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

The current financial system was not designed with machines in mind, instead, it was built 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 Alchemy co-founder Nikil Viswanathan. 'One could argue that cryptocurrency was built for AI agents, not humans,' Viswanathan said. The discrepancy is evident 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. AI agents, on the other hand, do not sleep, do not have a physical location, and do not use banks or credit cards. Moreover, they are increasingly involved in transactions, not just assisting with tasks. All transactions for AI agents are online and inherently global, Viswanathan explained. This is where cryptocurrency starts to look like the native infrastructure for a new type of economic actor, rather than an alternative financial system. Alchemy, a cryptocurrency 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, 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. Cryptocurrency offers exactly that, a global, always-on financial layer where value can be transferred as easily as data, Viswanathan said. What has long made cryptocurrency difficult for humans to use, such as seed phrases, private keys, and interacting directly with code, is exactly 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 tried to become more human-friendly, but its underlying architecture was never built for humans. Viswanathan compared the shift from cryptocurrency being used primarily by humans to being used by AI agents to the shift 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 sit on top of cryptocurrency infrastructure, handling complexity automatically, managing wallets, executing transactions, and optimizing capital flows in real time, making it easier for people to control their funds. The result will be a financial system that is more global, more programmable, and more autonomous. Viswanathan envisions a layered future, with 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.