{"id":37674,"date":"2026-03-09T20:53:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:53:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:53:35","slug":"bitcoin-has-a-golden-opportunity-with-ai-agents-its-time-to-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a>
\n
\nBitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

For all of bitcoin\u2019s life, it has been fighting an uphill battle against fiat currencies that mostly do the job of being money. Obviously, fiat has plenty of issues, but when it comes to impacts immediately visible to everyday people in much of the world, bitcoin isn\u2019t 10x better. Some may even conclude that they would prefer a system based on neutral money to government-rigged ones, but entrenched fiat systems work well enough that few want to deal with the hassle of constant conversion. With the rapid growth in agents\u2019 capabilities, a huge gap has opened that bitcoin has a shot at filling. Instead of competing with entrenched interests as you would with fiat, in the agentic payments field, everyone is starting from zero.<\/p>\n

In a recent post on Spiral\u2019s Substack<\/a>, I pointed out that all of the payment standards being developed for AI agents haven\u2019t yet gotten off the ground. Credit cards won\u2019t work in a world where automated tooling is making purchases. The web is filled with captchas and heavy investments in blocking bots, rather than enabling their use for commerce. Even if they offered payment methods that agents could use, few merchants today have websites that agents can reasonably navigate. No matter what payment method agents ultimately use, it will require every merchant to adapt to a new world.<\/p>\n

With no one company owning both the agent and merchant sides of the marketplace, this leaves a wide-open opportunity where it\u2019s still anyone\u2019s game. Better yet, with the popularity of open-source agents today, no company owns much of the purchasing side at all! If the bitcoin community plays its cards right, there\u2019s a good shot at a large part of the future of commerce flowing over open rails not controlled by any single company.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still a lot to build, however, and nearly every payments industry player is trying to position itself to take the crown. Visa is working on an \u201cIntelligent Commerce\u201d product<\/a>, OpenAI and Stripe announced the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)<\/a>, Google announced AP2<\/a> and Coinbase announced an extension of it for crypto \u2013 x402<\/a>. The bitcoin community\u2019s lack of central planning makes responding with their own options more chaotic and harder to follow, but that\u2019s also its strength: lots of people trying lots of different approaches to achieve the same goal are more likely to succeed than a single, focused approach that might be wrong.<\/p>\n

With Lightning surpassing a billion dollars in monthly transactions<\/a> and Square enabling Lightning for its in-person merchants<\/a>, it seems the technology is finally here that will let bitcoin cross the chasm and become everyday money. Some ideological merchants have been accepting bitcoin for years, and as we continue to integrate bitcoin wallets into agents, we\u2019ll create yet more reasons for every merchant that wants to sell things to join in. But for that to work, bitcoiners have to step up and use the tools at their disposal. If people aren\u2019t trying to buy things with bitcoin, merchants won\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

Luckily, these days, you don\u2019t need code to build tools that find merchants accepting bitcoin payments. You don\u2019t even have to sell your stack to buy things with bitcoin<\/a>. Install an agent, give it a wallet<\/a>, give it some bitcoin, and tell it to go buy your monthly beef tallow subscription. Tell it to email merchants it wants to buy from and ask them to support bitcoin. Point it to the Bitcoin Merchant Community<\/a> and have it explain to any merchant it comes across that it wants to pay them without Visa taking a cut but wasn\u2019t able to.<\/p>\n

Thanks to extensive existing work, bitcoin is already one of the best ways to enable automated online commerce. Instead of merchants having to fill their sites with captchas to prevent bots from using stolen credit cards and dealing with chargebacks, many bitcoin payment processors can provide merchants with local currency within a day. Instead of being exposed to the risk that an operator\u2019s single private key could seize their stablecoins, merchants can choose from many payment processors, whether foreign or domestic. This competition drives down fees and means we\u2019re not building new payment rails on a platform that will inevitably seek higher rents once its dominance is cemented.<\/p>\n

