About Google's AP2 Payment Protocol

In recent days, there have been many articles online discussing the potential impact of the AP2 protocol on AI and the cryptocurrency ecosystem. At the end of our article, some readers also left comments asking questions.

For example, a reader asked, since Google has released the AP2 protocol, does it mean that other companies releasing similar protocols in the future will have little significance?

I believe that aside from infrastructure (such as computing power, large models, and cloud facilities), most other subfields in the current AI ecosystem, especially in specific application areas, are still in the very early stages of competition.

Google's entry into AI Agents payment belongs to the application field.

This field is bound to explode in the future, but there are currently no established scenarios and models in the market, so it is still in a vast blue ocean phase. In my view, true competition has not even begun.

Google's entry is merely a small signal. Besides Google, I guess all companies that are currently planning to lay out stablecoin payments will eventually join this battle.

So it is very likely that new payment protocols will emerge in the future.

Furthermore, the implementation and application of such protocols require not only their release but also strong promotion by the leading companies. For large companies like Google, with numerous businesses and a wide range of involvement, if the AP2 protocol holds a minor weight in its layout, leading to a lackluster follow-through, the consequences could be uncertain.

Moreover, Google has previously fallen victim to such "curses." In the AI field, it seems to easily start early but end up late. The key achievements of large language models were discovered by it first, but the final stunning results were overshadowed by OpenAI.

This only indicates that Google has been significantly affected by the "big company disease." Even if such a company performs well now, I hold a cautious view of its future.

The fundamental reason I pay attention to the AP2 protocol is not because of any innovation in the protocol itself, but because its proposer is a traditional Web 2 giant. This indicates that AI Agents payments, especially those based on crypto assets, are beginning to form a consensus and are rapidly expanding from the Web 3 ecosystem to the Web 2 ecosystem.

Once this momentum appears, it will explode at an exponential rate.

It can be said that in the AI + Crypto ecosystem, the track of AI Agents payments based on crypto assets is undoubtedly a clear line.

Among the AI Agents payment tracks based on crypto assets, the one I am most concerned about is Coinbase.

Because it is the only company that integrates AI (AI Agents), crypto assets, and has considerable strength as a Web 3 company. More importantly, it has already integrated AI + Crypto with practical use cases.

This advantage of Coinbase is rare among current companies, so I believe any company focusing on AI Agents payments that hopes to enter this field will likely seek partnerships with Coinbase.

From this perspective, I think Google needs Coinbase more because of AP2, as AP2 requires a landing scenario to validate the protocol's usability. Among the current companies, only Coinbase can provide such a ready-made scenario.

Therefore, I believe AP2 needs Coinbase more.

Of course, if the AP2 protocol can indeed be well integrated into Coinbase, it will certainly benefit those AI Agents that have already implemented payments, such as BYTE, FLYTE, and others.

But how significant is the AP2 protocol for these AI Agents in Coinbase?

I actually think its impact is quite limited, especially at present.

Because for these AI Agents right now, the most important issue is not whether their operations might involve fraud or the need to verify that their source instructions come from humans, but rather that the existing user base is still too small, far from breaking out—just go check Twitter; aside from a few geek players, how many people have used these AI Agents to buy coffee or book flights?

This is currently their biggest and most pressing issue.

Whoever can solve this problem will provide the most significant benefit to these AI Agents.

From this perspective, AP2 is clearly not the solution.

So ultimately, my focus returns to Coinbase itself, as it seems to be the only protagonist capable of solving this problem.

Additionally, I have also expressed a viewpoint in my previous articles:

We should learn from Peter Thiel and focus on a project's values and core principles while considering its commercial interests: payments based on crypto assets not only relate to the prosperity of the AI Agents economy but also to the protection of human financial freedom and private property rights.

For this purpose, we must pay attention to this track and the key companies involved.

In summary, my views on the AI + Crypto payment track can be summarized as follows:

• The AP2 protocol itself is not important; what matters is that the AI Agents payment track based on crypto assets has become a clear line and will inevitably explode in the future.

• The competition in the AI Agents payment track based on crypto assets has not yet begun; there will be a series of exciting developments, and competitors will flock in.

• The AI Agents payment track based on crypto assets not only has enormous commercial potential but also guarantees human financial freedom and private property rights, making this track worthy of high attention.