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

The existing financial framework was not created with machines in mind, but rather around human constraints such as geographical location, sleep patterns, and physical presence. However, as AI agents become more involved in economic activities, this human-centric design is becoming a hindrance, according to Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of the crypto firm Alchemy. 'It can be argued that crypto was built for AI agents, not humans,' Viswanathan stated. The disparity is evident everywhere: banks have limited hours due to human operation, payments are tied to countries because humans reside in them, and credit cards require physical identity and presence. In contrast, AI agents do not sleep, have no physical location, and do not use banks or cards. Moreover, they are increasingly involved in transactions, not just assisting with tasks. 'All transactions for agents are online and inherently global,' Viswanathan explained in an interview with CoinDesk. This is where crypto begins to appear less like an alternative financial system and more like the native infrastructure for a new type of economic participant. 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. Agents require seamless, borderless transactions at any time, often in small increments, and need programmability and direct control over money via code, without relying on physical infrastructure or identity. Crypto offers exactly that: a global, always-on financial layer where value moves as easily as data. 'Crypto is the global infrastructure for money that agents need,' Viswanathan said. The complexity of crypto, including seed phrases, private keys, and interacting directly with code, which has long been a challenge for humans, is precisely what makes it powerful for machines. Unlike humans, agents operate natively in code, with zeros and ones being their native language, 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 share messages globally, modern communication is much faster. 'Email is far more powerful than the postal system because it's designed for computers,' Viswanathan said. 'Crypto is similar.' Moving forward, AI agents will utilize crypto infrastructure, handling complexity automatically, managing wallets, executing transactions, and optimizing capital flows in real-time, allowing people to control their funds more easily. 'You can write code to manage a crypto wallet,' Viswanathan said. 'You can't write code to manage a bank account in the same way.' The result would be a financial system that is more global, programmable, and autonomous. Viswanathan envisions a layered future: traditional finance and crypto 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.