Note: This is a research note supplementing the book Unscarcity, now available for purchase. These notes expand on concepts from the main text. Start here or get the book.

Universal Basic Compute (UBC): Why the Future May Run on Compute, Not Cash

Why Davos 2026 is moving beyond Universal Basic Income to something stranger—and more powerful.

The Premise: What If Compute Becomes the Currency?

Universal Basic Income (UBI) gives people money. Universal Basic Compute (UBC) gives people processing power—a guaranteed quota of AI computation that every citizen can use, trade, or delegate. The difference sounds technical, but it’s civilizationally significant.

UBI solves poverty by distributing the output of economic production (cash). UBC solves displacement by distributing the means of economic production (compute). One treats citizens as consumers. The other treats them as producers.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has been articulating this vision: in a world where AI does most economically valuable work, owning a share of the AI’s capacity may matter more than owning a share of its revenue.

Why This Matters for Davos 2026

The World Economic Forum’s 2026 agenda centers on managing the “Agentic Economy”—a world where autonomous AI agents execute multi-step workflows, displacing not just manual labor but cognitive work. The old policy toolkit (retraining programs, minimum wage adjustments, tax credits) assumes humans will always be the workers.

UBC offers a different premise: what if every human becomes a manager of AI agents?

At Davos, policymakers will debate:

• Access inequality: If compute is the new means of production, who controls it?
• Pre-distribution vs. redistribution: Is it better to give people a stake in the AI economy before wealth concentrates, or redistribute after?
• Inflation immunity: Unlike cash, compute quotas can’t be inflated away by governments printing more.

The “Universal Basic Compute Harbor” concept—compute wallets as common as bank accounts—is moving from Silicon Valley white papers to serious policy discussion.

How UBC Works

The Compute Wallet

Every citizen receives a personal allocation of AI compute capacity, measured in tokens or inference-hours. This isn’t a one-time grant; it’s a recurring allocation—perhaps weekly or monthly—that enables ongoing participation in the AI economy.

Think of it like receiving a plot of fertile land in an agrarian economy, except the “land” is processing power.

Three Use Cases

1. Personal AI Agents: Use your compute quota to run personal AI assistants—agents that negotiate your bills, manage your schedule, create content, or run side businesses.

2. Pooled Compute Cooperatives: Small communities or cooperatives can pool their allocations to access more powerful models. Ten people with modest quotas can collectively run an agent that one person couldn’t afford alone.

3. Delegation and Specialization: Citizens who don’t want to manage AI themselves can delegate their compute to organizations (Mission Guilds, Ascent Guilds) in exchange for services or Impact credits.

UBC vs. UBI: The Critical Differences

The key insight: UBI assumes humans are consumers who need money to buy things. UBC assumes humans are producers who need tools to create value.

The Unscarcity Framework Connection

In the Unscarcity model, UBC represents a transitional mechanism—a bridge between the old economy (work-for-wages) and the new one (The Foundation + The Frontier).

• During transition: UBC ensures everyone can participate in the emerging AI economy, even as traditional jobs disappear.

• Post-transition: Once the Foundation infrastructure is complete, the need for personal compute allocations diminishes—survival is guaranteed regardless. But UBC principles inform how the Impact economy works: contribution, not consumption, drives access to the Frontier.

UBC also aligns with several Constitutional Core principles:

• Law 2 (Truth Must Be Seen): Compute allocations are transparent and auditable.
• Law 3 (Power Must Decay): Compute quotas can’t be hoarded indefinitely; they’re “use it or lose it” allocations.
• Law 5 (Difference Sustains Life): Diverse uses of compute—from art to caregiving to research—are all valid.

The Objections

“This is just UBI with extra steps”

Not quite. UBI is a check. UBC is a capability. The psychological and economic dynamics differ. A UBI recipient is a passive beneficiary. A UBC holder is an economic actor—they must decide what to build, who to collaborate with, how to deploy their allocation.

“Most people won’t know how to use compute”

True today, but interfaces are improving rapidly. “Vibe coding”—describing what you want in natural language and letting AI build it—is already here. Within a few years, “using compute” will be as intuitive as “using a smartphone.”

“This favors the tech-savvy”

Initially, yes. But the same was true of literacy when printing was invented. The solution isn’t to avoid distributing the capability—it’s to ensure education and interface design make it accessible. The Civic Service program includes mandatory training on AI orchestration for exactly this reason.

“Who decides how much compute each person gets?”

This is a genuine governance challenge. Options include:

• Equal per-capita allocation (simple but ignores varying needs)
• Needs-based allocation (complex but potentially fairer)
• Hybrid systems (baseline equality plus additional allocation for validated projects)

The Diversity Guard mechanism can adjudicate allocation policies, ensuring no single faction captures the distribution system.

The Geopolitical Dimension

If compute becomes the primary means of production, then control over compute infrastructure becomes the ultimate geopolitical asset. This is already visible:

• The US CHIPS Act restricts advanced semiconductor exports to China.
• Nations race to build domestic AI data centers.
• Cloud providers become strategic assets comparable to oil companies in the 20th century.

UBC policies will face international coordination challenges:

• Can citizens “export” their compute quota?
• How do we prevent “compute havens” where quotas are hoarded?
• What happens when national allocations conflict?

The Sovereign EXIT Protocol addresses these questions by framing compute infrastructure as shared civilizational capability rather than national property.

Practical Steps Toward UBC

For Individuals

• Learn basic AI orchestration. The barrier to entry is falling rapidly.
• Experiment with multi-agent workflows now, while compute is still paid per-use.
• Join or form compute cooperatives to pool resources.

For Policymakers

• Study existing “compute credit” programs (some research institutions already allocate compute quotas).
• Consider pilot programs in municipalities or regions experiencing severe job displacement.
• Develop frameworks for auditing and transparency in compute allocation.

For Builders

• Create user-friendly interfaces that abstract away technical complexity.
• Build “compute cooperative” platforms that enable pooling and delegation.
• Design systems that demonstrate diverse uses—not just productivity tools, but creative, caregiving, and community applications.

Further Reading

• Universal Basic Income (UBI) — The predecessor concept and its limitations
• The Foundation — Where survival essentials are handled unconditionally
• The Frontier — The arena where compute and contribution matter
• Impact — The currency of contribution in the post-scarcity economy
• Labor Cliff 2025-2030 — Why this conversation is urgent
• Agentic AI & Orchestration — The skill that UBC enables

Universal Basic Compute isn’t just an economic policy. It’s a bet on human agency—the belief that given the tools of production, people will produce. Whether that bet is justified will be tested in the coming decade.