Financial technology company Stripe says blockchains may need to process up to 1 billion transactions per second to support the future of artificial intelligence agents.
In an annual letter posted to
One of the main topics of discussion was the adoption of AI agents and what widespread use could look like in the future. The duo argued that transaction activity on blockchain will soon skyrocket as AI agents gradually become the main conductors of online transactions.
However, Stripe co-founders said there is a significant infrastructure gap in the blockchain and massive scale is needed to meet this incoming demand.
“Last year, a memecoin trading frenzy on one of the major blockchains delayed payouts for one Bridge user by more than 12 hours and increased prices per transaction by 35x. While such operational issues are already significant, they will only increase as we expect the appetite for transactions to grow dramatically,” they wrote, adding:
“In our view, agents will soon likely be responsible for most Internet transactions, and we will likely need blockchains that support more than a million – or even a billion – transactions per second.”
Source: Stripe
According to data from Chainspect, Internet Computer Protocol and Solana are currently the two largest blockchains in terms of transaction speed, with approximately 1,196 and 1,140 transactions per second (TPS) respectively.
They are the only two on the market currently processing over 1,000 TPS, and at their peak they processed 25,621 TPS and 5,289 TPS respectively.
In their current form, both networks have a theoretical maximum of only 209,708 TPS and 65,000 TPS respectively.
AI commerce is beyond the ‘hype phase’
In addition to their predictions about incoming demand, Stripe executives also outlined the key types of use cases that AI agents will serve online. Currently, they say that AI agents have moved beyond a phase of “pure hype” to a time of building and “experimenting in the real world.”
Related: Stripe considers acquiring all or part of PayPal: report
They outlined five levels of AI agent capabilities. The first two levels include: filling out web forms and descriptive search – being able to find results for users based on descriptions of situations rather than specific characteristics.
According to Stripe executives, AI agents are on the edge of levels one and two.
The next three levels include: persistence – remembering user information, requirements and preferences; delegation — handling tasks such as grocery shopping on your behalf; and anticipation – being able to provide solutions to problems or schedules without being asked.
“As with the early Internet, the future success of agentic commerce depends on universal interoperability. Our ascent through the five levels depends on our ability to work together,” they wrote, adding:
“If all goes well, the little critters won’t be confined to walled gardens, but will be zipping along the wide-open protocol highways.”
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