The Future Economy of AI Agents: Why Cryptocurrency is Needed as "Verifiable Infrastructure"?

Author: pan, Founder of TP Wallet

For AI Agents to truly become “widely deployable autonomous software,” there are two core capabilities:

① Composability

② Verifiability

These two points are precisely what traditional Web2 cannot provide, but cryptocurrency systems are inherently equipped with.

1. AI Needs Composability, and Composability Must Be Built on Verifiability

The future of AI Agents is not a single model, but rather:

• Automatically calling other services
• Composing with other Agents
• Auto-generating code
• Automated testing
• Automatic decision execution (including actions involving funds)

This is called Agentic Composability.

Here’s the problem:

If one Agent calls another Agent, but you cannot verify that the other party truly executed as expected, the entire automation ecosystem cannot close the loop.

Web2 infrastructure (API + SaaS) cannot provide this strong verifiability because:

• APIs are black boxes
• Data can be tampered with
• Execution results cannot be proven
• Permissions rely on centralized audits
• Money cannot be settled automatically

In other words:

A Web2 Agent cannot fully trust another Web2 Agent.

So automation stalls at the “demo level.”

2. Cryptocurrency Provides the “Verifiable Foundation Layer” That AI Lacks

Crypto provides three fundamental capabilities needed for the future AI ecosystem:

① Verifiable Execution

Smart contracts are transparent and provable.

ZK proofs allow complex off-chain executions to be verified.

AI can confirm, “The other party did exactly as I instructed.”

② Verifiable Identity

Decentralized identity (DID/Key), and Agent code itself can be signed.

Solves: who did it, whether it’s trustworthy, and whether it was tampered with.

③ Verifiable Value Transfer

Smart contracts support:

• Automatic deductions
• Automatic payments
• Multi-party collaborative profit sharing
• Collateral and slashing mechanisms
• Bond mechanisms

This allows AI to manage and allocate funds directly without relying on institutions.

This is something Web2 cannot do.

3. AI Programming Requires “Self-Testing,” and Involving Funds Requires “Automated Verifiability”

Anthropic’s recent acquisition of Bun is a signal:

AI is about to upgrade from “auto-generating code” to a full loop of “auto-generate → auto-test → auto-run → auto-fix.”

But once AI runs code automatically, and the code directly impacts the real world, such as:

• Executing trades
• Managing budgets
• Paying API fees
• Participating in economic activities

It absolutely needs the verifiable fund security system that cryptocurrency provides.

Otherwise, AI is just a toy and cannot be involved in the real economy.

Crypto allows AI to:

• Automatically penalize for “execution errors”
• Automatically reward for “good contributions”
• Automatically settle when multiple Agents collaborate
• Achieve automatic settlement without human trust

This is essential for the future AI Agent economy.

4. In Summary

AI enables software autonomy; Crypto makes autonomy trustworthy. Without the verifiability of cryptocurrency, AI Agents cannot operate at scale in the real economy.