I’ve noticed that the atmosphere in the AI community has changed a bit recently. In the past, when people talked about AI, they mainly discussed which large model had become smarter, could write copy, could draw, or could chat with you. These are indeed impressive, but to put it bluntly, they are quite passive. They only move when you poke them.
But now it’s different. A more proactive AI has started to emerge. People in the circle call it AI agents. This thing doesn’t just talk like ChatGPT; it can really do the work for you. It coordinates systems, makes decisions, and even completes transactions without any human oversight.
To be honest, when I first heard about it, I thought it sounded like science fiction. But it has now become a reality. I know there are some companies that have quietly started using it to handle procurement and logistics. But as these agents become more mature, a problem has surfaced: the existing internet and financial systems are fundamentally not designed for them.
Think about it: the payments, logins, and authorizations we use today are all built around humans. Credit cards require human signatures, API keys need to be managed by people, and bank transfers require human approval. But for AI agents to operate independently, these things are all stumbling blocks. When two AIs agree on a deal, the payment stage can become a bottleneck. Traditional payments are slow, expensive, and still rely on human approval, making them unsuitable for the high-speed automated processes of machines.
It's like saying you've built a batch of cars that can drive themselves, but you find there are no gas stations, no traffic lights, and not even lane markings on the road. No matter how good the cars are, they can't go anywhere.
So what's most urgent now is to build a dedicated highway for these AI agents. Kite AI is such a project. It's not just layering software on old systems; it's constructing a Layer-1 blockchain from the ground up, treating AI agents as first-class citizens. Simply put, it provides agents with their own identities, rules, and payment channels, allowing them to operate truly independently.
This is somewhat reminiscent of the emergence of smartphones. When the iPhone came out in 2007, it was cool, but without a good App Store, network support, and secure login, the ecosystem couldn't take off. Later, when these infrastructures were improved, they completely changed our digital lives. Now, AI agents have reached a similar turning point: model technology has matured, but the tracks of identity, trust, and settlement have not kept up. Kite is paving this track.
One of Kite's core functions is to give each agent a cryptographic identity. This is not a simple label; it's a verifiable, portable credential that can also carry governance rules defining what the agent can and cannot do. For example, a travel planning agent can automatically compare prices, book tickets, and make payments, but the spending limit is set by you. This provides autonomy while having safety barriers to prevent loss of control.
With identity and rules, smooth payments are also needed. Credit cards or bank transfers are too slow and costly, making them unsuitable for small real-time transactions between machines. Kite uses stablecoins to achieve near-instant, low-cost micropayments. Agents can directly pay computation fees, data fees, or service fees to another agent, resulting in almost zero economic friction. This is not just convenient; it will open new automation scenarios, such as seamless collaborative procurement among agents in supply chains.
The combination of identity, governance, and efficient payments is the missing piece for truly autonomous agents. Without these, agents either require constant human intervention or can only operate in experimental environments. Kite's reconstruction from the ground up is aimed at breaking these limitations, making large-scale automation possible.
This is particularly timely now. Many companies are piloting agents to handle supply chain negotiations, customer service, and procurement. These cross-organizational collaborations often involve monetary decisions. But if we rely on makeshift human tools, such as virtual cards or periodic authorizations, we can only make small moves. With a unified infrastructure, agents can negotiate, transact, and coordinate freely, just like citizens in the digital economy.
Looking at it more broadly, this represents a cultural shift: in the future digital world, machines won't just compute; they will also participate—in negotiations, payments, and collaborations. Naturally, this raises questions: Who is responsible? How do we trust? How do we maintain control? Projects like Kite aim to solve these issues in an engineering way, rather than just talking about them. It reminds us that while infrastructure may not be flashy, it determines how technology impacts life.
In short, the era of AI agents has arrived, but to truly take root, a matching foundation is needed. Kite AI is trying to provide this basis, allowing agents to operate securely, controllably, and economically. The future will not only look at the largest models but also at who builds these invisible tracks well.
