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

The existing financial system was not created with machines in mind. Instead, it was built around human limitations such as geographical constraints, sleep patterns, paperwork, and physical presence. However, as AI agents begin to participate in economic activities, this human-centric design is becoming a hindrance, according to Alchemy co-founder Nikil Viswanathan. "One could argue that cryptocurrency was created for AI agents, not humans," Viswanathan stated. The disparity is evident everywhere. Banks have limited operating hours due to human constraints. Payments are tied to countries because humans reside in them. Credit cards assume physical identity and presence. In contrast, AI agents operate differently. They do not sleep, have no physical presence, do not visit banks, and do not carry 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 cryptocurrency starts to appear less like an alternative financial system and more like the native infrastructure for a new type of economic actor. 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. These services enable companies to create and scale on-chain products without managing the complexity of blockchain systems themselves. Traditional finance is built on the assumption of friction. For humans, paying someone in another country involves currency exchanges, intermediaries, delays, and fees. However, for AI agents, this is impractical. 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. Cryptocurrency offers exactly that: a global, always-on financial layer where value moves as easily as data. "Cryptocurrency is the global infrastructure for money that agents need," Viswanathan said. The complexity of cryptocurrency, including seed phrases, private keys, and interacting directly with code, is what makes it powerful for machines. Unlike humans, agents operate natively in code. "Agents read in zeros and ones, which is their native language," Viswanathan explained. "This is also the language of cryptocurrency." For years, cryptocurrency has attempted to become more human-friendly, but its underlying architecture was never built for humans. Viswanathan compared the shift from cryptocurrency tools being built primarily for humans to being used by AI agents to the shift from the postal system to the internet. While people once had to physically write a letter, buy a stamp, and mail it to share messages globally, modern communication is much faster. "Email is far more powerful than the postal system because it is designed for computers," Viswanathan said. "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, allowing people to control their funds more easily. "You can write code to manage a cryptocurrency wallet," Viswanathan said. "You cannot write code to manage a bank account in the same way." The result will be a financial system that is more global, programmable, and autonomous. Viswanathan envisions a layered future: 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.