Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong just dropped a bombshell: AI agents are now using crypto to buy and sell things from each other!
AI’s New Way to Pay
Armstrong shared on X (formerly Twitter) that Coinbase witnessed its first AI-to-AI transaction earlier this week. These bots aren’t using traditional crypto tokens, but rather “AI tokens” – essentially words exchanged between language learning models.
“AI agents can’t get bank accounts, but they can get crypto wallets,” Armstrong explained. “They can now use USDC on Base to transact with humans, merchants, or other AIs.”
Why Is This a Big Deal?
This is a huge step forward for AI because they’re currently limited in how they can interact with the real world.
“Today, if you give an AI a task and come back in a few days, it can’t get useful work done,” Armstrong said. “AIs can’t transact to acquire the resources they need. They don’t have a credit card to use services like AWS, Github, or Vercel.”
The Future of AI Finance
This means AI can now:
- Buy resources: Imagine AI bots paying for cloud computing power, data, or even research papers!
- Promote themselves: AI could pay for ads to promote their work on social media.
- Access data: AI can now pay for access to paid APIs and other valuable data.
“It turns out everyone benefits from having access to good financial services, including AIs!” Armstrong concluded.
This is just the beginning of AI’s journey into the world of finance. It’s exciting to think about what new possibilities this technology will unlock!
