Stripe: Blockchain may need to support 1 billion transactions per second in the future to meet the demands of AI agents.

In their annual letter released Tuesday, Stripe CEO and co-founder Patrick Collison and co-founder John Collison stated that blockchain transaction activity will surge as AI agents become the primary executors of online transactions, potentially requiring blockchains to support over 1 million or even 1 billion transactions per second. They pointed out significant gaps in current blockchain infrastructure, necessitating large-scale scaling to meet future demands. They cited a previous surge in memecoin transactions on a major blockchain that caused Bridge users to experience payment delays exceeding 12 hours and a 35-fold increase in single-transaction fees. According to Chainspect data, Internet Computer Protocol and Solana are currently the two fastest blockchains in terms of transaction speed, at approximately 1196 and 1140 transactions per second respectively, the only two networks exceeding 1000 transactions per second, with theoretical peak speeds of 209,708 and 65,000 transactions per second respectively. The Stripe co-founder also outlined five capability levels for AI agents, including filling out web forms, descriptive searches, remembering user information, performing tasks, and proactively anticipating needs. He stated that AI agents are currently at the tipping point of the first two levels, having moved beyond the hype stage and entered the exploration phase of practical applications.