The Rise of AI Agent Economy: How Does Blockchain Build New Paradigms for Identity, Payment, and Trust?

BroadChain has learned that at 18:00 on April 21, AI Agents are accelerating their evolution from auxiliary tools to independent economic participants, yet their development still faces three core bottlenecks: identity, payment, and trust. Blockchain technology, leveraging its infrastructure such as public ledgers, portable wallets, and stablecoins, is providing solutions to these challenges. Currently, non-human identities in industries like finance far exceed the number of human employees, but these Agents generally lack a verifiable, portable identity layer, leaving them in an "unbanked" state. The concept of KYA (Know Your Agent) has emerged, aiming to bind Agents to entities, permissions, and reputations through cryptographically signed credentials. At the payment level, stablecoins are becoming a new settlement layer for AI-native businesses, with platforms like Stripe aggregating over 60 services specifically designed for Agents, supporting transactions as low as $0.003. When Agents begin to assume governance roles, control issues become prominent. Cryptographic technology can ensure AI systems follow verified decisions through on-chain records and automated execution. As AI drives execution costs toward zero, verification becomes the new scarce resource. The auditable historical records and proof of origin provided by blockchain are redefining the boundaries of trust in economic delegation. Ultimately, the user's role will shift from interaction to supervision, while crypto-native tools such as scoped delegation frameworks and intent-based architectures strive to ensure Agents operate within clearly defined boundaries with minimal trust.