Modern Society Labs is active in the infrastructure layer of the agent ecosystem, specifically focusing on how agents interact with physical data and local economic protocols. Their L{CORE} project provides the necessary attestation and privacy-preserving SDKs for agents to use IoT data as verifiable inputs. This is a critical piece of the "agentic stack," as it allows autonomous systems to function reliably in the real world rather than just within digital environments.
They are also championing the concept of "AI employees" that run entire departments, moving the narrative from human-in-the-loop tools to fully autonomous operational units. By building on Arbitrum and Cartesi, they are positioning agents to execute complex, off-chain computations that are still cryptographically verifiable on-chain. This makes them relevant to anyone building decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) or autonomous economic organizations.
Modern Society Labs began in 2020 as an "Applied Think Tank" focused on how emerging technology can serve the public interest. While many organizations in the AI and blockchain space focus on abstract financial instruments or centralized tooling, this group focuses on the intersection of decentralized networks and physical environments. Based in Kansas City and led by Montrez Jones, they operate at the edge where data from the physical world meets digital governance.
Their philosophy is rooted in the idea of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which they define as the convergence of AI, IoT, and decentralized networks. They act as both a consultancy for local governments and a development shop for open-source protocols, aiming to lower the barrier for underserved communities to participate in the digital economy.
The organization's technical centerpiece is L{CORE}, an open-source IoT attestation infrastructure. It is designed to solve a persistent problem in the agentic and blockchain worlds: how to trust data coming from physical sensors without relying on a centralized intermediary. L{CORE} is EVM-native and self-hostable, allowing users to collect real-time data while preserving privacy through zero-knowledge proofs.
By integrating with Reclaim Protocol and Arbitrum, L{CORE} enables agents to make decisions based on verified real-world inputs. For example, a decentralized protocol could trigger an action based on environmental data or supply chain events without ever seeing the raw, sensitive data behind those events. This infrastructure is essential for the transition from simple "AI tools" to what the group calls "AI employees"—autonomous agents capable of managing departments and making economic decisions independently.
Beyond hardware infrastructure, they build applications intended to democratize access to capital. Locale Lending is their decentralized protocol for small business credit, built on an Arbitrum Layer 3. It uses smart contracts to automate SBA-style lending, theoretically removing the traditional gatekeepers that often exclude local entrepreneurs from funding. This project connects to their broader Locale Network, a decentralized infrastructure project focused on community connectivity.
Their partnerships suggest a deep integration with the modular blockchain ecosystem. By working with Alchemy, Cartesi, and Zora, they utilize complex computation and optimistic rollups to scale their solutions. Their work with Cartesi is particularly relevant for AI, as it allows for Linux-based computations on-chain, which is often a requirement for running the more demanding logic associated with autonomous agents and advanced data processing.
While their early work centered on blockchain and research, their more recent public messaging emphasizes the creation of AI agents. They explicitly state a shift away from building simple AI productivity tools toward building "AI employees" that can manage operations, marketing, and finance. This suggests they are applying their IoT and blockchain infrastructure as the foundation for these agents, giving them the ability to interact with the physical world and financial protocols securely. Their goal is to create systems where technology connects physical environments with digital decision-making, providing a blueprint for how communities might operate in an era of increasing automation.
Open source IoT attestation infrastructure for secure, privacy-preserving data integration.
Modern Society Labs is hiring.