When I made my first encounter with Kite I did not consider it as any other blockchain. I interpreted it as a mechanism designed to exist in a world where machines will be able to make decisions they feel like and they will participate in the actual economy. However, most chains continue to believe today that human beings are the primary consumers. They believe that a person will always hit a button to sign a transaction or approve a payment. However, the movement towards which the world is taking is quite different. The software has become the one that makes decisions. Agents negotiate. Models pay for data. Bots manage tasks. No human waits in all of these systems. That is why I found myself paying attention to Kite when he talked of agents as real economic players, and I began to investigate further.
The initial thing that caught my attention was the manner in which Kite provides identity with a well-structured way. It divides identity into three levels. A user. An agent. A session. This model is intuitive as it represents the way authority functions in the real life. I stay at the top of the chain. I hold the root identity. Then I am able to generate agents and grant them some powers. Then each agent operates session keys which have restricted permissions, and have limited lifespans. In case a session key is stolen the damage is minimal. In case of any misbehaviour by an agent I can revoke without accessing my master keys. This renders delegation pure and harmless. It puts the right boundaries on machines to ensure that they do not acquire unlimited power. This is the type of construction that would make sense in case there is a set of machines that will deal with money without human intervention.
The second thing that resonated with me was the way Kite thinks regarding performance. Agents are not human in speed. They are not able to wait and wait until confirmation is slow. They require quick deterministic resolution to enable them synchronize with other machines at real time. When one agent is making payments per second computing or purchasing data it cannot rely on a chain that fulfills payments after long wait queues. Kite does not take this lightly and he incorporates the real time performance in the core protocol. This is not a bonus feature. It is part of the foundation. You can just imagine fleets of agents negotiating resources and you can understand how crucial it can be that the timing is fast. Business processes crumble without it.
I was also impressed with governance on Kite. It can be programmed in such a manner that it does not violate autonomy. I am able to specify what my agents are able to do. Spending limits. Allowed partners. Time windows. Rate limits. All these are regulations imposed by the chain itself. This is important since complete freedom without restraint is harmful. Innovation can be killed by heavy governance. Kite attempts to strike a balance between the two. I am able to grant an agent freedom and keep myself safe. In the event of a wrong the limits will be put into effect automatically. It is a sound pattern of machine autonomy in which the building of trust is based not on promises but on constraints.
Another aspect where the machine is considered in Kite is payments. Machines require predictable constant value. They are not able to cope with wild token swings. So Kite is a payment system based on stablecoins. This in itself makes micro transactions much more feasible. Thousand of small payments that an agent has to make require small and consistent fees. Kite specializes in micro predictable charges and firm settlement. That is what they refer to as the SPACE idea. Programmable constraint agent in stablecoin first authentication cryptographic enforcement and efficient execution. This might sound technical yet the concept is not that difficult. Provide agents with safe rules and predictable behavior to be able to work without drama.
The fact that Kite remains compatible with the EVM is one of the things I liked. Solidity is already familiar to the developers. They are already utilizing Ethereum tools. This allows teams to develop on Kite without having to learn all that. But despite this compatibility Kite is machine-work tuned. High throughput. Low latency. Continuous agent to agent interactions are supported. The combination of off-the-shelf tools and expert performance is reasonable as it will reduce the entry barrier of developers without the need to design a chain designed to be used in autonomous systems.
The KITE token role is also designed in a way that is well thought out. It is used in the initial stages as a rewarding tool to the builders and establish network involvement. With time its role becomes staking and governance. The token will eventually assist in securing the network and policy formulation. I believe that this is a gradual process. It allows the ecosystem to develop and then places the onus of the responsibility on token holders. As soon as agents begin to use the network on a large scale the token will bring security incentives and governance power in a clean manner.
Many blockchains attempt to impose human centered economics into a machine. That never works well. Kite flips the script. It develops machine-based economics. Fees remain small and forecastable. The expenditure occurs during the sessions. Chain of being Budgets and rules. This makes agents viable economic citizens. They are not based on weak APIs and blind faith. They work in a world constructed around them.
I believe that the underestimated aspect of Kite is the session layer. Such is where genuine trust is determined. A session is an envelope that is temporary. It possesses a budget time span and action list permissible. This is because the authority ceases with the ending of a session. The machines are capable of running on their own without exposing my main keys. It is as close to providing a robot with a prepaid card rather than a bank account at its disposal. Such a safe delegation is necessary in the event machines are going to play with money.
