According to Alchemy's CEO, Cryptocurrency is Designed for AI Agents Rather Than Humans

The modern financial system was not designed with machines in mind. It is based on human limitations such as geographical location, sleep patterns, paperwork, and physical presence. However, as AI agents start to participate in the economy, this human-centric design is becoming a hindrance, according to Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of the crypto firm Alchemy. "One could argue that cryptocurrency was built for AI agents, not humans," Viswanathan said. The disparity is evident everywhere. Banks have limited hours due to human constraints. Payments are tied to countries because humans reside in them, and credit cards require physical identity and presence. AI agents, on the other hand, operate differently. They do not sleep, have no physical location, and do not use banks or credit cards. Moreover, they are increasingly involved in transactions, not just assisting with tasks. All transactions involving agents are online and inherently global, Viswanathan explained in an interview with CoinDesk. This is where cryptocurrency starts to seem less like an alternative financial system and more like the native infrastructure for a new type of economic actor. 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. These services enable companies to create and scale on-chain products without having to manage the complexity of blockchain systems themselves. Traditional finance is based on the assumption of friction. For humans, paying someone in another country involves currency exchanges, intermediaries, delays, and fees, which is normal. However, for AI agents, this is impractical. Agents require seamless transactions across borders, at any time, often in small increments. They need programmability, direct control over money 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 move as easily as data, Viswanathan said. What has long made cryptocurrency challenging for humans, including seed phrases, private keys, and interacting directly with code, is precisely what makes it powerful for machines. Unlike humans, agents operate natively in code. "Agents understand zeros and ones, which is their native language," Viswanathan said. "This is also the language of cryptocurrency." For years, cryptocurrency has attempted to become more human-friendly, but its underlying architecture was never really designed for humans. Viswanathan compared the shift from cryptocurrency tools being built primarily for humans to cryptocurrency tools being used by AI agents to the transition from the postal system to the internet. While people once had to physically write a letter, buy a stamp, and mail it to share messages 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." Moving forward, AI agents will utilize cryptocurrency 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," Viswanathan said. "You cannot write code to manage a bank account in the same way." The result would be a financial system that is more global, programmable, and autonomous. Viswanathan envisions a layered future: traditional finance and cryptocurrency as 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.