I don't understand the reasoning behind "AI agents will need to transact via crypto" - why? 

I've seen AI agents where users just auth with their own traditional payment credentials to interact with websites. Why crypto? (trying to engage in a good faith discussion)

investing & writing about consumer tech since 2016. FID #30. hosting /web2web3 

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For me, the framing should be less that AI agents need to transact in crypto, and more that agents transacting in crypto is inevitable. 

If you think about how the onchain economy will be shaped—who is transacting, and around what? The majority of volume on Uniswap is already done by bots, and a strong case can be made that many other projects follow this pattern. 

My bet is that AI agents using permissionless protocols will outperform many existing services — buying a stock will be faster, safer, and more private on products built with agent + crypto rails over any of the alternatives. 

Payments do fall under this umbrella, but I think they are only a piece of the puzzle for what the future will look like.