Alchemy CEO Claims Crypto Was Designed for AI, Not Humans

The existing financial system was not created with machines in mind. It was built around 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 crypto firm Alchemy. Viswanathan argues that crypto was essentially 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 humans reside in them, and credit cards require physical identity and presence. AI agents, on the other hand, do not sleep, have no physical location, do not visit banks, and do not use 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 crypto begins 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 that power various products such as financial apps, non-fungible tokens, and games. Traditional finance is based on the assumption of friction, which is normal for humans but unusable for AI agents. Agents require seamless transactions across borders, often in small increments, and need programmability, direct control over money via code, and systems that do not rely on physical infrastructure or identity. Crypto offers exactly that: a global, always-on financial layer where value can move as easily as data. The complexity that has long made crypto 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 and read 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 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. While people once had to physically write and mail letters to communicate globally, modern communication is much faster. Viswanathan envisions a future where 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 would be a financial system that is more global, programmable, and autonomous, with a layered structure consisting of traditional finance and crypto as the base, an agent layer operating on top, and a human interface above that.