Will blockchain be the missing key to the large-scale development of humanoid robots?

By Pengu, GCR

Translated by AididiaoJP, Foresight News

Original Title: Why Is Blockchain the Ultimate Solution for Scaling Humanoid Robots?

Introduction

Humans have always pursued higher efficiency and greater productivity. From the steam engine, electricity, assembly lines, and computers to today’s artificial intelligence, each technological leap has brought increased output and social prosperity, continuously lowering the barriers to value creation.

Past technological innovations have always depended on humans. The steam engine relied on workers to operate, factories required大量 labor, and even critical components of computers could not function without human involvement. These tools amplified human capabilities but never truly replaced human labor. While productivity has improved, human roles remain irreplaceable.

Artificial intelligence has changed all that. For the first time in history, software can build software autonomously. Machines can independently write, test, and optimize code, meaning cognitive labor is no longer the primary bottleneck for growth.

Currently, this shift mainly impacts white-collar fields—programming, design, research, coordination, and so on. Output in the digital realm is skyrocketing, but physical production has not kept pace, while demand for tangible goods and services continues to rise, especially in housing, food, logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare. The gap between digital productivity and physical output is becoming increasingly evident.

And robots are the key to bridging this gap.

Current State of Robotics Technology

Robots have long been used in industrial, medical, logistics, and aerospace sectors. But today’s changes are not just about enhanced capabilities—they are about robots stepping out of confined scenarios and entering everyday human environments, including homes.

The emphasis on “humanoid” stems from the fact that our physical world is inherently designed for humans—doors, tools, stairs, warehouses, hospitals, etc. Instead of transforming infrastructure, developing robots that can directly integrate into existing environments is more practical. This makes humanoid robots the shortest path from prototypes to real-world applications.

Humanoid robot technology is advancing exponentially, as vividly demonstrated at the 2026 International Consumer Electronics Show. Not only are displays more impressive, but the iteration speed in movement, control, and autonomy is accelerating. Progress has shifted from linear to exponential growth.

The integration of artificial intelligence has fundamentally altered this trajectory. Robots are beginning to learn from their own experiences, autonomously optimizing movements, balancing, and task execution without human supervision. As deployment scales up, data accumulates, and AI intelligence improves, feedback loops strengthen. The more robots there are, the faster the technological progress.

At the national level, robotics technology is also becoming a strategic focus. Increasingly, governments view humanoid robots as critical infrastructure related to productivity, resilience, and long-term economic strength. This is no longer just a commercial race but a geopolitical competition.

According to Counterpoint Research, by 2025, approximately 16,000 humanoid robots will be deployed globally, with China accounting for over 80%. This highly concentrated distribution reflects China’s proactive stance in promoting humanoid robot applications. Adoption shows clear regional differences and strategic-driven characteristics.

Looking ahead, Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2050, about 90% of humanoid robots (around 930 million units) will be used for repetitive, simple, and structurally defined tasks, mainly in industrial and commercial sectors. China is expected to lead with approximately 302 million units, while the US will have about 7.7 million.

The economic impact is already within reach. McKinsey states that if companies restructure workflows around “humans, AI agents, and robots working together” rather than automating isolated tasks, they could unlock up to $2.9 trillion in economic value in the US alone by 2030.

Robotics × Cryptocurrency

Currently, cryptocurrencies are mainly viewed as financial tools—trading, speculation, payments, and store of value are the mainstream narratives. But the underlying technology’s potential extends far beyond finance.

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies introduce a new layer of coordination between the digital and physical worlds. As robot scale expands, this layer’s importance grows. Robots will need to transact, own resources, share data, and operate across borders without relying on traditional financial and legal systems.

Cryptocurrencies are the infrastructure supporting large-scale robot operation.

Machine-to-Machine Payments

Robots operate continuously, with transaction frequencies far exceeding humans. Cryptocurrencies enable instant micro-payments between machines, without banks, invoices, or settlement delays. Once robots begin autonomously purchasing services, energy, or tasks, this capability will be crucial.

Robots as On-Chain Economic Actors

Robots are not just task executors—they will also participate in economic activities. On-chain registration allows robots to receive payments directly, hold assets, and interact with smart contracts, transforming them from tools into autonomous economic agents.

Web3 Native Wallets Replacing Traditional Bank Accounts

Traditional financial systems are not designed for machines. Web3 wallets enable robots to open accounts instantly and globally without permission, greatly lowering deployment barriers and supporting cross-border operations from day one.

Tokenized Ownership of Robot and Robot Clusters

Robots are capital-intensive assets, and traditional financing is slow. Tokenization enables shared ownership, profit distribution, and liquidity for robot assets, allowing investors to fund robots as they would digital infrastructure.

Blockchain-Based Data Distribution for Machine Learning

Robots generate vast amounts of real-world data. Blockchain technology can enable transparent, controllable sharing and monetization of this data. Better data access leads to more efficient training and more capable robots.

