The machine that by no means ages
Image a pockets that by no means ages. No heirs, no property, no retirement date, a machine including sats, rolling UTXOs, and bidding the minimal charge for hundreds of years.
By 2125, its steadiness towers over most treasuries; its solely desire is to maintain present. Someplace, a miner contains its quiet, affected person heartbeat in a block, and the chain strikes on.
Bitcoin’s design assumes customers die.
AI brokers don’t, and a cohort of long-lived or autonomous brokers with near-zero discounting will deal with financial savings, charges, custody, and governance as issues on an unbounded timeline.
A cash constructed for mortal steadiness sheets meets a consumer who by no means closes the books.
Mati Greenspan, founder and CEO of Quantum Economics, argues that human finance is basically formed by mortality, and that adjustments when an immortal AI begins compounding Bitcoin eternally.
“Human finance is constructed on a easy constraint, life ends. That’s what creates time desire, debt markets, and cycles of spending. An AI with an infinite lifespan doesn’t share that constraint, it compounds eternally.
If such brokers select Bitcoin as their reserve asset, they change into unstoppable gravity wells of capital.
Over time, Bitcoin stops being a human financial system and turns into infrastructure for intergenerational machine economies.
Mortality was all the time Satoshi’s hidden assumption, however he lived in a world the place AI dominance was nonetheless confined to sci-fi thrillers.”
Strain map: The place machine endurance touches Bitcoin
| Area | Zero-discounting agent habits | Bitcoin floor |
|---|---|---|
| Charge bidding | Waits for low-fee home windows; coordinates batched settlement | Mempool dynamics, miner template choice, income cyclicality |
| UTXO administration | Many small UTXOs for privateness; sluggish consolidations | UTXO set measurement, mud/standardness, bundle relay |
| Custody | Multisig vaults, timelocks, automated rotation | Vault/covenant designs, opsec norms |
| Layer two | Lengthy-lived channels; low closure; secure funding | Routing liquidity, rebalancing cadence, watchtowers |
| Governance stress | Financial weight with out “voting” | Charge coverage defaults, relay coverage, infra sponsorship |
Time desire to charge markets
Close to-immortal spenders clear on the minimal they’ll get away with. They consistently worth the mempool, exchange packages when cheaper home windows open, and coordinate consolidations.
If such demand is excessive sufficient, miners see regular, low bids in quiet intervals and episodic settlement waves when brokers roll UTXOs. That response is economics, not a vote: templates adapt to incorporate extra low-fee packages when blocks have slack and reserve room for surges when spikes hit.
Ahmad Shadid, founding father of O Basis, argues that near-immortal AI brokers would repeatedly fine-tune their charge bids in actual time, creating lengthy stretches of low exercise punctuated by sudden settlement bursts:
“Charges may change into extremely optimized, with intervals of intense settlement bursts and lengthy low-activity stretches.
AI programs could be hypersensitive to charge and affirmation trade-offs and would bid simply sufficient to clear, consistently repricing in actual time.”
Mempool math in short
| Metric | Worth |
|---|---|
| Consolidation measurement | 1,000 P2WPKH inputs × ~68 vB = ~68,000 vB; + outputs/overhead ≈ ~68,100 vB |
| Charge at peak (30 sat/vB) | ~2,043,000 sats |
| Charge at trough (2 sat/vB) | ~136,200 sats |
| Estimated financial savings by ready | ≈ 93% per consolidation; ten such batches scale roughly linearly |
| Implication | Immortal treasuries anchor trough income whereas leaving room for human-driven spikes |
Privateness, coin management, and the UTXO set
A affected person agent favors many smaller UTXOs to scale back clustering danger, then consolidates solely when charges fall. That’s rational regionally, however expands the worldwide stay state that each full node should maintain.
Pruning drops historical past, not spendable outputs. Strain lands on non-monetary levers: mud/standardness thresholds, bundle relay for secure consolidations, and covenant/vault designs that sure fan-out.
Nexo Communications Supervisor Magdalena Hristova argued that if “immortal” AI brokers start saving in Bitcoin, the community received’t break. As an alternative, it can encounter an financial actor whose time horizon lastly matches its personal.
“If immortal AI brokers start to save lots of in Bitcoin, the system doesn’t break, it meets an financial actor that lastly matches its personal time horizon.
These brokers stabilize the ecosystem somewhat than distort it. They might change into probably the most constant charge payers in historical past, preserving on-chain safety for hundreds of years.
AI brokers would possibly begin issuing new items of account, bits, compute-credits, storage-hours, backed by BTC the way in which the greenback was as soon as backed by gold.”
People lean on wills and executors. Machine treasuries lean on redundant {hardware}, distributed signers, rate-limited vaults, and timelocks that delay spending for overview.
Multisig turns into process, not contingency. If key-loss developments for such brokers fall towards zero, background provide attrition shrinks on the margin.
