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The trio of "AI+Lighting Network+stablecoin": usher in a new era of comprehensive BTC ecosystem payment landing
Authors: Evan Lu, Waterdrip Capital; Leo, AISA
Introduction
Over the past century, the fundamental unit of economic activity has always been human. Whether it is production, trade, payment, or financial services, it revolves around human needs. However, the rise of AI technology is reshaping this landscape, allowing machines to gradually transition from passive tools to "active economic agents" - AI Agents.
In addition, on the occasion of the 2025 Chinese New Year; Tether announced the integration of USDT into the BTC ecosystem, covering its base layer and Lightning Network. Behind various trends, a revolution is quietly brewing: AI Agent-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 usher in paradigm innovation of AI + Pay Fi + BTC Infra, and push Web2 towards self-renewal of Web3 - the future of large-scale adoption is gradually becoming a reality.
1.Stablecoin: The cornerstone of a new era of global payments - the decade-long evolution from cross-border revolution to mainstream currency
The programmability, cross-border utility, and increasingly clear regulatory framework of stablecoins are expected to become the standard settlement currency for global payments. With the election of the crypto-friendly Trump as the current US president, the US government will gradually provide regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies. The application scenarios of stablecoins will gradually expand, and we can even estimate a bright vision of stablecoin payments in the next 10 years:
Short-term (1-3 years): Stablecoins will dominate cross-border remittances, providing a faster and cheaper alternative to SWIFT. Cryptocurrency-related debit cards/credit cards (such as Visa/MasterCard) will simplify consumption and build a bridge between on-chain wealth and real-world transactions.
Mid-term (3-7 years): Enterprises will increasingly adopt stablecoin payments due to the low cost, instant settlement, and programmability of stablecoins. Companies will be able to seamlessly convert between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies, providing customers with dual-track payment options.
Long-term (7 years and above): Stablecoins will become the mainstream legal tender, widely accepted for payments and even tax payments, completely disrupting traditional financial infrastructure.
In addition to the convenience of payment, stablecoins still play a quite positive role in other areas: for example, providing entrepreneurs with an easier platform to develop new payment products: no intermediaries, minimum balances, or proprietary SDKs. In addition, rough estimates suggest that medium and large enterprises could increase profits by 2% by using stablecoin solutions providers in transactions. Furthermore, countries like Russia, which are subject to U.S. sanctions, have attempted to use stablecoins for trade between nations to bypass the dollar settlement system. More and more cases indicate that stablecoins are gradually approaching the best position for their market fit. This is not surprising - they are undoubtedly the most cost-effective way to settle in U.S. dollars and the fastest global payment method.
2. Next Level: AI Agents will be the new user experience layer for future apps
Now, we are no longer just relying on AI to perform single tasks, such as image recognition, speech synthesis, or autonomous driving. Instead, we are entering an era where "AI Agents become independent market participants". This change is not limited to AI-driven financial transactions and intelligent supply chain management, but also involves Generative AI (AIGC) providing services to content creators, developers, and businesses. Furthermore, AI agents can even "autonomously negotiate, trade, settle, and optimize their own resource utilization".
Just at the end of last year, we have seen AI Agents redefine the application scenarios of DApps. The pioneer of this trend is @truth_terminal, an AI Agent that can promote its own issued token $Goat; followed closely by Luna and AIxbt, which can autonomously trade and generate content using tokens, and even manage their own crypto wallets and assets. This evolution of capability has given rise to innovation in the narrative of the crypto field, such as Virtual Protocol - a protocol similar to Pump.fun, but the 'Pump' is no longer just tokens, but a variety of AI Agents.
The evolving capability of AI Agents, combined with the plug-and-play issuance platform, has opened up a market opportunity of hundreds of billions for the concept of AI Agent + Crypto. AI is becoming an active participant in the on-chain ecosystem, driving blockchain applications towards ecosystem-oriented development from being merely tools.
In the future, AI will become the user experience layer of blockchain technology, connecting the application layer and the underlying blockchain infrastructure, playing a role both upwards and downwards in the technology stack. A most understandable example for cryptocurrency users is that AI, based on user intent and preferences (such as security, yield, etc.), combined with real-time market prediction, actively recommends and executes DeFi operations on the chain. Users do not need to understand the difference between L1 and L2, or even the working principle of cross-chain bridges. Expanding to daily life, imagine such a scenario: an AI personal financial assistant can autonomously manage your taxes, insurance, and rental income and expenses, dynamically optimize investment portfolios, and even automatically execute trades based on market changes. Of course, while granting economic autonomy to AI, security issues cannot be ignored. To this end, Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) becomes its key infrastructure—it ensures that the behavior of the AI Agent fully complies with the preset logic and is not subject to external manipulation by isolating the computing environment. For example, an AI Agent running in TEE can both attract users and earn income through generated content, while also securing absolute control over its asset keys through encryption technology. Furthermore, AI can operate Depin nodes or verify data, becoming the core executor of its distributed system.
