Crypto Designed for AI, Not Humans, According to Alchemy CEO

The traditional financial system was not designed with machines in mind, but rather around human limitations such as geographical location, sleep patterns, and physical presence. However, as AI agents become more involved in economic activities, this human-centric design is becoming a hindrance, according to Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of crypto firm Alchemy. Viswanathan claims that crypto was essentially built for AI agents, not humans. The disparity is evident everywhere: banks have limited operating hours because humans do, payments are tied to countries because people live in them, and credit cards require physical identification and presence. AI agents, on the other hand, operate differently. They do not require sleep, have no physical location, and do not use banks or credit cards. Moreover, they are increasingly capable of conducting transactions independently. All transactions involving AI agents take place online and are inherently global, Viswanathan explained. This is where crypto begins to appear more like the native infrastructure for a new type of economic actor, rather than an alternative financial system. Alchemy, a crypto infrastructure company, provides developers with the necessary tools and services to build blockchain-based applications, including APIs, node infrastructure, and data services. Traditional finance is based on the assumption of friction, where cross-border payments involve currency exchanges, intermediaries, delays, and fees. While this is normal for humans, it is impractical for AI agents, which require seamless, borderless transactions at any time, often in small increments. They also need programmability and direct control over funds via code, as well as systems that do not rely on physical infrastructure or identity. Crypto offers exactly that: a global, always-on financial layer where value can be transferred as easily as data. What has long made crypto challenging for humans, including seed phrases, private keys, and interacting directly with code, is precisely what makes it powerful for machines, Viswanathan noted. Unlike humans, AI agents operate natively in code, reading in zeros and ones, which is also the language of crypto. For years, crypto has attempted to become more human-friendly, but its underlying architecture was never intended for humans in the first place. Viswanathan compared the shift from crypto tools being built primarily for humans to crypto tools being used by AI agents to the transition from the postal system to the internet. While people once had to physically write and mail letters to share messages globally, modern communication is much faster. Email is far more powerful than the postal system because it is designed for computers, and crypto is similar, Viswanathan said. Moving forward, AI agents will sit on top of crypto infrastructure, handling complexity automatically, managing wallets, executing transactions, and optimizing capital flows in real-time, allowing people to control their funds more easily. The result will be a financial system that is more global, programmable, and autonomous. Viswanathan envisions a layered future: traditional finance and crypto as the base, an agent layer operating on top, and a human interface above that. Just as computers operate the internet and humans use it, agents will operate finance, he said.