Author: Oak Grove Ventures Research Team
Article Overview
As the Web3 ecosystem and artificial intelligence technology deeply integrate, the crypto payment field is experiencing a paradigm shift from tool attributes to ecosystem empowerment. This report focuses on the frontier direction of "crypto payment + AI", analyzing three cases of Crossmints solving Boba Guys' challenges, AEON's crypto payment protocol for AI agents, and Gaia Network's collaboration with MoonPay, revealing how technological integration reconstructs payment processes, user incentives, and ecosystem interaction modes.
The core of technological integration is: AI grants payment systems dynamic decision-making capabilities, while blockchain provides a trusted execution environment for AI agents, forming a "data on-chain - intelligent processing - value transfer" closed loop. According to MarketsandMarkets' predicted data, the AI agent market size is expected to grow from $5.1 billion in 2024 to $47.1 billion in 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 44.8%. As the value carrier of crypto payment, it is reshaping the Web3 user interaction paradigm - the digital transformation of traditional scenarios is accelerating with "cryptocurrency payment + AI economic brain" as the engine.
This trend further proves that technological synergy is breaking down on-chain and off-chain barriers, providing a replicable transformation path for DeFi, retail, and other fields: centering on users, linking data value through crypto payment, using AI to achieve intelligent collaboration of assets and behaviors, and pushing the value internet from concept to the critical point of large-scale application.
Multi-Chain Smart Routing: Dynamically select the optimal payment path based on real-time fees and network congestion, improving transaction efficiency.
This architecture enables AI agents to go beyond information processing and recommendations, truly executing business actions and expanding greater autonomy and collaborative efficiency for Web3 scenarios.
2.2.2 Application Landing and Ecosystem Integration
Since 2024, AEON has launched the "AI Payment as IT Foundation" roadmap, expanding applications to multiple countries and ecosystem scenarios:
Offline Scene Expansion: AEON has implemented QR code payment systems in Southeast Asian regions like Vietnam, where AI agents can automatically complete the entire process of scanning, exchange, and payment.
Token Ecosystem Docking: AEON supports multiple native crypto 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 collaboration, such as an intelligent execution model of "information agent generating order - payment agent completing payment".
2.2.3 Diagram: AI and Payment Process Integration Logic
The following two diagrams show the AI agent calling path and technical interaction details of AEON Pay in actual use.
Figure 1: Standard Process Diagram of AI Agent Calling AEON Pay
After user instructions are parsed by the AI agent, payment operations are initiated through AEON Pay SDK or API, and the system completes on-chain execution and feeds back results to the user and agent, achieving a closed loop.
Figure 2: Time Sequence Diagram of AI Agent + AEON Pay Interaction
Demonstrates the complete interaction chain of "User → AI → AEON → Merchant". The task starts from natural language initiation, goes through five stages of agent analysis, order creation, payment confirmation, on-chain deduction, and status feedback, achieving automatic payment task completion.
Industry Significance and Future Outlook
AEON demonstrates the standardized path of "AI agent-to-pay": abstracting payment as a service for intelligent bodies to call and automatically execute. This architecture not only enhances the composability and intelligence of payment systems but also brings new execution logic to the Web3 ecosystem.
In the future, AEON plans to expand to offline consumption systems 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-settled - Offline completed".
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