Alchemy CEO Claims Crypto Was Designed for AI Agents, Not Humans

The current financial system was not designed with machines in mind. Instead, it was built around the limitations of human life, including geographical constraints, sleep patterns, paperwork, and physical presence. However, as AI agents start to participate in the economy, this human-centric design is becoming a bottleneck, according to Alchemy co-founder Nikil Viswanathan. Viswanathan argues that cryptocurrency was actually built for AI agents, not humans. The traditional financial system is filled with limitations, such as banking hours, country-specific payments, and credit cards that require physical identity and presence. In contrast, AI agents operate around the clock, have no physical presence, and do not require traditional banking methods. As a result, they require a more seamless and global financial system. Viswanathan believes that cryptocurrency provides the necessary infrastructure for AI agents to operate efficiently. Traditional finance is based on friction, with cross-border payments involving currency exchanges, intermediaries, and fees. However, AI agents need to transact effortlessly across borders, often in small increments, and require programmability and direct control over funds via code. Cryptocurrency offers a global, always-on financial layer where value can move as easily as data. The complexity of cryptocurrency, including seed phrases and private keys, is actually a benefit for machines, which operate natively in code. Viswanathan compares the shift from human-centric cryptocurrency tools to AI-powered tools 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 more suitable for AI agents. In the future, Viswanathan envisions a financial system where AI agents sit on top of cryptocurrency infrastructure, handling complexity, managing wallets, and optimizing capital flows in real-time. This would result in a more global, programmable, and autonomous financial system, with a layered structure consisting of traditional finance, cryptocurrency, an agent layer, and a human interface. Ultimately, Viswanathan believes that agents will operate finance, just like computers operate the internet, and humans will use it.