The other large challenge is machine scale payments. When an agent makes payments on each and every API request or each bit of data the chain has to process, it has to process huge amounts of micro transactions. Kite is built for that. It also makes settlement predictable and charges fees small enough to make micropayments a reality. A good deal of chains fall when the fees are hiked or when the blockspace is overloaded. However, machine to machine processes cannot withstand disruptions. Kite is concerned with the smooth running of these small payments so that the economics of the machines do not fail.
There is also clean governance of Kite. Decisions that are made are directed by token holders. Policies that influence the network remain on community level. Nonetheless, operational regulations of every agent remain programmable and local. This allows the chain to be flexible without imposing rules of one size fits all to all. Agents conform to rigorous session specifications when the community sets long term course. Each of them is important and Kite allows them to exist peacefully.
The other aspect that I like is the way Kite handles timing. Most systems do not care about the timing but machines are time conscious. When an agent wants it to be settled at once and receives something delayed, all is wrecked. So Kite incorporates timing in its design. Sessions have a predictable expiry. Payments are settled on a regular basis. Coordination among machines remains at par. This time sensitivity renders interactions to be deterministic. Machines cannot rely on hope. They are dependent on expected conduct. Kite delivers that.
Kite also develops an agent services market. The agens can purchase compute data model or verification by agents. This enables the small modular machine services to constitute an economy. One can just envision a world where agents continuously purchase and deal in micro sized tasks. Kite provides them with rails to accomplish this with ease and comfort. Stable payments. Identity. Rules. Fast execution. Everything to have a functioning machine economy.
Security is another point of Kite where power has been moved to the protocol layer, rather than human decision. Spending caps. Rate limits. Allowed actions. Revocation. These regulations are coded on chain. Agents cannot bypass them. This minimizes the dangers of autonomous systems. We impose limits on the behavior of machines instead of relying on machines to act in a particular way. It is the only solution that can be used to scale autonomous systems.
Although, Kite has good fundamentals, I still observe some practical questions. Will these identity patterns be embraced by the developers. Will businesses give agents the financial power. Chain agent payments on real services are accepted. These questions are important since technology can only be successful when there is an increase in real usage. Kite provides means to handle these issues but it requires time to adopt.
The more I reflect on it the more I understand that machines develop trust in different ways as compared to human beings. Human beings are dependent on reputation and tales. Machines are based on evidences and limits. Kite is a supporter of machine version of trust. Session scopes. Cryptographic proofs. Enforced limits. They trust one another as the agents are forced to comply with the rules by the system. This renders dealings predictable and secure.
When I look at the big picture I do not see Kite as a substitute of humans. I consider it as a device that enhances the human ability. Agents are able to follow things indefinitely. Send micro payments in real time. Handle small decisions. Push repetitive tasks. Humans are in control of intent analysis and creativity. It is an alliance rather than a substitute. Kite assists in constructing the rails to that partnership in order to be scaled globally.
The long perspective on independent finance is uncomplicated. Unless machines are going to be left out we require systems that are machine friendly. Kite is among the pioneer chains of full acceptance to this idea. It constructs economics of identity and agency rule. This is why I consider it as ground-level.
Naturally, there is no utopia and I monitor the increase in usage. When real volumes are settled by agents and machine payments begin to be accepted by service centers then Kite is infrastructure. Otherwise it remains a great idea. Time will tell. Nevertheless, architecture is strong and prospective.
The bottom line, as far as I am concerned, is the way Kite views agents. Not as tools. Not as side pieces. But as complete economic members. With identity. With budgets. With limits. With accountability. This turns agents into predictable bots. It facilitates a machine economy.
Kite provides a sense of blueprint of the future. Not a dream. Not a hype cycle. A real practical design. It presupposes that agents act in a misbehaving manner. It prepares for mistakes. It implements protocol safety. This level of realism is rare. What autonomous systems require to scale without harming is exactly this.
This is why Kite matters to me. It transforms a complex concept and makes it a safe system that can be utilized by machines. It instills confidence in order and not wishful thinking. And it makes me confident that the world of autonomous intelligent systems will be able to develop in a regulated predictable and safe manner.
