American millionaire entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan recently shared his views on the future of money in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. He believes that cryptocurrency will be a new form of money that complements the digital abundance that will be caused by artificial intelligence.
Srinivasan explains that in an age where artificial intelligence tools to mimic humanity are commonplace, cryptocurrencies stand out by being provably rare. This rarity, according to Srinivasan, is very important as it can be used to prove that the person is human.
He also notes that money acts as a bridge between different economic actors. While a person does not have to pay to have their own hand or robot move, it will still require money to rent a robot owned by another person.
Despite the high level of automation and abundance brought about by artificial intelligence and robotics, Srinivasan argues that scarcity will not disappear completely. For example, while fixed home robots such as washing machines may be replaced by mobile home robots, the supply chains to produce these robots and the nuclear power plants to run artificial intelligence data centers will continue to be limited. These resources are largely located in China and Asia, making money valuable in those regions, according to Srinivasan.
According to Srinivasan, the most important form of scarcity in the age of AI will be private keys to control robots. Considering that web3 backends like Bitcoin and Ethereum offer much higher levels of security than any web2 system, these keys will also be cryptocurrencies, according to the entrepreneur.
Ultimately, Srinivasan envisions a future where AI leads to digital abundance, but not everything becomes abundant. Cryptocurrencies, which represent digital rarity, will complete this abundance, Srinivasan said. Therefore, he says, “After AI, money is crypto.”
*This is not investment advice.