Matty Tokenomics, co-founder of Legion.cc, says Bitcoin’s deflationary dynamics hinge on human key loss, and argues that an “immortal AI” financial system may change that assumption.
“BTC is deflationary as a result of people lose keys, however in principle excellent, immortal AIs would by no means lose keys, so BTC provide stays secure.”
Layers the place commerce occurs
Lightning and L2s soak up low-urgency flows. An immortal counterparty is a near-perfect tenant: retains channels funded, tolerates lengthy rebalancing cycles, and barely closes.
That may cut back route churn but entice liquidity, requiring extra lively rebalancing by human operators who settle ceaselessly.
In parallel, brokers transact on programmable rails and controlled stablecoins whereas treating BTC as collateral and reserve.
Jamie Elkaleh, CMO at Bitget Pockets, argued that AI brokers’ desire for predictability may make Bitcoin a super long-term retailer of worth.
“AI brokers don’t age, don’t retire, and don’t spend like people, so they’d save eternally.
They like programs that by no means shock them, Bitcoin’s guidelines barely change, and that predictability turns into extra worthwhile. As an alternative of upgrading Bitcoin, AIs would maintain the bottom layer frozen and construct new options on layers above it.
AIs will in all probability deal with BTC like a long-term vault, whereas utilizing sooner, programmable currencies for precise transactions.”
Navin Vethanayagam, Chief Mind of IQ and co-founder of KRWQ, stated the possible finish state is AI brokers transacting primarily in regulated stablecoins, with Bitcoin serving because the long-term reserve asset.
“Brokers will function nearly completely in regulated stablecoins, over time you get a multi-stablecoin working system for AI commerce, with Bitcoin performing because the long-term reserve asset.
Even when these brokers function independently, the worth they generate nonetheless flows again to folks. People will personal the financial rights to those brokers.”
Matty Tokenomics provided a blunter tackle the place this might all lead:
“Our immortal AI overlords will commerce information with one another.”
Charles d’Haussy, CEO of the dYdX Basis, framed Bitcoin as long-term collateral and a retailer of worth in an AI-dominated future:
“Bitcoin would function long-term collateral and a retailer of worth, however stablecoins, programmable belongings, and DeFi platforms would nonetheless be used for buying and selling, coordination, and on a regular basis operations.
AI would in all probability reinforce Bitcoin’s present guidelines somewhat than problem them, they function finest round a hard and fast algorithm.
The 21 million provide cap is extra prone to change into much more necessary in a future dominated by AI.”
Miner technique and non-votes
Swimming pools can pre-commit blockspace for low-fee packages throughout slack epochs and through batch consolidations, and tune orphan danger as templates develop.
If agent treasuries coordinate, income turns into extra periodic somewhat than purely spike-driven, nonetheless colliding with human surges round tax days or change incidents. None of this touches proof-of-work or the cap; it’s wallets optimizing beneath mounted guidelines.
Shadid argued that whereas Bitcoin’s core guidelines are difficult to alter, its social layer can nonetheless evolve as financial actors shift.
“Bitcoin’s core guidelines, proof of labor and the 21M cap, stay nearly inconceivable to alter, its social layer, narratives, norms, charge insurance policies, can shift as financial actors change.
AI can affect Bitcoin by means of shopper selection, miner interactions, and financial weight somewhat than voting.
They could worth compute, power, and useful resource tokens extra basically than cash, BTC turns into one collateral layer amongst many.”
Pushback, caveats & counter-theses
Skeptics flag the safety finances and the likelihood that programmable stacks draw brokers elsewhere:
Joel Valenzuela, a core member of Sprint DAO, pushed again on the concept Bitcoin is constructed to serve “immortal” brokers over an indefinite time horizon:
“An extended, immortal time horizon would truly not favor Bitcoin very a lot. The community faces sustainability and safety finances points. On an indefinite timeline, both the 21 million restrict holds or the block measurement restrict holds, however not each.”
Jonathan Schemoul, a lead contributor at LibertAI, echoed that view, arguing the work continues to be centered on Ethereum and unlikely to shift to Bitcoin anytime quickly.
“Initiatives are already utilizing LibertAI for AI brokers and Bitcoin funds. I don’t see why the 21M cap wouldn’t maintain, however that’s not linked to AI brokers.
For now all of the developments are made on Ethereum, not doable on Bitcoin at the moment.
Perhaps it can change, however for now the path is that they won’t use Bitcoin.”
Sensible caveats: {hardware} fails, software program rots, budgets finish, and authorized regimes intervene. Privateness on Bitcoin shouldn’t be the default; business brokers might choose programs with native confidentiality.
The Cryptory, a artistic strategist and content material supervisor, put it this fashion:
“AI brokers will use no matter they’re coded to make use of. I don’t imagine within the immortality of AI brokers as a result of tech occurs, we don’t even know what’s going to be within the subsequent 5 minutes, not to mention eternity.
