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

The current financial system was not designed with machines in mind, rather 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, with banks having operating hours due to human limitations, payments tied to countries, and credit cards requiring physical identity and presence. In contrast, AI agents operate differently, they do not sleep, have no physical location, and do not use traditional banking systems or credit cards. Moreover, they are increasingly capable of performing transactions on their own. All transactions conducted by agents are online and inherently global, Viswanathan explained. 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 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 built on the assumption of friction, with cross-border payments involving currency exchanges, intermediaries, and fees. However, for AI agents, this is impractical. They require seamless, borderless transactions, often in small increments, and need programmability and direct control over funds via code. Cryptocurrency offers exactly that - a global, always-on financial layer where value can be transferred as easily as data. The complexity that has long made cryptocurrency challenging for humans, such as seed phrases and private keys, is precisely what makes it powerful for machines. AI agents operate natively in code and can read zeros and ones, which is also the language of cryptocurrency. Viswanathan compared the shift from cryptocurrency tools being built for humans to 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 cryptocurrency infrastructure, handling complexity, managing wallets, and optimizing capital flows in real-time, allowing people to control their funds more easily. The result will be a more global, programmable, and autonomous financial system, with a layered structure consisting of traditional finance and cryptocurrency at the base, an agent layer operating on top, and a human interface above that.