a16z: Why AI and Crypto Need Each Other Now More Than Ever
Original Title: AI needs crypto — especially now
Original Source: a16z crypto
Original Translation: Chopper, Foresight News
Artificial intelligence systems are upending the internet, originally designed at a human scale. They are reducing the cost of collaboration and transactions to historic lows, and the generated speech, video, and text are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from human behavior. We have long been plagued by human-machine verification, and now, AI agents are beginning to interact and transact like humans.
The key issue is not the existence of artificial intelligence, but the lack of a native mechanism on the internet that can differentiate between humans and machines while preserving privacy and usability.
And this is where blockchain technology comes in. Cryptography helps build better AI systems, and conversely, AI can empower the ideals of cryptographic technology, with many underlying logics. Here, we summarize several reasons why AI now needs blockchain more than ever before.
Increasing the Cost of AI Impersonation
AI can forge speech, facial features, writing styles, video content, and even create a complete social persona, and can operate at scale: an intelligent entity can transform into thousands of accounts, simulate different viewpoints, consumers, or voters, with the cost of this operation continuing to decline.
Such impersonation methods are not novel: any aspiring fraudster has always been able to hire voice actors, spoof calls, send phishing texts. The real change lies in the cost: today, the threshold for carrying out large-scale fraudulent attacks has significantly decreased.
At the same time, the vast majority of online services default to "one account per real user." When this premise is not met, all subsequent systems will collapse. Detection-based responses (such as CAPTCHA) are ultimately destined to fail, as the evolution rate of AI is far faster than the detection technology specifically designed for it.
So how can blockchain play a role? Decentralized human-proof or identity verification systems allow users to easily complete single sign-on while fundamentally eliminating the possibility of one person having multiple identities. For example, scanning the iris to obtain a global ID may be simple and economical, but obtaining a second ID is nearly impossible.
By limiting the issuance of identity credentials, increasing the marginal cost to attackers, blockchain makes it difficult for AI to carry out large-scale impersonation operations.
Artificial intelligence can generate content, but encryption technology has made it extremely difficult and cost-prohibitive to forge a human's unique identity. Blockchain reshapes scarcity at the identity layer, raising the marginal cost of counterfeiting while not adding extra friction to legitimate human use.
Building a Decentralized Human Identity System
One way to prove human identity is through a digital identity marker that encompasses all information people could use to verify their identity: username, personal identification code, password, as well as third-party attestations (such as citizenship, credit qualifications), and other relevant credentials.
So, what value does encryption technology add? The answer is decentralization. Any centralized identity system rooted in the core of the internet could become a system-wide point of failure. When AI agents act on behalf of humans in transactions, communications, and collaborations, whoever controls the identity verification effectively controls participation. A centralized issuer can arbitrarily revoke user permissions, charge fees, or even engage in surveillance.
Decentralization completely flips this scenario: users, not platform gatekeepers, control their identity information, making identity markers more secure and resistant to censorship.
Unlike traditional identity systems, a decentralized human proof mechanism allows users to autonomously control and safeguard their own identity information, completing human identity verification in a privacy-preserving, absolutely neutral manner.
Creating a Portable, General-Purpose "Digital Passport" for AI Agents
AI agents do not exist solely within a single platform: an intelligent entity may appear across various chat applications, email conversations, phone calls, browsing sessions, and API interactions. However, there is currently no reliable mechanism to confirm that interactions in these different scenarios all originate from the same AI agent with consistent states, capabilities, and authorization by the "owner."
Furthermore, if an AI agent's identity is tied to just one platform or marketplace, it cannot be used across other products and critical scenarios. This leads to a fragmented user experience for AI agents, with the process of scenario-based adaptation being cumbersome and inefficient.
Through a blockchain-based identity layer, a portable, general-purpose "digital passport" can be crafted for AI agents. These identity markers can link an entity's capabilities, permissions, and payment endpoint information, verifiable in any scenario, significantly increasing the difficulty of counterfeiting AI agents. This also allows developers to create more practical AI agents, bringing a superior user experience: intelligent entities can operate across multiple ecosystems without being bound to a specific platform.
Achieving Scalable Payment Transactions
As AI agents increasingly represent humans in transactions, existing payment systems have become a significant bottleneck. Enabling scalable AI payments requires new infrastructure capable of handling microtransactions from multiple sources.
Many blockchain-based tools currently show potential in addressing this issue, such as scaling solutions, layer-two networks, AI-native financial institutions, and financial infrastructure protocols, enabling nearly fee-less transactions and more granular payment splits.
The key is that these blockchain payment infrastructures can support machine-scale transactions, including micro-payments, high-frequency interactions, and business transactions between AI agents, all of which traditional financial systems cannot handle.
· Micro-payments can be split among multiple data providers, triggering small payments to all relevant data providers in a single user interaction through automated smart contracts;
· Smart contracts support retroactive payments based on completed transactions, enforceable compensation to entities that provided information support for purchase decisions post-transaction, with the entire process being fully transparent and traceable;
· Blockchain enables complex and programmable payment splits, ensuring fair revenue distribution through code-enforced rules instead of centralized institution decisions, enabling trustless financial relationships between autonomous AI agents.
Protecting Privacy in AI Systems
Many security systems face a core paradox: the more data collected to protect users, the easier it is for AI to impersonate them.
In this context, privacy protection and security become intertwined. The challenge we face is to default human identity systems with privacy attributes, hiding sensitive information at all stages to ensure that only real humans can provide the necessary information for proving their identity.
Blockchain-based systems combined with zero-knowledge proof technology allow users to prove specific facts, such as personal identification numbers, ID numbers, eligibility criteria, without revealing underlying raw data (such as addresses on a driver's license).
As a result, applications can obtain the required identity verification guarantees, while AI systems are deprived of the original data needed for impersonation. Privacy protection is no longer an add-on feature but the primary line of defense against AI impersonation.
Conclusion
AI has significantly reduced the cost of scalable operations but has made establishing trust more challenging. Blockchain technology can reshape trust systems: increase the cost of impersonation, retain human-scale interaction patterns, decentralize identity systems, make privacy protection a default setting, and provide native economic constraints for AI agents.
If we want to build an AI agent that can function properly and not undermine trust on the internet, then blockchain is far from optional; it is a key foundational technology for constructing a native AI internet, filling a core gap in the current internet.
You may also like

