Scaling Trust

Document type: Programme thesis

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Author: Alex Obadia

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Date published: 9 February 2026

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Version: 2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.67475/sthvj1-xjfd

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Abstract

Every day we spend time, effort, and resources coordinating with each other – finding the right people or services to work with, negotiating the terms of the interaction, and enforcing the agreements made. These are fundamental costs of modern life we pay, what economists call 'Coasean transaction costs', and AI is collapsing them. Their reduction signals a new era for our society and our economy. 

We envision this era as one where AI agents are our faithful representatives, continuously aligning to our preferences, able to go out into both digital and physical worlds and cheaply mobilise, negotiate, and verify on our behalf. As opposed to an all-powerful, all-knowing AI, this is a world of many-agents, each holding our private information, operating with their own objectives, and constantly interacting with institutions, humans and other agents.