https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Agents
I was never totally clear on the difference, but as people often refer to Bitcoin itself as a DAC, I feel the term is too vague to be useful.
The next step to make these REALLY useful for agents is to set up Intel TXT on them. This would likely involve some voodoo as TXT is appallingly badly documented. But, if you make sure the hardware is compatible and that hardware virtualisation integrates properly using tboot it should be possible.
This step is a game changer because then an agent can get a hardware-rooted proof that the remote system is secure including against Kordless or whoever else owns the hardware. The agent then knows it's safe to install a copy of itself on the new machine, have the copy create a wallet, and send money to the new box such that the operator can't steal the money but the new agent can still pay for its own hosting costs.
Once done the agent would effectively be autonomous if it had a way to earn income e.g. reselling disk space. Scary stuff!
If I provide your VM with a simulated "TPM" that actually emails me the private keys, how is that supposed to be secure?
The hypervisor is included in the remote attestation. The theory is, if you trust the signing keys used in the TPM (i.e. Intel/the hardware), then you can get a message from the remote computer that attests what code is running including the hypervisor. Thus you can conclude that the remote environment is safe against all but quite sophisticated hardware attackers (assuming a modern setup where you can lock cache lines and the TPM is integrated with the northbridge).
Which is also a roundabout comment on VC-backed vs. bootstrapped companies.
Using a file hosting DAC as an example - if you kept uploading junk data the DAC would continue to procure server space using the stolen money from its own account. Seems an ideal way to rid yourself of competitors.
Example: A Bitcoin address is created with a simple script [1] in it that causes it to pay for it's 'existence' by periodically sending BTC to a local printer it has entered into an arrangement to print flyers with it's own Bitcoin address on it. It also pays a Task Rabbit employee periodically to go to the printer and take the flyers and put them in people's mailboxes. The flyer then 'sells' itself by asking people to donate a small amount of money to a cause that was found to be somewhat important to the people who live in the area that was canvassed. It then gives X% to the cause, and pockets the rest so it can pay for more flyers to be printed and more Task Rabbiters to deliver.
Once more feature rich blockchains like Ethereum come online, you'll be able to code up a bot that is able to do all this by itself without human intervention. It'll know where the API to the printer is, will know how to pay for research APIs for BTC and find the best couriers to deliver. It'll also provide bounties for humans to improve its software so it can make more money.
I'm thinking this is maybe 10-15 years out, with hints of it happening in the next 2-3. Going to be interesting, that's for certain.
(A rather smart gentleman who may not appreciate me attributing the conversation explained his theory that Bitcoin is, itself, one of these. He and I agree more on that than we disagree, though he meant it as a compliment and I'd phrase it as a "self-organizing Internet boiler room with very impressively engineered viral spread among people susceptible to certain flavors of memes.")