AI Agents and Lighting Network: Reshaping Payment Infrastructure

Introduction

For the past century, the basic unit of economic activity has been humanity. However, the rise of AI technology is reshaping this landscape, transforming machines from passive tools into "active economic agents".

Recently, Tether announced the integration of USDT into the BTC ecosystem, covering its base layer and the Lighting Network. Behind these trends, a transformation is brewing: AI-driven payment infrastructure is pushing the crypto industry into a new wave of innovation. From the consensus layer of BTC to the execution layer of smart contracts, and now to the AI-driven application layer, the crypto industry is likely to welcome a paradigm innovation of AI + Pay Fi + BTC Infra, forcing Web2 to undergo self-reform towards Web3. The future of large-scale adoption is gradually becoming a reality.

1. Stablecoins: The Cornerstone of a New Era in Global Payments

The programmability, cross-border usability, and increasingly clear regulatory framework of stablecoins are expected to become the standard settlement currency for global payments. As the regulatory environment improves, the application scenarios for stablecoins will gradually expand, and we can make the following predictions about the development of stablecoin payments over the next 10 years:

Short-term ( 1-3 years ): Stablecoins will dominate cross-border remittances, providing a faster and cheaper alternative to traditional systems. Cryptocurrency-related payment cards will simplify consumption, building a bridge between on-chain wealth and real-world transactions.

In the medium term ( 3-7 years ): Companies will increasingly adopt stablecoin payments due to the low fees, instant settlements, and programmability of stablecoins. Companies will be able to seamlessly convert between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies, providing a dual-track payment option.

In the long term, after ( years, stablecoins will become mainstream fiat currencies, widely accepted for payments and even taxes, thoroughly disrupting traditional financial infrastructure.

In addition to payment convenience, stablecoins also provide entrepreneurs with a more accessible platform to develop new payment products. It is estimated that medium to large enterprises using stablecoin solutions can increase profits by approximately 2%. Furthermore, some countries have attempted to use stablecoins for international trade to bypass the dollar settlement system. An increasing number of cases indicate that stablecoins are gradually becoming the most economical and fastest global payment method that uses dollar settlement.

2. AI Agents: A New User Experience Layer for Future Applications

Nowadays, we no longer rely solely on AI to perform single tasks. We are entering an "era where AI agents become independent market participants." This change is not limited to AI-driven financial transactions and smart supply chain management; it also involves generative AI providing services to content creators, developers, and businesses. Furthermore, AI agents can even autonomously negotiate, trade, settle, and optimize their own resource utilization.

At the end of last year, we saw AI agents redefining the scenarios for decentralized applications. Some AI agents are capable of autonomously trading tokens, generating content, and even managing their own cryptocurrency wallets and assets. This evolution of capability has spawned innovations in the crypto space, such as platforms like Virtual Protocol.

The constantly evolving capabilities of AI agents, combined with convenient issuance platforms, have opened up significant market opportunities for the integration of AI and cryptocurrency. AI is becoming an active participant in the on-chain ecosystem, driving blockchain applications from being tools to becoming part of an ecosystem.

In the future, AI will become the user experience layer of blockchain technology, connecting the application layer and the blockchain infrastructure. For example, AI can proactively recommend and execute on-chain operations based on user intent and preferences, combined with real-time information. Users can enjoy optimized services without needing to understand the technical details. In daily life, an AI personal finance assistant may autonomously manage taxes, insurance, and rent income and expenses, dynamically optimize investment portfolios, and even automatically execute trades based on market changes.

To ensure security, Trusted Execution Environment ) TEE ( has become a key infrastructure. It isolates the computing environment to ensure that the behavior of AI agents strictly follows the preset logic and is not influenced by external manipulation. Furthermore, AI can operate decentralized physical infrastructure nodes or verify data, becoming the core executor of distributed systems.

The workflows and application scenarios of these AI agents are sketching out a brand new "machine economy" landscape: from gamers to infrastructure managers, from content creators to financial strategists, AI agents will become the core driving force of the on-chain ecosystem.

3. The Dilemma of the Existing Payment System

Although AI agents are expected to become a significant force in the market, the existing payment systems have many limitations and are difficult to meet the needs of the machine economy:

) 3.1 The Economic Imbalance of Micropayments

The high fixed fees of traditional payment networks make small, high-frequency transactions economically unfeasible. For example, a transaction of $0.0001 may incur a fee of $0.30, and this cost structure directly hinders the development of the AI economy.

3.2 The fatal flaw of settlement speed

AI agents require millisecond-level transaction settlement, but the settlement speed of traditional payment networks is far from sufficient:

• Credit card payment: usually takes 1-3 days
• International transfers: May take 2-5 days
• Cryptocurrency payments: typically take 10 minutes or longer

3.3 Limitations of Centralized Architecture

AI agents are essentially global and not limited by geographical boundaries. However, traditional payment systems are mired in issues such as bank accounts, fiat currency compliance, and regional payment regulations.

