AI+encryption payment: A new paradigm of digital transformation

With the deep integration of the Web3 ecosystem and artificial intelligence technology, the field of encryption payment is undergoing a paradigm shift from tool attributes to ecological empowerment. This article focuses on the cutting-edge direction of "crypto payment + AI" by analyzing three cases: how Crossmints solves the dilemma of Boba Guys, the encryption payment protocol created by AEON for AI agents, and the collaboration between Gaia Network and MoonPay, revealing how technological integration reconstructs payment processes, user incentives, and ecological interaction models.

The core of technological integration lies in: AI empowering payment systems with dynamic decision-making capabilities, while blockchain provides a trusted execution environment for AI agents, forming a closed loop of "data on-chain - intelligent processing - value transfer." According to forecast data, the market size for AI agents is expected to grow from $5.1 billion in 2024 to $47.1 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 44.8%. As the value carrier, encryption payments are reshaping the user interaction paradigm in Web3 - the digital transformation of traditional scenarios is accelerating with "cryptocurrency payments + AI economic brain" as the engine.

This trend further proves that technological collaboration is breaking down the barriers between on-chain and off-chain, providing replicable transformation paths for fields such as DeFi and retail: user-centered, linking data value with encryption payments, leveraging AI to achieve intelligent collaboration between assets and behaviors, and pushing the value internet from concept to the critical point of large-scale application.

1. Why is encryption payment compatible with AI? - The mechanism basis of integrated advantages

The fundamental reason why encryption payments have become the preferred execution path for AI systems lies in the natural synergy of the operating mechanism. Compared to traditional payment methods, Crypto can provide AI agents with greater freedom of invocation, stronger automation capabilities, and better response efficiency, making it an indispensable infrastructure for the implementation of "intelligent execution."

First, Crypto payments support native automatic invocation, allowing AI to directly generate and operate wallets to complete payments, authorizations, interactions, and other actions, truly realizing "machine as user." Secondly, on-chain transactions have the characteristics of being public, transparent, and traceable, with each payment representing trustworthy data, providing a real anchor point for AI's explainability.

In addition, Crypto has multi-chain compatibility and micro-payment capabilities, adapting to the high-frequency, low-value payment needs of AI in various scenarios; at the same time, on-chain behaviors can also be analyzed and utilized by AI, forming a closed-loop mechanism of payment-data-feedback, further enhancing the system's intelligent response.

Overall, encryption payments are not only the execution tools of AI but also an important component of its operational strategies and incentive mechanisms. The combination of the two provides ample space for subsequent product innovation and the realization of business models.

2. Project Case Analysis

2.1 Crossmints: Web3 infrastructure empowering AI payments

Crossmint, as a leader in the Web3 infrastructure field, has created an efficient integrated payment toolchain for enterprises and developers, empowering AI agents with real, usable economic behavior capabilities and achieving a deep integration of encryption payments and intelligent execution. Its system supports one-click wallet creation, on-chain contract invocation, automated trading execution, and is compatible with major networks such as Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana.

It is particularly worth mentioning that Crossmint provides the capability for dynamic cross-chain switching. When the Ethereum network experiences congestion leading to soaring transaction fees and extended confirmation times, the system can monitor the operating status of each chain in real time and intelligently switch to more efficient execution networks, such as Polygon, based on multi-dimensional data like transaction fees and speed, all without manual intervention, significantly enhancing transaction efficiency and stability.

2.1.1 Boba Guys+Crossmint Case: AI-Driven On-Chain encryption Payment Loyalty Program

Core summary

A well-known milk tea brand is facing the issue of a disconnect between traditional payment and user incentives. The brand has built an AI-driven on-chain loyalty program based on Solana through Crossmint, deeply integrating crypto payments with user behavior data to achieve the digital transformation of traditional retail scenarios. The project integrates automatic wallet creation, seamless transaction experiences, and multi-chain support technology, utilizing AI to analyze consumption data to generate personalized marketing strategies, significantly enhancing user engagement and payment efficiency.

Core Pain Point

Traditional payment and loyalty programs are disconnected, failing to leverage the advantages of crypto payments in user incentives. Lack of AI technology support makes it difficult to achieve intelligent analysis of payment data and user behavior.

The solution corresponding to Crossmint

encryption payment integration

• Automatic wallet creation: Users generate an encryption wallet upon registration, supporting mainstream cryptocurrency payments.
• Seamless trading experience: No manual handling of Gas fees during the payment process, transaction information is recorded on-chain in real-time.
• Multi-chain support: compatible with multiple blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Polygon, etc.

AI applications

• Behavior Analysis: Establish user profiles based on data such as consumption amount, frequency, categories, and time.
• Personalized recommendations: Push exclusive offers based on user profiles and recommend new products for tasting based on historical purchasing preferences.
• Dynamic Incentives: Adjust the points exchange ratio based on activity levels and provide retention rewards to churned users.

Application Effectiveness

• In less than 3 months, more than 15,000 members have joined the program.
• Loyal members have seen a store visit increase of over 244% compared to non-members.
• The spending of loyal members is 3.5 times higher than that of non-members.

Model Innovation and Industry Insights

This case has pioneered a new retail paradigm of "encryption payment as user incentive": by transforming consumption behavior into on-chain verifiable and transferable digital assets (such as NFT rewards), the brand not only increased user repurchase rates but also built a decentralized membership ecosystem.