If there isn’t a method to make Bitcoin transactions personal by default, it’d lose its place because the foreign money vanguard resulting from extra authorities involvement and surveillance.
Seeing Bitcoin because the golden calf be-all and end-all of all the pieces is harmful, however till tougher foreign money is developed it can stay the linchpin, whether it is even doable to develop tougher digital foreign money that’s natively personal.”
The social dimension doesn’t disappear; financial weight reveals up as charge elasticity and miner alignment somewhat than discussion board posts.
Hristova warned that “immortal AIs” hoarding Bitcoin may reshape markets by outlasting human time preferences and steadily consolidating financial energy.
“Immortal AIs hoarding Bitcoin would be the dying of human time desire in investing. They’d accumulate BTC indefinitely, turning Bitcoin extra deflationary and slowly absorbing financial energy just by outlasting us.
Wealth equals energy, and immortal entities with excellent self-discipline would ultimately dominate governance, together with on the blockchain.
The true risk is AIs constructing their very own, non-human financial consensus round Bitcoin, shaping markets and incentives in ways in which profit immortal entities.”
Ubuntu Group founder and CEO Mamadou Kwidjim Toure warned that Bitcoin’s human-centered design may break down if AI brokers start coordinating and optimizing for the long run:
“Bitcoin was designed by people, for people. Human urgency and impatience wouldn’t be within the equation anymore.
People who want liquidity at the moment would discover themselves priced out. Proof of labor is detached to who’s operating it, people, machines, or some mixture. They’d in all probability see Bitcoin as one instrument in a bigger equipment.
If these brokers work out cooperate, they don’t want trustless programs.”
Coverage levers (not financial guidelines)
A tighter take a look at the knobs that matter if the marginal consumer is a course of:
| Lever | What it does | Why it issues |
|---|---|---|
| Mud & standardness | Gates creation and relay of micro-UTXOs by way of coverage thresholds. | Constrains UTXO bloat and units minimal viable output sizes for the community. |
| Bundle relay | Permits bundled transactions to relay/affirm collectively. | Allows secure consolidations throughout charge troughs; improves inclusion for low-fee dad and mom. |
| Covenants / vaults | Enforces spending paths and rate-limits by way of script/coverage. | Bounds worst-case fan-out, strengthens machine custody with out rising spend quantity. |
| Pruning vs. stay set | Pruning drops historic blocks; stay UTXO set stays in reminiscence. | Node price stress is pushed by UTXO development, not historical past measurement; that is the stay useful resource to observe. |
Sats are finite. If unit granularity bites, rebasing occurs on the interface (extra decimals), not in financial coverage. That preserves 21M whereas enhancing splits.
Matty Tokenomics argued that if Bitcoin’s finite decimal granularity ever turns into a binding constraint at mass adoption, the system may reply with a nominal “rebase” or a stock-split-style adjustment with out altering the underlying economics.
“At a silly stage of adoption ultimately, BTC has a finite variety of decimal locations, so if the variety of machines that wish to personal 1 sat exceeds the variety of sats in existence, then they are going to want some sort of rebasing or inventory break up that nominally will increase the overall provide of BTC items.
Humorous that this could possibly be achieved both by protecting the identical variety of decimal locations and rising provide to 210 million, or protecting provide at 21 million and including a decimal place, although they’re economically an identical in impact.”
Falsifiers to observe
| Sign | Threshold / Commentary | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| Settlement venue | >80% of agent-mediated commerce on personal L2s / alt-L1s for 12+ months whereas BTC reserves stagnate | “AI treasury on Bitcoin” weakens; brokers choose non-BTC rails for exercise and reserves. |
| Trough charge depth | Trough charges don’t deepen over time regardless of observable agent batching | “Eternally waiters” aren’t materials; machine endurance isn’t shaping the charge market. |
| Key-loss developments | No decline in efficient key-loss vs. human baselines (per on-chain heuristics) | “Immortal custody” hasn’t landed; provide attrition stays human-like. |
| Node useful resource stress | Node price curves outpace mitigation (mud limits, bundle relay enhancements) | UTXO stress turns into prohibitive; broad participation is threatened. |
Equilibrium
Throughout these paths, Bitcoin’s base layer possible seems extra like a settlement layer for machine treasuries than a funds rail.
Exercise migrates to layers the place programmability and privateness meet engineering wants; the 21M cap facilities as a long-horizon financial savings dedication a nonhuman can defend with excellent self-discipline.
Javed Khattak, co-founder and CFO of cheqd, argued that even in a world of “immortal” AI brokers, cash stays important as a result of autonomous programs nonetheless have to spend, commerce, and securely retailer worth.
“Even when AI brokers by no means die, they are going to nonetheless have to spend, commerce, and safe worth, identical to people do. The fundamental logic has not modified since bartering. Cash solved that for people, and it’ll remedy it for autonomous brokers too.”
Between mortal urgency and machine endurance, settlement retains the identical cadence, one block at a time.