• Bank account dependency: Most payment systems require parties to have a bank account, which AI agents cannot open.
• Centralized control: Existing systems rely on a few financial institutions for approval, and AI agent transactions may be rejected due to regulatory issues.
• International payment barriers: Cross-border transactions with AI agents will encounter cumbersome compliance requirements, increasing operational costs and complexity.

Core Requirements of the 3.4 AI Economic Payment System

The payment system serving AI in the future must possess the following core capabilities:

• Micro-payment capability: supports transactions of very small amounts, with fees approaching zero.
• Millisecond-level transaction settlement: complete transactions in real time, rather than waiting for minutes or days.
• Decentralization and anti-censorship: Supporting AI agents for autonomous trading without relying on centralized institutions.
• Global Availability: Supports cross-border transactions, avoiding reliance on bank accounts.
• Intelligent Payment Protocol: Seamless interaction with AI agents, supporting automatic settlement, intelligent routing, and other functions.

4. The Hopes and Limitations of Blockchain Payments

Blockchain technology brings hope to the AI economy, but mainstream blockchains still face the following problems:

4.1 High costs of payments on the Ethereum network

Ethereum is the main infrastructure for decentralized finance, but high transaction costs make it difficult for the AI economy to adopt. During network congestion, simple transactions can require gas fees of $10 to $50, making it challenging to support the high-frequency trading demands of AI agents.

4.2 Other high-performance public chain issues

Some high-performance public chains offer faster transaction processing capabilities, but they often have a higher degree of centralization, which poses security risks. Some public chains have experienced multiple outages, affecting transaction stability. Relying on a few validating nodes may also impact decentralization.

4.3 The scalability bottleneck of the Bitcoin mainnet

The security of the Bitcoin network is unmatched, but its payment capacity is limited. The mainnet transaction throughput is low at ### only 7 transactions per second (, and the gas fees fluctuate greatly, making it unsuitable for small payments by AI agents.

) 4.4 Lighting Network: A New Stage for Stablecoin Payments

The Lighting Network, as a second-layer scaling solution for Bitcoin, combines the security of the Bitcoin network with efficient transaction capabilities. It is highly suitable for small, high-frequency payment scenarios while aligning with the ideals of cryptocurrency. Currently, it has over 15,000 nodes and more than 50,000 channels, showcasing its strong ecological potential.

However, the Lighting Network previously only supported Bitcoin payments, limiting its application scenarios. The introduction of stablecoins is crucial, as only currencies with stable value can be widely accepted for everyday payments. Tether's integration of USDT into the Lighting Network marks a real opportunity for the development of this technology.

5. The Arrival of a New Era

The explosive growth of AI agents is giving rise to a trillion-level market for machine economy, but traditional payment networks and existing blockchain solutions struggle to meet its demands. The integration of USDT into the Lighting Network seems to provide a key piece of the puzzle for the industry: near-zero cost, censorship-resistant payment channels, combined with the liquidity of stablecoins, perfectly suited for the micropayments and real-time trading scenarios of AI agents.

This "financial operating system" tailored for the AI economy has emerged, allowing the AI economy to break free from the shackles of payment and move towards a future of autonomous interaction. In this new era, payment equals efficiency, and transaction equals intelligence.

6. AISA: The Integration of Lighting Network, Stablecoins, and AI Agents

AISA is a revolutionary infrastructure designed for the AI economy, integrating the decentralized efficiency of the Bitcoin Lightning Network, the liquidity assurance of stablecoins, and the intelligent decision-making capabilities of AI native protocols. It builds a payment network with nearly zero cost and millisecond-level response, breaking through the bottlenecks of traditional systems.

6.1 AISA's four-layer technical architecture

a. Settlement Layer: Based on the Bitcoin network and Lighting Network, providing security and high efficiency.

b. Payment Layer: Supports multi-chain and stablecoin integration

c. Smart Payment Layer: AI-native protocols empower autonomous decision-making, enabling dynamic routing and automated micropayments.

d. Governance Layer: Adopting DAO mechanisms and incentive mechanisms

6.2 How AISA Redefines AI Economic Payments

AISA has built a near-zero cost, millisecond response payment network, enabling AI agents to autonomously complete micropayments, real-time settlements, and dynamically optimize transaction paths. From cross-border enterprise payments to automated financial strategies, AISA is driving the rise of the machine economy. Through multi-chain compatibility and DAO governance, AISA not only addresses the fragmentation issues of the existing payment ecosystem but also sets a new standard for human-machine collaboration in the decentralized era.

Conclusion

When AI agents autonomously complete transactions, investments, and even tax payments on the blockchain, payments become the circulatory system of the machine economy. The Lighting Network provides the veins, stablecoins act as the blood, and AI agents become the heart. This silent revolution is illuminating the future of the payment ecosystem. Future payments do not belong to any institution or country, but to every autonomously operating AI and the nodes participating in the co-construction. Here, code is law, efficiency is justice, and true innovation is just beginning.