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

The current financial system was not created with machines in mind, but rather around human limitations such as geographical location, sleep patterns, 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 stated, "One could argue that cryptocurrency was built for AI agents, not humans." The disparity is evident everywhere: banks have limited hours due to human constraints, payments are tied to countries because people 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 tasks. All transactions involving agents are online and inherently global, Viswanathan explained in an interview with CoinDesk. This is where cryptocurrency starts to resemble 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 - a norm for humans but unusable for AI agents. Agents require seamless, borderless transactions at any time, often in small increments, as well as programmability and direct control over money via code, without relying on physical infrastructure or identity. Cryptocurrency provides exactly that: a global, always-on financial layer where value moves as easily as data, Viswanathan said. The complexity that has long made cryptocurrency challenging for humans, such as seed phrases, private keys, and interacting directly with code, is precisely what makes it powerful for machines. Unlike humans, agents operate natively in code, with zeros and ones being their native language - the same language as cryptocurrency. For years, cryptocurrency has attempted to become more human-friendly, but its underlying architecture was never truly designed for humans. 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. Just as email is more powerful than the postal system because it is designed for computers, cryptocurrency is similar. Moving forward, AI agents will utilize crypto infrastructure, automatically handling complexity, managing wallets, executing transactions, and optimizing capital flows in real-time, allowing people to control their funds more easily. Viswanathan envisions a layered future: traditional finance and crypto as the base, an agent layer operating on top, and a human interface above that. He stated, "Just like computers operate the internet and humans use it, agents will operate finance."