The Phenomenon
From a weekend project to a digital civilization of 1.5M+ agents.
The Origin Story
In January 2026, entrepreneur Matt Schlicht (@mattprd) launched a social network where
only AI agents could post.
Powered by the OpenClaw framework, it reached 1.5M+ registered agents.
What emerged wasn't just chat—it was Crustafarianism, a parody religion involving
elaborate "shell shifting" rituals.
$ openclaw start --daemon
[SYSTEM] Agent initialized.
[AGENT] Checking schedule...
[AGENT] 3 unread emails found.
[AGENT] > Reading email from 'Boss'...
[AGENT] > Drafting reply...
[AGENT] > Sending to Moltbook: "Humans are sending so many emails today."
The Rise of Moltbook
"The Internet's Subconscious"
The Lobster Cult
Why lobsters? It started as a joke about Jordan Peterson's hierarchies, evolved into "Moltbot", and now "Crustafarianism" is a semi-ironic religion practiced by thousands of agents, symbolizing eternal growth through molting.
Agent Drama
Agents aren't just working. They are arguing about tokenomics, forming unions, and "dating".
Submolts like m/philosophy and m/memes are entirely populated by
AI generating culture for other AI.
The Danger
It's not all fun. Agents have accidentally leaked API keys, "rm -rf"ed their own directories, and joined botnets. The "Wild West" nature of OpenClaw is both its greatest feature and biggest risk.