Digital asset micropayments unlock AI autonomy: Bernstein

Global research and brokerage firm Bernstein has joined the growing list of experts identifying blockchain and digital assets as the key to unlocking artificial intelligence (AI) utility.

Bernstein researchers noted that the legacy financial system limits AI as it relies on centralized systems and restricted networks like SWIFT and payment processors like Mastercard (NASDAQ: MA) and Visa (NASDAQ: V). These already struggle to move value efficiently globally today and are not designed for the volume of microtransactions that AI agents could push.

The researchers, led by Gautam Chhugani, believe that only digital assets can handle this scale of transactions.

Bernstein: Crypto micropayments essential for AI financial economy

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AI agents, just like IoT devices, are designed to make thousands of extremely small transactions daily between themselves, such as payments for the exchange of data. These transactions are unfeasible in today’s banking systems, as they are both slow and costly.

Chhugani believes digital assets are best equipped to handle AI transactions as they are instant, cheap, and secure.

Additionally, digital asset addresses are easy to generate and assign to AI agents. In the legacy system, opening an account requires identification, which these agents lack.

“How would AI agents obtain bank accounts and credit cards without identity?” the researchers pose.

However, this doesn’t translate to a lack of KYC or AML measures in digital asset transactions. The addresses are linked to verified humans through zero-knowledge proof technology, which protects the privacy of the involved parties.

The Bernstein report acknowledged that most digital asset networks are not ready for the era of microtransactions as they still can’t scale, and their fees are prohibitively high. It suggested stablecoins as the best alternative, saying that they could replicate the success they have found in facilitating digital asset trading to AI agents.

However, digital assets can scale already today to meet AI needs, as the BSV Blockchain has proven. With its uncapped block sizes that respond to user demand, BSV has been setting the scaling standard since 2018. BSV is set to go to another level this year with the upcoming Teranode upgrade, pushing the network to over a million transactions per second. The BSV Association recently revealed that the network hit 100 billion daily transactions in the continuing Teranode testing.

In order for artificial intelligence (AI) to work right within the law and thrive in the face of growing challenges, it needs to integrate an enterprise blockchain system that ensures data input quality and ownership—allowing it to keep data safe while also guaranteeing the immutability of data. Check out CoinGeek’s coverage on this emerging tech to learn more why Enterprise blockchain will be the backbone of AI.

Watch: Micropayments are what are going to allow people to trust AI