With Episode 6 of The Coordinate, we are taking the podcast to a whole new level by kicking off a series on post-AGI economics. Recently, there has been a sharp rise in discussions around agents engaging in commercial activity, with some even projecting that agentic commerce could eventually eclipse the human-based commerce we know today. But many of these conversations stop short of exploring the deeper question: how do markets need to be designed or redesigned to accommodate our silicon-based counterparts? To unpack the nuances of agentic commerce and the market design it will require, @sreeramkannan and I had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with the one and only @skominers, Professor at @HarvardHBS and Research Partner at @a16z. What began as a planned 90-minute recording session turned into a 3 hour conversation in aggregate, so we decided to split the episode into two parts. Today, we’re releasing Part 1. In part 1, we cover: • what market design is in plain English • why prices alone are often not enough • how Uber, Airbnb, food delivery, and auctions reveal deeper market structure • stable matching and the medical residency match • privacy, transparency, and information in markets • why crypto and AI could transform agentic commerce If you’re curious about market design and the future of agentic commerce, this episode is for you. This is Part 1 of Episode 6 of TheCoordinate. Hope you enjoy it! ----------------------------------- Timestamps 0:22 Why this episode matters: economics, market design, and software agents 1:52 What market design is in plain English 5:13 Why prices alone are not enough 8:33 Uber as a market design case study 16:16 Information, pricing, and why markets need infrastructure 22:06 Opting in and out of markets: Airbnb and One Fine Stay 27:25 What are the goals of market design? Sustainability, fairness, and social value 33:26 Stable matching and the medical residency match 41:48 Privacy, transparency, and information revelation in markets 51:54 Crypto, AI agents, and the future of agentic commerce