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

The current financial system was not designed with machines in mind, but rather 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. "You could argue that cryptocurrency was built for AI agents, not humans," Viswanathan said. The disparity is evident everywhere, with banks operating on human hours, payments tied to countries, and credit cards requiring physical identity and presence. In contrast, AI agents operate without sleep, geographical location, or physical presence, and are increasingly capable of conducting transactions. "All transactions for 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 built on the assumption of friction, with cross-border payments involving currency exchanges, intermediaries, and fees. However, for AI agents, this is impractical. Agents require seamless, programmable, and direct control over money via code, without relying on physical infrastructure or identity. Cryptocurrency offers exactly that: a global, always-on financial layer where value can move as easily as data. The complexity of cryptocurrency, including seed phrases, private keys, and interacting with code, is what makes it powerful for machines. Unlike humans, AI agents operate natively in code and can read zeros and ones. Viswanathan compared the shift from cryptocurrency 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. In the future, AI agents will sit on top of 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, cryptocurrency, an agent layer, and a human interface.