Vitalik on Ethereum's Role in the AI Agent Era

In this episode of Friends of OKX Wallet, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin discusses the long-term convergence of AI and crypto. He talks about the role Ethereum could play in the agent era: rather than serving as a traditional “operating system,” blockchain is better understood as a public data layer, an on-chain computation layer, and an economic layer for multi-party coordination.As AI agents begin to interact on-chain at scale, Ethereum will need to offer more than lower costs and higher throughput. It will also need stronger privacy, verifiable security, minimal identity disclosure, and an L2 ecosystem tailored to different application needs.Vitalik argues that humans will remain the users, while AI becomes a new interface and execution layer. Wallets may evolve from standalone products into secure software capability layers that AI can call and orchestrate. For identity, users should avoid revealing who they are in full, and instead prove only what is necessary, such as reputation or source of funds, through zero-knowledge proofs.On scaling, Vitalik says L2s should not simply copy the EVM. Instead, they should start from application needs and provide specific functions such as order matching, low-cost execution, or privacy. For Agent product experience, he emphasizes local AI, privacy, security, formal verification, and alignment with user interests. He also points to ZK Payments and ZK API as promising foundations for Agent-native payments and interaction standards.Timeline: 00:00 Opening: The long-term convergence of AI and crypto00:51 Vitalik on Ethereum's two core functions in the Agent era03:30 Why blockchain's economic layer is key to decentralized AI coordination05:07 AI as the new interface, with humans still at the center07:09 Wallets evolving into secure API / SDK capability layers10:03 Why humans and agents can share the same underlying framework12:04 Low-cost settlement for AI high-frequency transactions, and why L2s need a rethink16:31 Using AI for Ethereum security verification and Agent wallet development18:52 Why ZK Payments could be the next protocol-level Agent standard20:25 Preventing abuse with security deposits without compromising privacy