Decentralization and Privacy Protection

As robots enter homes, hospitals, and workplaces, they will handle sensitive data—health records, behavioral data, physical environment information, etc. These should not be controlled by a single centralized entity. Decentralized systems reduce concentration risks and allow users to control data access and usage. Cryptocurrencies support verifiable rules and privacy-preserving collaboration, which are vital for building trust and promoting adoption.

Notable Projects to Watch

The robotics field has yet to receive the attention it deserves. Current discourse still focuses on software and pure AI narratives, while physical automation quietly accumulates momentum.

As humanoid robots, AI, and crypto infrastructure begin to intersect, the narrative is shifting. Below are some projects we have identified in this emerging space.

PrismaX — Driving Learning Through Remote Control

PrismaX positions itself as a service layer for real-world AI robotics, transforming human operation into high-quality training data via remote control, continuously optimizing models and robot capabilities. Users remotely control robots to perform simple pick-and-place tasks, with each interaction becoming training data for autonomous systems. Human input acts as a bridge between current robots and fully autonomous systems, shifting learning from lab-restricted to scalable, distributed processes.

Core Value

Robots perform well in ideal controlled environments, but to adapt to the real world, they must encounter uncertainty, edge cases, and imperfect conditions. To enable reliable operation in unknown environments, diverse and rich datasets are essential.

Auki — Mapping for AI

Auki is building a network called “AI Map.” Its core is posemesh, a decentralized perception network supporting safe, private sharing of spatial data and computing resources among robots, smart glasses, and other devices, enabling machines to form a shared understanding of the physical world.

By creating a “real-world network,” Auki makes physical locations browsable, navigable, and searchable for AI systems. Robots and digital devices can coordinate within the same space without centralized control, and a token economy supports the exchange of spatial data and computing resources. The physical world thus becomes “machine-readable.”

Core Value

About 70% of the global economy still relates to physical location and human labor. Enabling AI to understand and access the physical world is crucial for scaling robotics, automation, and real-world applications beyond digital environments.

GEODNET — Building a Positioning Network for an Autonomous Future

GEODNET is developing a centimeter-level real-time dynamic positioning network. The project has been considered for inclusion by Grayscale and adopts a decentralized model, where participants operate satellite reference stations to earn crypto rewards, supporting real-world infrastructure. Participants gain passive income and contribute to large-scale high-precision navigation.

This network provides the spatial and temporal infrastructure essential for AI robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, and the metaverse.

Core Value

Centimeter-level positioning accuracy and nanosecond-level time synchronization are foundational for autonomous systems. As robots operate increasingly independently in the physical world, reliable positioning becomes indispensable infrastructure.

Peaq — The Economic Layer for Robots

Peaq is the economic system and coordination layer for the robot economy. It is a blockchain optimized for machines, robots, and autonomous agents, providing native standards for identity, ownership, time, access control, and payments, enabling devices to participate in economic activities without human intermediaries.

On Peaq, users can own robots that work, generate income, and automatically distribute profits. Robots become productive assets rather than fixed costs, with coordination happening automatically at the protocol layer.

Core Value

Scaling robots requires a native economic layer. Peaq provides the infrastructure to support ownership, incentives, and coordination for autonomous machines operating in the physical world.

IoTeX — On-Chain Identity Layer

IoTeX aims to build blockchain infrastructure connecting AI systems with the physical world. As AI surpasses purely digital environments, its effectiveness increasingly depends on real-time, trustworthy real-world data. IoTeX addresses this through “Realms”—aggregating real-time data from machines, sensors, and people to generate intelligent knowledge bases for mobility, health, energy, and robotics.

Another core component is ioID, an on-chain identity layer for machines and AI agents. Each ioID pairs a globally unique identifier with a blockchain wallet, supporting discoverability, economic autonomy, and trustworthy interactions among machines, agents, and AI systems, making them verifiable participants in the physical AI economy.

Core Value

Humanoid robots face complex tasks requiring mobility, perception, adaptability, and continuous learning. “Realms” provide ongoing updates of real-world data and domain intelligence, supporting reliable operation outside controlled environments. Coupled with ioID, robots can become recognizable, trustworthy, and economically active participants in the physical AI economy.

Conclusion

Despite ongoing challenges in robot learning, mobility, environmental adaptability, costs, and legal frameworks, one trend is clear: robots will become an integral part of daily life. Homes, workplaces, logistics, healthcare, and cities will increasingly rely on autonomous machines.

And for large-scale operation, robots need more than just intelligence and hardware—they require cross-border, institutionally recognized identities, payments, coordination, and trust mechanisms. This is where cryptocurrencies shift from “optional” to “essential.”

Robotics operate in the physical world, cryptocurrencies coordinate in the economic realm. Their intersection is shaping a new ecosystem of autonomous operation.