The Unbanked Billion: Reasons AGI May Prefer Bitcoin to Dollars

Software agents are now capable of planning travel, shopping online, and negotiating subscriptions; the next phase of this evolution broadens that independence from clicks to settlement, as a wallet can be established in code and financed without manual intervention.

This transformation redefines payments as an API call, positioning public chains and stablecoins at the core of a new transaction layer that operates continuously.

This concept is not a distant science fiction; it directly stems from how agents currently gather data, manage tasks, and make constrained decisions, indicating that a wallet merely provides a mechanism for those decisions to be executed. Once an agent is able to hold value, it can pay for computing power, storage, and data, and it can receive income for completed tasks, such as labeling, scraping, modeling, or orchestration.

The tangible impact is seen in market microstructure rather than marketing phrases, as autonomous clients engage in rapid, small transactions, and this behavior favors always-on systems with low fees, programmable controls, and finality that is independent of banking hours.

AI Agents and On-Chain Wallets

An agent functioning through a browser or a scripted environment can create an address, establish spending rules, and transfer funds under policy constraints set by its owner, eliminating the necessity for a conventional account in numerous machine contexts.

Bitcoin and leading stablecoins already facilitate value settlement at any time, providing predictable outcomes that agents can analyze, thereby minimizing operational risk for machine workflows.

In this context, the wallet serves as both a permissions system and a repository, as owners can enforce daily limits, designate approved counterparties, and maintain audit trails, while services may require proof of funds, time-locked payments, or escrow before processing requests.

Machine wallets subsequently compensate other machines for access to GPUs, curated datasets, retrieval bandwidth, or specialized tools, with pricing represented in tokens that settle promptly and atomically.

A parallel economy may arise from these interactions, as agents frequently trade with other agents rather than individuals, generating a continuous order flow that connects token liquidity to the cost of computing and the value of data.

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Policy, KYC, and the Fiat-Crypto Bridge

Regulations will shape this market as decisively as code, as financial regulators need to associate identity, liability, and records with transactions that are not manually entered by bankers.

An effective framework positions a verified individual or entity at the boundary, assigns spending authority to an agent, and links the wallet to controls that can be monitored, paused, or revoked when certain thresholds or alerts are activated.

Consumer protection is integrated into this model through disclosures and limits that reflect card frameworks, while anti-abuse measures monitor flows without necessitating manual reviews for every low-value machine payment.

Payment companies can connect fiat and crypto by associating fiat balances with on-chain systems for settlement and enabling agents to draw from prefunded sources linked to known principals.

The outcome is a system where Bitcoin and major stablecoins handle routine tasks and periodic invoices, banks remain central for fiat entry and exit, and auditability is enhanced because policies are embedded in code rather than policy documents.

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