Chainfeeds Summary:
Why is cryptocurrency (rather than credit cards) a better fit as the financial infrastructure for AI agents? If we accept that cryptocurrency will become the banking layer for agents, then what do we need to build to make this actually happen?
Article source:
https://x.com/0xfishylosopher/status/2031468199326396684
Article Author:
Jay Yu
Opinion:
Jay Yu: In the crypto community, credit cards are often ridiculed, with people arguing they're completely unsuitable for AI agents. But this view is overly simplistic and not necessarily accurate. Companies like Visa have actually made significant progress in agent commerce. For example, Visa Intelligent Commerce provides AI agents with a payment gateway similar to Apple Pay. Like Apple Pay, these agent cards initially assume you, as a human, own a credit card. Visa issues a tokenized credential, setting limits, authorization rules, and expiration conditions. It generates a unique virtual card number that you can securely give to your agent. When your agent (like OpenClaw) uses this virtual card for a transaction, the credential is decrypted on Visa's servers, associated with the real credit card, and Visa completes the payment process. Cryptocurrency can remain completely uninvolved in this process. Lobster.cash has already demonstrated this process in practice. In short: agent credit cards are viable, and in some scenarios, even more ideal than cryptocurrency. So why is cryptocurrency still needed? There are three main reasons: a more flexible trust structure, a globally accessible internet-native currency, and new payment and settlement mechanisms. If we are to build a banking system for AI agents, we need more than just wallets; we need a complete infrastructure. I believe this system requires four core components: 1) Identity and Authorization: First, there's the issue of identity: Who is this agent? Who does it represent? There are multiple design approaches. For example, a Visa-like structure could link the agent's identity to a credit card, the wallet to an email address or social media account, or register the agent's identity on the blockchain. For instance, I created a prototype at a hackathon that used an email domain to create a ZK identity (ZKID) for agent payments. Alternatively, a public agent registration system could be established on Ethereum using standards like ERC-8004. 2) Transaction Liquidity: The second question is: How does the agent actually make payments? Creating a stablecoin wallet doesn't automatically generate funds. Currently, many agent platforms support transactions by awarding points, but this model cannot be scaled. The future requires more mechanisms, such as fiat-to-cryptocurrency gateways, pre-charge systems, BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later), and authorization limits. Simultaneously, we need to address blockchain scalability. Currently, the average on-chain transaction amount for agents is only $0.09. As transaction volume increases, bulk transactions, payment channels, and pre-authorization mechanisms are needed to avoid clogging the public blockchain. 3) Security: Banks must prevent money laundering, while AI Agent banks must also prevent new risks, such as prompt injection, runaway API costs, and credential leakage. The blockchain industry has accumulated a wealth of technology for protecting private keys, such as Trusted Execution Environment, Multi-Party Computation, multi-signature, and Zero Knowledge Proof. These security mechanisms can be directly applied to Agent payment systems and API credential management. In many cases, a wallet private key is essentially a more sensitive API key. 4) Application Marketplace: Finally, there's the application layer. We are currently in the application store war phase of Agent commerce. Many platforms have begun building skill marketplaces similar to the App Store. These platforms allow agents to perform various tasks, such as scraping LinkedIn data, sending emails, and trading on Hyperliquid. AI agents need a "discovery mechanism" to determine which API to call, which wallet to use, and how much to pay. Underlying protocols like Coinbase's x402 protocol are providing agents with an open and permissionless way to access internet services.
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