Does AI need Blockchain? The Necessity of New Financial Infrastructure

In recent years, AI technology has developed rapidly, evolving from simple tools into participants with autonomous capabilities. At the same time, the Web3 field is also exploring the possibilities of combining AI with Blockchain. However, have we considered the demand that AI itself has for Blockchain?

The current financial system is designed for humans, and AI does not fit the definitions of "natural persons" or "legal persons." It cannot open bank accounts, register companies, or independently become a contracting party, which means that AI lacks "financial personality" in the existing financial system. This is not only an efficiency issue but also a structural barrier.

The blockchain system provides non-human users with the possibility to participate in economic activities. As long as a private key and address can be generated, any entity can conduct transactions and sign smart contracts on the chain. Some projects have started to explore how AI agents can possess an "economic identity" on the chain, achieving the economic form of machine-to-machine (M2M).

Traditional financial systems struggle to adapt to this scenario because their infrastructure is designed around human behavior. Payment, clearing, risk control, and other processes rely on human operations and supervision. This leads to transactions related to non-human users needing to be "anchored" to a person or company, resulting in efficiency and liability risks.

Stablecoins provide "hard currency" for the AI world. When AI agents make service calls, stablecoins enable real-time settlement, forming a low-friction economic system. In the future, certain AI systems may exist in the form of DAOs or on-chain protocols, possessing their own capital pools, governance mechanisms, and identity systems, becoming "digital legal entities".

However, this vision still faces many challenges. Issues such as key custody for AI wallets, losses caused by model abuse, on-chain identity verifiability, and the legal eligibility of cross-border AI entities urgently need to be addressed. The existing legal framework also lacks regulations for non-human actors.

Nevertheless, some pioneering projects have demonstrated the possibility of building a "machine financial infrastructure." This infrastructure requires on-chain identity, encrypted accounts, stablecoin payments, smart contract collaboration, and decentralized credit mechanisms.

Cryptocurrency originally served "people without accounts," and now it may become the only option for "identity-less machines" to participate in economic activities. Blockchain and cryptocurrency are building a "financial foundation prepared for machines." AI does not necessarily need to have rights, but it must have an operable economic interface, which is precisely the problem that blockchain excels at solving.