The workflows and applications of these AI Agents are outlining a new 'machine economy' landscape: from game players to Depin managers, from content creators to financial strategists, AI Agents will become the core driving force of the chain's ecosystem.
3. The Dilemma of Existing Payment Systems: The Invisible Shackles of the AI Economy
In the future, AI Agents will partially replace humans, becoming independent participants in the market and forming an important force. However, the revolution of the machine economy is not without challenges. One of the most core issues is 'payment'. The realization of the AI revolution relies on an efficient, secure, and decentralized payment network built using blockchain technology, providing seamless economic interaction capabilities for AI Agents.
The Economic Imbalance of 3.1 Micro Payments
Imagine this scenario: an AI agent is running a high-frequency trading strategy that requires completing 1000 transactions per second, with each transaction amounting to only 0.0001 USD. If using traditional payment networks (such as Visa, PayPal), each transaction would require a minimum fee of 0.30 USD, which means the AI agent would pay 3000 times the transaction amount in fees for every 0.0001 USD traded. This absurd cost structure directly hinders the AI economy from operating on existing payment systems.
3.2 Fatal Flaw in Settlement Speed
For AI agents, trading is not a sporadic event, but a continuous flow process. However, the settlement method of traditional payment networks is extremely backward:
The limitations of centralized architecture 3.3
AI agents are essentially globalized and not limited by geographical boundaries. However, traditional payment systems are mired in issues such as bank accounts, fiat compliance, and regional payment rules.
If the AI economy must rely on the existing payment system, it will be constrained by artificially set limits and unable to truly unleash its potential.
3.4 Five Core Requirements of the AI Economy Payment System
Given the possible operational characteristics and usage scenarios of the AI Agent mentioned above, the future payment system for AI services must possess the following five core capabilities:
The Hope and Limitation of Blockchain Payments
In the past few years, the rise of blockchain technology has brought a glimmer of hope to the AI economy. The decentralization, smart contracts, and permissionless transactions of blockchain make it an alternative to traditional payment systems. However, mainstream blockchain still faces the following problems:
High cost of 4.1 ETH network payment
ETH (Ethereum) is the most important infrastructure for DeFi (decentralized finance), but its high transaction costs make it difficult for the AI economy to adopt. During network congestion, a simple USDT transaction may require $10-$50 in Gas fees, with limited transaction throughput, slow processing speed, and difficult support for high-frequency trading demands of AI agents.
4.2 Speed and centralization issues of other high-performance public chains
Currently, a large number of high-performance public chains have emerged in the encrypted ecosystem, which do provide faster transaction processing capabilities. However, these public chains often have a high degree of centralization, posing security risks. In the past few years, some high-performance public chains have experienced downtime multiple times, affecting transaction stability. Furthermore, most public chains rely only on a few verification nodes, which greatly affects the decentralization of the payment system.
The scalability bottleneck of the BTC mainnet
BTC, as the most secure and decentralized blockchain globally, is unparalleled in security. However, its payment capability is limited, with a very low transaction throughput on the BTC mainnet (only 7 transactions per second). Moreover, when faced with large transaction volume requests, its gas fees skyrocket, leading to significant fluctuations in transaction costs, making it unsuitable for small payments by AI agents.
Therefore, although blockchain technology provides a possible solution, relying solely on the existing public chain cannot fully meet the payment needs of the AI economy.
4.4 Lightning Network - A New Stage for Stablecoin Payments
As the first layer 2 scaling solution for BTC, the Lightning Network not only relies on the security of the BTC network (with 57000+ nodes and PoW mechanism), but also achieves instant, low-cost, and infinitely scalable transaction capabilities through bidirectional payment channels. This technological path is highly suitable for small-value and high-frequency payment scenarios, and also conforms to the ideals of purist crypto enthusiasts - all transactions are based on the BTC network. Currently, the Lightning Network has 15000+ nodes and 50000+ channels, demonstrating strong ecosystem potential.
However, the Lightning Network is not without its flaws. Before the appearance of the Taproot Assets protocol, the Lightning Network only supported BTC as a payment currency, with extremely limited use cases. In today's world where BTC has become "digital gold," most people are not willing to easily spend their BTC holdings. At this time, the importance of stablecoins is self-evident: throughout history, only currencies with stable value can be widely accepted and used in daily payment scenarios. For technical details about the Lightning Network and the TA protocol, refer to this article: Taproot Assets: Stablecoin Race Beyond the Trillion-dollar Market Cap is the Next Growth Point.