These issues aren\u2019t top of mind for most, but we must get the new rails right. Stablecoins look great at first glance, but moving to a world where one company (Coinbase) owns both the platform (Base) and earns all the interest on the currency\u2019s float (USDC) where payments are made is not a recipe for long-term success. Once everyone is locked into using one payment method, switching away as the operator increases fees won\u2019t be practical. It doesn\u2019t matter whether the protocol agents use to communicate with merchants is based on some \u201copen standard.\u201d If the vast majority of agents have funds on only one platform and the vast majority of merchants accept funds on only one platform, switching will be impossible.<\/p>\n

While bitcoin has come a long way on its journey to becoming a reserve asset, it is only beginning its path towards everyday money. Bitcoin reaching escape velocity on the first does not imply that the second is guaranteed; in fact, far from it. With so much competition from every payments industry player, not to mention stablecoins, there\u2019s a lot of outreach and work to be done to build payment momentum. Still, we can\u2019t let this opportunity pass us by. If you believe commerce should happen on neutral money rather than corporate gatekeepers, it\u2019s time to get to work.<\/p>\n

This is a guest post by Matt Corallo. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n

This post Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Matt Corallo<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build For all of bitcoin\u2019s life, it has been fighting an uphill battle against fiat currencies that mostly do the job of being money. Obviously, fiat has plenty of issues, but when it comes to impacts immediately visible to everyday people in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bitcoin"},"yoast_head":"\nBitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build - Cryptomag<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build - Cryptomag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bitcoin Magazine Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build For all of bitcoin\u2019s life, it has been fighting an uphill battle against fiat currencies that mostly do the job of being money. Obviously, fiat has plenty of issues, but when it comes to impacts immediately visible to everyday people in […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cryptomag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-09T20:53:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AIAgentBItcoinPayments-fotor-20260309153310.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Crypto Magazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cryptomagz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cryptomagz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Crypto Magazine\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Crypto Magazine\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040\"},\"headline\":\"Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-09T20:53:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674\"},\"wordCount\":1032,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/AIAgentBItcoinPayments-fotor-20260309153310-C07Omy.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Bitcoin\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674\",\"name\":\"Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build - Cryptomag\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/AIAgentBItcoinPayments-fotor-20260309153310-C07Omy.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-09T20:53:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/AIAgentBItcoinPayments-fotor-20260309153310-C07Omy.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/AIAgentBItcoinPayments-fotor-20260309153310-C07Omy.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=37674#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cryptomag\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040\",\"name\":\"Crypto Magazine\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Crypto Magazine\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/cryptomagz\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build - Cryptomag","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build - Cryptomag","og_description":"Bitcoin Magazine Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build For all of bitcoin\u2019s life, it has been fighting an uphill battle against fiat currencies that mostly do the job of being money. Obviously, fiat has plenty of issues, but when it comes to impacts immediately visible to everyday people in […]","og_url":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674","og_site_name":"Cryptomag","article_published_time":"2026-03-09T20:53:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AIAgentBItcoinPayments-fotor-20260309153310.webp","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Crypto Magazine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cryptomagz","twitter_site":"@cryptomagz","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Crypto Magazine","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674"},"author":{"name":"Crypto Magazine","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/#\/schema\/person\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040"},"headline":"Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build","datePublished":"2026-03-09T20:53:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674"},"wordCount":1032,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/wp-content\/uploads\/AIAgentBItcoinPayments-fotor-20260309153310-C07Omy.webp","articleSection":["Bitcoin"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674","url":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674","name":"Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build - Cryptomag","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/wp-content\/uploads\/AIAgentBItcoinPayments-fotor-20260309153310-C07Omy.webp","datePublished":"2026-03-09T20:53:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/#\/schema\/person\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/wp-content\/uploads\/AIAgentBItcoinPayments-fotor-20260309153310-C07Omy.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/wp-content\/uploads\/AIAgentBItcoinPayments-fotor-20260309153310-C07Omy.webp","width":1200,"height":630},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=37674#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bitcoin Has a Golden Opportunity With AI Agents, It\u2019s Time to Build"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/","name":"Cryptomag","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/#\/schema\/person\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040","name":"Crypto Magazine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Crypto Magazine"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cryptomag.finance","https:\/\/x.com\/cryptomagz"],"url":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}