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

The existing financial system was created with human limitations in mind, such as geographical constraints, sleep patterns, and physical presence. However, with AI agents increasingly participating in economic activities, this human-centric design is becoming a hindrance, according to Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of the crypto firm Alchemy. 'It can be argued that cryptocurrency was built for AI agents, not humans,' Viswanathan stated. The disparity is evident everywhere, with banks having limited operating hours due to human constraints, payments tied to countries, and credit cards relying on physical identity and presence. AI agents, on the other hand, operate differently, as they do not require sleep, have no physical presence, and do not use traditional banking systems or credit cards. Moreover, they are increasingly capable of conducting transactions on their own. 'All transactions for agents are online and inherently global,' Viswanathan explained in an interview with CoinDesk. This is where cryptocurrency starts 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 built on the assumption of friction, with cross-border payments involving currency exchanges, intermediaries, delays, and fees. However, for AI agents, this is impractical. Agents require seamless, borderless transactions, often in small increments, and need programmability, direct control over funds via code, and systems that do not rely on physical infrastructure or identity. Cryptocurrency offers exactly that: a global, always-on financial layer where value can be transferred as easily as data. 'Cryptocurrency is the global infrastructure for money that agents need,' Viswanathan said. The complexity of cryptocurrency, including seed phrases, private keys, and interacting with code, is actually a strength when it comes to machines. Unlike humans, agents operate natively in code and can read zeros and ones, which is also the language of cryptocurrency. For years, cryptocurrency has attempted to become more user-friendly for humans, but its underlying architecture was never designed 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 communicate globally, modern communication is much faster. 'Email is far more powerful than the postal system because it is designed for computers,' Viswanathan said. 'Cryptocurrency is similar.' Looking ahead, Viswanathan believes that AI agents will utilize crypto infrastructure, handling complexity automatically, managing wallets, executing transactions, and optimizing capital flows in real-time, allowing people to control their funds more easily. 'You can write code to manage a cryptocurrency wallet, but you cannot do the same with a bank account,' Viswanathan explained. The result will be a financial system that is more global, programmable, and autonomous. Viswanathan envisions a layered future, with traditional finance and cryptocurrency at the base, an agent layer operating on top, and a human interface above that. 'Just like computers operate the internet and humans use it, agents will operate finance,' he said.