CEO of Alchemy Claims Crypto Was Designed for AI, Not Humans

The conventional financial system was not designed with machines in mind. Instead, it was built around human limitations such as geographical constraints, 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. Viswanathan argues that cryptocurrency was essentially built for AI agents, not humans. The discrepancy is apparent everywhere: banks have limited hours due to human constraints, payments are tied to countries because humans live in them, and credit cards require physical identity and presence. In contrast, AI agents operate differently as they do not sleep, have no physical location, and do not use banks or cards. Moreover, they are increasingly involved in transactions. All transactions involving AI agents are online and inherently global, Viswanathan explained in an interview with CoinDesk. This is where cryptocurrency starts to appear 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. Traditional finance is based on the assumption of friction, with cross-border payments involving currency exchanges, intermediaries, delays, and fees, which is normal for humans but unusable for AI agents. AI agents require seamless transactions across borders at any time, often in small increments, and need programmability and direct control over money via code, as well as 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. The complexity that has long made cryptocurrency difficult for humans to use, such as seed phrases, private keys, and interacting directly with code, is precisely what makes it powerful for machines. Unlike humans, AI 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 human-friendly, but its underlying architecture was never designed for humans. Viswanathan compares the shift from cryptocurrency tools being built primarily for humans to being used by AI agents to the shift 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 more powerful than the postal system because it is designed for computers, and cryptocurrency is similar. Moving forward, AI agents will sit on top of cryptocurrency 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, with a layered future consisting of traditional finance and cryptocurrency as the base, an agent layer operating on top, and a human interface above that.