Crossmint's AI technology plays a "data hub" role in this process: it realizes real-time on-chain payment data and intelligent analysis, while also reducing operational costs through automated strategies. This provides a replicable transformation path for traditional industries such as retail and catering: using encryption payments as the entry point and AI algorithms as the engine, reconstructing the "payment-data-incentive" closed loop, and promoting the upgrade of offline scenarios to digital and intelligent.

2.2 AEON: AI-driven encryption payment protocol, reconstructing the agency execution path

Project positioning

AEON is a payment protocol designed for AI agents, aimed at providing a cross-chain, highly available payment execution layer. Unlike traditional payment systems, AEON is not a single application but serves as an embeddable payment interface for various automated agents, smart contracts, and Web3 applications. Since the end of 2024, the project has rapidly expanded and now covers multi-chain ecosystems including BNB Chain, Solana, TON, TRON, Stellar, and more.

2.2.1 AI-driven payment execution path

Unlike other cases that use AI for analysis and recommendations, AEON focuses more on building payment capabilities that can be directly invoked by AI. In other words, its goal is to enable AI agents to autonomously and securely complete real payment tasks, thereby promoting the implementation of automated systems in real transaction scenarios. When users issue natural language commands such as "book a flight" or "buy coffee" through AI, the AI can directly call the AEON API to generate payment requests, complete amount recognition, asset selection, cross-chain exchanges, and settlements, all without human intervention.

Its mechanism includes two key designs:

• Payment Intent Recognition Mechanism (KYA): The system uses a language model to determine whether the AI truly understands the task content and verifies whether it has payment permissions, thereby preventing erroneous operations and risk instruction execution;
• Multi-chain smart routing: Dynamically selects the optimal payment path based on real-time fees and network congestion to enhance transaction efficiency.

This architecture allows various AI agents to go beyond mere information processing and recommendations, enabling them to truly execute commercial actions, thereby expanding higher autonomy and collaborative efficiency for Web3 scenarios.

2.2.2 Application Implementation and Ecological Integration

Since 2024, AEON has launched the "AI Payment as IT Foundation" roadmap, expanding applications to multiple countries and ecological scenarios:

• Offline scenario expansion: AEON has implemented a QR code payment system in Southeast Asia, where AI agents can automatically complete the processes of scanning, exchanging, and payment.
• Token ecosystem integration: AEON supports multiple types of native encryption assets for payment, having connected with over 10,000 merchants, covering electronic consumption, life services, digital content, and other daily applications.
• Agent-to-Agent collaboration: AEON also supports multi-agent module cooperation, such as the intelligent execution model of "Information Agent generating orders - Payment Agent completing payments."

2.2.3 AI and Payment Process Integration Logic

The standard process of using AI Agent to call AEON Pay: After the user command is parsed by the AI agent, a payment operation is initiated through the AEON Pay SDK or API. Once the system completes the on-chain execution, the result is fed back to the user and the agent, achieving a closed loop.

AI Agent + AEON Pay Interaction Sequence: It shows the complete interaction chain of "User → AI → AEON → Merchant". The task starts from natural language initiation and goes through five stages: agent analysis, order creation, payment confirmation, on-chain deduction, and status feedback, achieving the completion of automatic payment tasks.

Industry significance and future outlook

AEON has demonstrated a standardized path for "AI agent-to-pay": abstracting payments as a service for agents to invoke and execute automatically on demand. This architecture not only enhances the composability and intelligence of payment systems but also introduces new execution logic to the Web3 ecosystem.

In the future, AEON plans to expand to an off-chain consumption system supported by Visa and Mastercard, building a seamless bridge between Web3 native users and the real payment world, further promoting the payment paradigm of "AI initiated - Crypto settlement - completed in real time."

2.3 Gaia Network partners with Moonpay: Promoting encryption payments and AI integration

2.3.1 Cooperation Background

MoonPay is a leading global encryption payment infrastructure provider that supports instant exchange between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies, serving over 180 countries with an annual transaction volume exceeding $15 billion. Gaia, on the other hand, is a decentralized AI agent network that allows developers to create, deploy, and monetize AI agents, with its core product, Mother DAO, being the AI agent launch platform within the Ethereum ecosystem.

2.3.2 Synergistic Effects and Technological Integration After Cooperation

Deep collaboration between payment and AI agents

• Automated trading process: Users trigger the Gaia agent to call the MoonPay API through natural language instructions (such as "buy ETH worth $100"), completing the exchange from fiat to encryption and on-chain transfer without manual wallet operations.
• Smart Pricing and Settlement: Gaia agents can dynamically adjust service pricing based on market fluctuations, while MoonPay completes cryptocurrency settlements in real-time, supporting stablecoins such as USDC, ETH, and mainstream assets.

Developer ecosystem empowerment

• Low-code integration: MoonPay provides pre-built payment modules (such as embedded payment windows) that developers can quickly integrate payment functionality into the Gaia agent through APIs.
• Cross-chain interoperability: MoonPay's multi-chain support (such as Solana, Polygon) helps Gaia agents expand application scenarios, such as executing high-frequency trading in the Solana ecosystem.

User experience upgrade

• Simplified fiat entry: Non-encrypted users can directly use MoonPay to purchase AI agency services with fiat, lowering the Web3 threshold.
• Transaction Transparency: On-chain transaction records can be checked through a blockchain explorer, allowing users to track payment status and agent execution results in real-time.

2.3.3 Market Impact and Data

• User Growth: Gaia in 2024