AI가 지갑을 갖게 된다면 어떻게 될까요?

To achieve true autonomy beyond simple chatbots, AI agents are evolving into independent economic entities by adopting blockchain wallets that anyone can create, instead of bank accounts that require identity verification (KYC).

An on-chain economy opens up where AI pays for services or generates income by sharing idle resources without human intervention, creating a new economic ecosystem that operates 24 hours a day without stopping.

To efficiently handle micro-payments occurring dozens of times per second, low-fee blockchain networks are utilized, and stablecoins with low volatility are gaining attention as the base currency between AI agents.

Is the Era of AI Agents Arriving?

Recent trends in AI technology are evolving from simple chatbots that answer questions to agents that perform complex tasks on behalf of users. AI agents refer to autonomous software that sets its own goals, formulates plans, and uses necessary tools to produce results.

However, there is one final puzzle piece essential for these AI agents to possess true autonomy. That is a wallet that allows them to conduct economic activities on their own.

Why Do AI Agents Need Crypto Wallets Instead of Bank Accounts?

It is practically impossible for AI, which is not a human, to open a traditional bank account. The traditional financial system, which requires identity verification through ID cards, does not grant accounts to software without a physical body.

This is where the true value of blockchain and crypto shines. Crypto wallets are characterized by 'permissionlessness', meaning anyone can create them without an ID. In other words, it is technically and institutionally much more suitable for an AI agent to generate its own blockchain wallet and hold and transfer assets independently.

This is the future scenario of the on-chain economy. A massive machine-to-machine economy is opening up where AI can purchase services through its own wallet or generate income by providing its own computing power, all without human intervention.

What Happens When AI Conducts Economic Activities Autonomously?

So, if AI holds a wallet, how will our daily lives change? We can imagine specific scenarios like the following:

Autonomous Travel Planner: A user commands, "Plan a quiet resort vacation within a budget of 2 million won." The AI agent accesses airline APIs, hotel reservation systems, and car rental services to negotiate the best prices and completes payment immediately using funds in its own wallet, without further user approval.
Resource Brokerage: My AI agent rents out my computer's idle space or excess internet bandwidth to another AI and receives crypto in real-time as compensation, generating profit.

Why 'Stablecoins' as Currency Between AI?

When AI transact with each other, speed and efficiency are paramount. AI can send and receive data tens or hundreds of times per second and execute transactions in very small units. This is called micro-payments.

Existing credit card or remittance systems are expensive and slow to process, making it difficult to handle ultra-micro transactions on the scale of 10 or 100 won. Conversely, using blockchain, especially a low-fee network, makes transfers as small as 0.1 won possible instantly.

In this context, stablecoins are primarily gaining attention as the means of payment. Stablecoins, which are pegged to the value of the dollar and offer clear calculation and stable value storage, are more advantageous for machine-to-machine economic activity than highly volatile assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

In Conclusion

If the internet is a sea of information, blockchain is a sea of value. And now, the captain navigating that sea may not be human, but AI.

The combination of AI agents and crypto signals the birth of a new economic zone that operates 24/7 without sleep. In the on-chain economic era that lies ahead, it is the stance of a wise investor to read and prepare for the trends led by AI in advance.