks Research: https://x.com/blockworksres Follow Daniel: https://x.com/_dshap Follow David: https://x.com/dcanellis — Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ —-- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:45) Primitive Technology (04:39) More than Picks and Shovels (09:30) DAS Promo (10:15) Accruel World - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on The Breakdown is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Host and guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Some say we have two, three, maybe five years tops before AI makes a whole lot of us obsolete,

0:04.9

creating a permanent underclass of laid-off white-collar workers who can no longer compete with

0:09.6

LLMs like Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini. If you do believe that, then your options are limited

0:14.4

considering the time pressure. Options range from achieving sudden fame by maybe starting a podcast,

0:20.1

to pivoting to shipping slop to stay ahead of whatever competition is left by this point.

0:24.6

Mmm.

0:25.6

That's the good stuff!

0:26.6

Or, better yet, gamble your way out of the new lumpen proletariat on decentralized meme coin perps or leveraged prediction markets.

0:33.6

Crypto is seen as one of a tiny number of estap routes from the impending AI workpocalypse,

0:38.3

at least going by the memes, and while there are now a large array of different teams,

0:42.3

projects and alliances across crypto all working to channel the AI hype into their own corners of the market,

0:47.3

this episode will instead be looking beyond compute marketplaces and GPU flywheels

0:52.3

and instead get to the very heart of what we're all doing here.

0:55.2

Hunting exposure to new primitives that really will free us from the permanent underclass.

0:59.5

I'm your host David Canellis, and this is The Break to buy or sell securities or tokens.

1:14.7

This podcast is for informational purposes only and any views expressed by anyone on the show

1:17.9

are opinions, not financial advice.

1:19.3

Host and guests may hold positions in the company's funds or projects discussed.

1:21.9

Before we jump in, I just want to give a quick shout out to Blockworks Lightspeed IR.

1:26.2

It's a brand new institutional-grade investor relations platform built with the Salana Foundation

1:31.3

to bring real signal to the Solana ecosystem.

1:33.3

High fidelity, on-chain data, serious research, ecosystem Intel, all in one place.

...

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