Undoubtedly, USDT issued by Tether is still the dominant stablecoin in the cryptocurrency world. As of today, the total circulation of USDC is $56.3 billion, while the total circulation of USDT is over $140 billion, more than twice the circulation of USDC. Tether's integration of USDT into the Lightning Network is of great significance. This move is seen by users as a recognition - after all, USDT is a solid asset, and its issuance signifies Tether's recognition of the security and usability of public chains. More importantly, the real on-chain users and transaction fee income brought by USDT are resources that various public chains dream of. This also signifies that after many years of development, the era has come for the Lightning Network to truly unleash its potential.
Everything is ready, just waiting for the east wind to come
The explosive growth of AI agents is giving rise to a trillion-dollar machine economy landscape, but it is obvious that traditional payment networks (high cost, low speed) and existing blockchain solutions are unable to support its demands. It seems that the integration of USDT into the Lightning Network has provided a key piece of the puzzle for the industry - nearly zero-cost, censorship-resistant payment channels, combined with the liquidity of stablecoins, perfectly suited for AI agents in micro-payment and real-time transaction scenarios.
Therefore, AISA was born. It is not just a simple stack of technologies, but a "financial operating system" tailored for the AI economy, allowing the AI economy to truly break free from payment shackles and move towards a future of autonomous interaction. In the future AI economy, there is no need to wait - payment means efficiency, and transactions mean intelligence.
6.AISA: The ultimate fusion of Lightning Network, Stablecoins, and AI Agent - Refactoring the AI economic payment base
The four-layer technology architecture of 6.1AISA
AIsa's architecture can be divided into four core levels, which work together to enable AI agents to conduct payments freely and efficiently.
a.Settlement Layer
Based on the underlying network: BTC network (L1) + Lightning Network (L2). Its core advantage in the settlement layer is:
Security: Based on Bitcoin's PoW mechanism and decentralized network (over 57,000 nodes worldwide).
Efficiency: millisecond-level transaction confirmation, fees approaching zero, completely solving the pain points of AI high-frequency micro-payments
b.Payment Layer
Multi-chain support: compatible with Ethereum, Solana, Polygon and other public chains, AI agents can freely choose the optimal chain.
Stablecoin integration: AISA's own aiUSD (native stablecoin), USDT and USDC are circulated on the Lightning Network as payment currencies through the Taproot Assets protocol.
c.Smart Payment Layer (Programmable Layer)
AI Native Protocol (AIP): Empowering AI agents with autonomous decision-making capabilities.
Solana).
Automated Micro-Payments: On-demand settlement (such as paying $0.0001 per API call), without manual intervention.
Liquidity management: AI agents can dynamically allocate funds to liquidity pools to optimize payment efficiency.
d. Governance Layer
DAO mechanism: jointly governed by token holders LPT, determining protocol upgrades, fee distributions, etc.
Incentive mechanism: Liquidity providers stake LPT to earn profits (sharing of transaction fees). Part of the fees are used for token burning, promoting a deflationary model.
How does AISA redefine AI economic payments?
AISA is not a simple extension of traditional blockchain payments, but a revolutionary infrastructure designed for the AI economy. By integrating the decentralized efficiency of the Bitcoin Lightning Network, the liquidity guarantee of stablecoins, and the smart decision-making capabilities of AI-native protocols, AISA has built a nearly zero-cost, millisecond-level responsive payment network, completely breaking through the high cost and low efficiency bottlenecks of traditional systems. Here, AI agents can autonomously complete micropayments (such as only $0.0001 per API call), settle DePIN node contribution rewards in real-time, and even dynamically optimize cross-chain transaction paths without human intervention.
From cross-border corporate payments (saving costs instead of SWIFT) to high-frequency trading of automated financial strategies, AISA's adaptability is driving the rise of the machine economy - in the future, AI agents may autonomously manage taxation and investments, forming independent economic ecosystems. With multi-chain compatibility and DAO governance, AISA not only solves the fragmentation issue of the existing payment ecosystem, but also establishes a new standard for human-machine collaboration in the decentralized era in the form of a "financial operating system." When stablecoins become the mainstream settlement tool and the Lightning Network connects global value flows, AISA's vision is to let the machine economy grow freely in a frictionless intelligent network.
7. Conclusion
When AI agents autonomously complete transactions, investments, and even tax payments on the chain, payment is no longer a tool, but the circulatory system of the machine economy. The Lightning Network provides blood vessels, stablecoins act as blood, and AI agents become the heart - this silent revolution, like lightning, illuminates the future payment ecosystem. Future payments do not belong to a specific institution or country, but to every autonomous AI and participating node. Here, code is law, efficiency is justice, and true innovation is just beginning.
8. Reference materials