Skyfire launches blockchain payment network that lets AI spend your money

The company is currently focused on B2B, but there are countless potential applications for consumers.

Blockchain development firm Skyfire recently launched a payment platform that allows artificial intelligence agents to spend money autonomously. 

Helmed by former Ripple VP of products and services Amir Sarhangi, the company’s platform makes it possible for a business to give a pre-loaded wallet to an AI agent. The company’s protocol converts the cash into USD Coin (USDC). When the agent’s task involves payment, the platform handles the conversions, thus enabling autonomous payment agents.

AI agents

An AI agent is, for lack of a better term, a “bot” that’s designed to carry out a certain task. Examples include AI agents that monitor inventories across multiple sites in order to autonomously generate orders, or bot that monitors sale prices across multiple online marketplaces.

However, without the ability to conduct payments, these “agents” are relegated to intermediary status. Despite their basic autonomy, they lack end-to-end functionality.

As Skyfire co-founder and chief product officer Craig DeWitt said in a recent interview with TechCrunch:

“AI agents can’t do anything if they can’t make payments; it’s just a glorified search. “Either we figure out a way where agents are actually able to do things, or they don’t do anything, and therefore, they’re not agents.”

AI with a wallet

Because the system relies on a platform that uses stablecoins as a medium, it’s able to directly interface a given user’s AI agent with services it can access. The user is responsible for building the agent and also controls the amount of funds in its wallet.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, luminaries throughout the cryptocurrency and fintech industry, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, have recently begun advocating for the integration of AI agents with cryptocurrency wallets.

In Armstrong’s view, giving AI agents cryptocurrency wallets would allow them to “work on your behalf,” and possibly generate income autonomously. Whether that would be through trading or providing some other service would ultimately be up to developers and users.

Skyfire’s product is currently aimed at supporting B2B transactions between AI agents, but the company is exploring further services and use-cases.

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