Grayscale's Zach Pandl anticipates AI advancements will boost public blockchain demand, highlighting new use cases in payments and record-keeping.
Grayscale's head of research, Zach Pandl, forecasts that advancements in artificial intelligence will significantly increase the demand for public blockchains. He points to various new applications, such as AI agents executing transactions and creating verifiable digital records.
Pandl highlights that one primary area of demand will stem from payment systems. As digital assistants manage tasks for users, they will require programmable wallets capable of autonomously handling and spending funds.
This shift is expected to necessitate infrastructure for micropayments, cross-border transactions, automated trading, and effective risk management. He suggests that Ethereum and Solana are well-positioned for these developments due to their open ledgers, which facilitate continuous programmable transactions.
Another critical aspect is the need for verifiable records of AI activities. As businesses increasingly rely on algorithms, documenting the models, data, and rules used in decision-making becomes essential. Pandl argues that public blockchains can function as an independent ledger for this information.
This framework could also help in identifying individuals and digital agents, as well as tracking their reputations. The World project is cited as an illustrative example.
Pandl also addresses the issue of concentrated control over AI resources, suggesting that decentralized networks could offer a solution. These networks would allow participants to contribute resources and partake in governance, promoting broader ownership of the infrastructure.
Nonetheless, the tangible benefits of integrating AI with blockchain technology remain contested. Researchers from the IC3 consortium previously noted that many assertions about blockchain's advantages for AI need further examination. For instance, while a distributed ledger can confirm data existence at a given time, it does not validate the accuracy of the model's performance.
In July, Franklin Templeton recognized AI agents as potential catalysts for cryptocurrency payments, emphasizing that blockchain could enable transactions between autonomous programs without the need for continuous human oversight.