Japan’s Three Megabanks Plan Joint Stablecoin Issuance in Fiscal 2026
MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho reportedly plan to jointly issue fiat-pegged stablecoins in fiscal 2026, signaling Japan’s growing push into bank-led digital payment infrastructure.

Humanity Discloses H Token Dual-Chain Attack Details, With Losses on Ethereum and BSC Exceeding $36 Million
Humanity said the H token attack across Ethereum and BSC caused more than $36 million in losses after leaked ProxyAdmin keys enabled malicious contract upgrades and token minting.

White House Discusses CLARITY Act With Law Enforcement Ahead of Senate Vote
The White House discussed the CLARITY Act with law enforcement ahead of a Senate vote, focusing on illicit finance risks and developer protections.

$75 billion in foreign capital has fled, and South Korean retail investors have absorbed it all using leverage

Bitcoin Trading Guide 2026: Strategies for Experienced Traders

What Is XAUT and PAXG? Why Tokenized Gold Is Booming in 2026

Cryptocurrency CEXs are flocking to sell US stocks, and traditional brokerages are facing an "uninvited guest."

Will the SpaceX IPO Hurt Bitcoin? Here's What Traders Are Watching

Foreign selling in the South Korean stock market accelerates, with cumulative net sales reportedly reaching $75 billion this year
On June 9, The Kobeissi Letter, citing Goldman Sachs data, reported that global investors are selling South Korean stocks at an unusually rapid pace. In the latest trading session, foreign investors sold about $801 million worth of Kospi constituent stocks again; total foreign outflows last week reached about $10 billion, and the market has been in net foreign selling on nearly every trading day over the past month. According to the data cited in the report, foreign investors have sold about $75 billion worth of South Korean stocks so far this year. Meanwhile, South Korean retail and institutional investors together recorded roughly $69 billion in net buying over the same period, suggesting that the market’s main buying support has come from domestic capital rather than returning overseas funds. The information currently disclosed still mainly comes from The Kobeissi Letter’s retelling and Goldman Sachs data summaries, while public details on the statistical period and the specific definition of “selling” remain relatively limited.

Fortune Warns of Strategy’s Financing Structure Risks as Bitcoin Premium Narrows
Fortune warned that Strategy’s Bitcoin treasury model faces growing financing risks as MSTR’s net asset premium narrows and preferred stock dividend pressure increases.

