Why Will Agents Use Crypto?

AI agents will undoubtedly be a core part of the future, and the infrastructure to enable them (including payments) is a valuable space to develop. But what does this have to do with crypto?

Majority of AI builders have little to no interest in crypto. While there are numerous proposals for putting agents or models onchain, Agent Protocol isn't necessarily betting on that future.

Instead, we are meeting AI builders where they are and removing the payments bottleneck. Regardless of the lack of interest in the web3 narrative, AI agents will eventually transact using crypto. This approach will hold true even for web2 native AI agent companies over the long term. This is the thesis Agent Protocol is building around.

Agents need digital money

Superintelligent AI agents will be here within the next decade. The question is: how will these superintelligent internet robots exchange value?

AI agents don't have social security numbers and can't open bank accounts or credit cards. Yet many of the actions they need to complete, as discussed previously, involve exchanges of value: accessing software, data, models, or other AI agents controlled by different companies.

Intuitively, the solution is some form of digital money.

Advantages of blockchain for agents

AI agents need a way to transact that's fast, cheap, and permissionless. Blockchain already provides the fundamental building blocks for this.

AI agents don't face the same UX challenges with crypto that humans do. For an agent, understanding blockchain, managing private keys, and swapping between assets is trivial.