Australia's 40-Year Economic Outlook Recognizes the AI Revolution, Does Not Mention Cryptocurrency

On September 22, the Australian Treasury released the latest edition of the Intergenerational Report, which outlines a 40-year economic outlook and lists artificial intelligence as one of the five major transformations that will profoundly impact the economy in the future, but the report does not mention cryptocurrencies. The report states that AI systems have become "significantly" more autonomous, powerful, and widely applied, with some benchmark performances surpassing human levels. The other four transformations are geopolitical conflicts, an aging population, the transition to clean energy, and Australia's industrial shift towards the service sector.

John O'Loghlen, National Director of Coinbase Australia, commented in an email that the report clearly indicates that Australia's prosperity over the next 40 years will largely depend on the ability to adopt new technologies and enhance productivity, but while the report focuses on artificial intelligence, it completely overlooks the financial infrastructure required for these agents. Previous Intergenerational Reports also did not address digital assets. Despite these omissions, the Reserve Bank of Australia has increased its focus on tokenized finance and upgrading financial infrastructure earlier this year, with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre estimating that digital financial innovation could bring an economic benefit of AUD 24 billion (approximately USD 17.1 billion) annually.

The Treasury also released a separate report on September 3 titled Financial Innovation Strategy, which discusses the connection between AI and financial infrastructure, stating that agent systems may increase automation and machine-to-machine trading, thereby creating greater demand for real-time, interoperable, and programmable payment systems.