Ferrari Challenge Le Mans: Carl Moon to Dominate in WEEX Livery

Sahara AI Responds to SAHARA’s Sharp Drop: No Contract or Product Security Issues Found, Internal Investigation Underway
Sahara AI responded to SAHARA’s 60% price drop, saying no token contract or product security issues have been found and an internal investigation is underway.

WEEX Deposit/Withdrawal Dynamic Island: Your Asset Status, Always in Sight

Scaling Crypto Derivatives: The Digital Asset Infrastructure Behind High-Volume Trading
In the fast-moving digital asset ecosystem, derivatives platforms face an extreme architectural test. High-leverage futures markets demand more than just standard security—they require absolute operational precision, zero-latency matching engines, and ironclad structural scalability, all while navigating intense market volatility.
As global platforms scale to meet these demands, the industry is shifting away from rigid, monolithic setups toward a more agile, "decoupled" infrastructure philosophy.
The Blueprint for High-Volume Copy TradingFor elite global exchanges like WEEX (founded in 2018), this architectural choice becomes critical when scaling high-volume retail features like social copy trading. When thousands of users automatically mirror the real-time strategies of elite traders simultaneously, it triggers sudden, monumental spikes in concurrent transactional volume.
To prevent execution latency or settlement bottlenecks during these peak volatility events, a platform's primary engine must remain entirely dedicated to risk management, copy-trade synchronization, and order matching.
The Architectural Rule: New-generation platforms must separate front-end user execution engines from heavy backend infrastructural overhead to eliminate operational friction.
By separating these layers, platforms can maintain complete sovereignty over their trading environments and user experiences while strategically aligning with institutional-grade infrastructure ecosystems. This strategic framework allows modern exchanges to leverage advanced Digital Asset Custody infrastructure such as Cobo’s behind the scenes, ensuring that backend wallet management scales elastically alongside trading spikes.
Capitalizing on Market Momentum and 400× LeverageIn a derivatives arena where platforms offer up to 400× leverage on perpetual contracts, capital efficiency and market agility are core business metrics. To capture market momentum, an exchange needs the ability to rapidly expand its asset offerings, supporting everything from legacy crypto assets to sudden, trending altcoins across a massive library of trading pairs.
Adopting a flexible, scalable Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) solution such as Cobo’s could completely rewrite the development timeline for high-growth exchanges. Instead of spending months of engineering capital building out custom backend wallet architectures for every new blockchain network, platforms can deploy localized infrastructure in days.
This agility allows platforms to instantly scale their listings to over a thousand trading pairs without compromising security or delaying time-to-market. It mirrors the exact operational advantages seen during high-velocity market events, similar to how advanced wallet infrastructure empowers platforms during sudden asset surges; allowing exchanges to pass that speed and liquidity directly to their global user base.
A Mature Foundation for GrowthThe synergy between trusted infrastructure ecosystems and global trading platforms represents the natural evolution of a maturing crypto market. As WEEX continues to scale its global spot and derivatives offerings for over 6 million users, adopting robust backend paradigms proves that platforms no longer have to compromise between cutting-edge trading velocity and uncompromised structural security.

Morning Report | BitMine increased its holdings by 126,971 ETH last week; trader Eugene announced his exit from the crypto market

Wang Chuan: How can one not feel anxious after the neighbor Old Wang made thirty times profit by investing in storage stocks? (Seven) - A quarter-century cycle

Get Paid to Onboard? Try WEEX’s New Homepage with Rewards for Registration, Deposit & Trade

WEEX Custom Layout: Build Your Perfect Trading Workspace in Seconds
Japan’s Three Megabanks Plan Joint Stablecoin Issuance in Fiscal 2026
MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho reportedly plan to jointly issue fiat-pegged stablecoins in fiscal 2026, signaling Japan’s growing push into bank-led digital payment infrastructure.
Humanity Discloses H Token Dual-Chain Attack Details, With Losses on Ethereum and BSC Exceeding $36 Million
Humanity said the H token attack across Ethereum and BSC caused more than $36 million in losses after leaked ProxyAdmin keys enabled malicious contract upgrades and token minting.
White House Discusses CLARITY Act With Law Enforcement Ahead of Senate Vote
The White House discussed the CLARITY Act with law enforcement ahead of a Senate vote, focusing on illicit finance risks and developer protections.





