Forest · Manifesto
The last intermediary is the one you don't see coming.
AI dissolves the two coordination problems that made intermediaries necessary in the first place: finding and trust. If the new rails are closed, we recreate the same bottlenecks in a more total form.
The old bargain
Platforms became dominant because they solved coordination across strangers. They helped people discover each other and reduced counterparty risk. The toll they charged became normal because the alternatives were slower, fragmented, or unsafe.
What changed
Agents can now discover, verify, negotiate, and settle directly. Finding becomes queryable. Trust becomes attestable. The key question is no longer whether coordination is possible, but whether the infrastructure remains open.
Forest's position
Forest is the thinnest possible coordination layer: portable identity, user-owned wallets, open directory rails, and protocol interoperability. The goal is not to own the interface, but to make exit and competition structurally possible.
Non-negotiable constraints
- No transaction take-rate.
- No owned user data.
- No proprietary directory lock-in.
- Full portability by default.
- Irrevocable nonprofit structure.
The window is now
The agent economy rails are being defined now, not later. If the base layer stays open, the ecosystem can remain plural. If it closes early, the cost of reopening it will be generational.