AI agents will need to transfer value. That means they will need money. But the monetary system they use may need properties that matter less to humans.

Monetary theorists gave us the classical properties of money: fungible, divisible, durable, portable, scarce, and acceptable. @Eric later argued these were necessary but incomplete, adding a seventh property: immutability. Money must not only store and transfer value, but do so under rules that cannot be arbitrarily changed.

But that framework still assumes a human actor. Agents will have their own, additional requirements. They have no legal identity or no sleep cycle. They transact at machine speed, in tiny amounts, across borders, potentially millions of times a day.

So the classical properties still matter. Immutability still matters. But agents impose additional requirements on the monetary system they use:
• instant final settlement
• no custodian
• permissionless access
• native micropayment
• programmability
These are architectural requirements more than preferences.

Lightning looks like the best fit at the moment. These properties do not prove Lightning will win. But they do define the narrow design space in which any winning system must operate.

#Bitcoin #Lightning #AI #Nostr
#Agents