Global trade is surging, but trust is evaporating.

This paradox is becoming impossible to ignore. While world trade crossed $30 trillion in value last year, the systems that underpin international cooperation — contracts, payments, dispute resolution — are unraveling. And if trust is the real bedrock of capitalism, then markets may be sitting on a structural fault line.

“Every system — economic, legal, political — assumes trust,” says David Riudor, CEO of GenLayer Foundation, the foundation behind the blockchain protocol GenLayer that is building legal infrastructure for the digital economy. “Without it, you don’t just get volatility. You get paralysis.”

Riudor isn’t alone in his concern. On April 10, a series of headlines painted a bleak picture:

  • The U.S. slapped 125% tariffs on Chinese goods, escalating a trade war that threatens to upend global supply chains.
  • Cyberattacks, allegedly state-sponsored, took out critical infrastructure across Europe.
  • And fallout from last month’s Signalgate leaks has allies like the UK questioning intelligence-sharing agreements with the U.S.

But the erosion of trust isn’t limited to geopolitics. It’s hitting markets and transactions at every level — investor confidence, legal enforcement, AI trade, and cross-border payments are all showing cracks.

A Breakdown at the Core of Capitalism

Riudor, just 29, leads GenLayer Foundation with a specific goal: to rebuild trust in a world where contracts often fail, courts lag behind, and digital transactions are exploding. His mission emerged from personal experience.

“I was an early investor in a startup that sold for over $100 million,” he explains. “But the buyer delayed payment indefinitely. I spent two years in legal limbo. Even winning the case didn’t mean getting paid.”

His case isn’t an outlier. According to international arbitration data, one in four awards goes uncollected after 12 months. Jurisdictional complexity and legal fragmentation make enforcement slow, expensive, and often pointless. In the U.S., complex disputes take an average of 344 days to resolve and can cost over $100,000. Globally, civil cases stretch 657 days on average.

That lag might be tolerable in a pre-digital world, but in today’s economy, it’s a fatal bottleneck.

“Disputes outpace resolutions. It’s like building a skyscraper with 19th-century blueprints,” Riudor says.

The AI Risk No One’s Pricing In

The situation becomes more urgent when you factor in AI agents, which are on track to become active participants in global commerce.

In 2024, investors poured $131.5 billion into AI startups. ARK Invest estimates AI commerce could grow into a $9 trillion market by 2030. These agents — programmatic buyers, sellers, negotiators, and service providers — can operate 24/7, across borders, and at volumes no human team can match.

But they’ll also get into disputes. And when they do, the current legal infrastructure will break.

“If an AI agent in New York contracts with one in Tokyo, and something goes wrong — what court do they use? What currency? Who enforces the outcome?” Riudor asks. “The system already can’t keep up with humans. Add billions of digital actors, and it collapses.”

He predicts that without change, AI will clog legal systems globally, slowing commerce, increasing risk, and sapping investor confidence in automation-led growth.

Blockchain’s Legal Moment

GenLayer’s proposed solution is bold: a global, blockchain-native layer for contract enforcement and dispute resolution.

Think of it as legal infrastructure for the AI economy. GenLayer’s smart contracts go beyond rigid “if-this-then-that” logic. They’re Intelligent Contracts — programmable agreements that understand natural language, pull live data from the internet, and adapt to real-world complexity.

What sets GenLayer apart is its Optimistic Democracy consensus model. Here’s how it works:

  • Validators (human and AI) monitor transactions.
  • If all parties agree, payments execute instantly.
  • If there’s a dispute, the system escalates to a larger group of independent validators.
  • Once resolved, funds are disbursed automatically.

It’s a far cry from courtrooms and paperwork. “We’re designing a system where enforcement is instant and impartial,” Riudor says. “No more hiding behind jurisdictions. The code makes the call, and the money moves.”

This could be especially valuable in environments where traditional enforcement is weak or where AI agents dominate trade. “You can’t sue an AI agent. But you can enforce a smart contract it’s tied to,” Riudor notes.

Why Investors Should Pay Attention

For retail and institutional investors, the implications are significant.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently declared that “everything will be tokenized.” That vision demands enforceable on-chain infrastructure, not just for payments, but for the contracts behind them.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong highlighted another gap: “AI agents can’t get bank accounts — but they can get crypto wallets.” With major exchanges, asset managers, and governments leaning into blockchain rails, the next wave of financial infrastructure is being laid now.

And that wave won’t just settle trades — it’ll settle disputes.

If GenLayer becomes the go-to enforcement mechanism for AI and digital commerce, it could capture value from every transaction it secures, much like Visa, Stripe, or AWS did for earlier phases of the internet.

“Bitcoin and Visa solved payments,” Riudor says. “But enforcement—the legal layer—remains unsolved. That’s where the opportunity is.”

Betting on the Next Layer of the Internet

The historical analogy Riudor cites isn’t a financial one — it’s maritime.

In the 13th century, the Consulate of the Sea, created by Mediterranean traders in Barcelona, standardized commerce across nations. It wasn’t run by governments but by merchants themselves. It imposed rules like “pay or lose your ship.” It worked because it offered something rare: consistent enforcement across jurisdictions.

“We need a digital equivalent,” Riudor says. “A Consulate of the Internet.”

The pitch is compelling: in a world where neither governments nor corporations can keep up with the pace of digital trade, neutral protocols may be the only reliable foundation.

That’s GenLayer’s bet, and if the bet pays off, the protocol won’t just power Web3. It could become core infrastructure for the next $10 trillion in AI-driven trade.