Jack Dorsey's Spiral pushes for Bitcoin payment innovation, concerned that stablecoins and AI-agent tools are consolidating around alternative payment rails.
AI & Agents ·
Spiral, the Bitcoin development organization, is urging the crypto sector to pursue ambitious technical innovations aimed at strengthening Bitcoin's role as a payment mechanism. The organization has flagged concern that stablecoins—particularly dollar-pegged tokens—are consolidating adoption among payment providers and AI-agent systems, positioning themselves as the preferred settlement layer rather than Bitcoin itself.
The competitive tension reflects an evolving payment ecosystem where Bitcoin exists alongside multiple settlement rails, including on-chain transfers, the Lightning Network, and stablecoin overlays built on protocols such as RGB. Recent infrastructure developments illustrate the challenge: HyperMove launched a Bitcoin-backed payment SDK for AI agents, while the Lightning Network is increasingly handling institutional stablecoin transactions as USDT integrations expand transaction sizes from an average of $24 to $265. Concurrently, merchant adoption continues through products like Japan's Bitbank Visa card, which lets users settle bills directly in Bitcoin from exchange balances.
What remains unclear is whether Spiral's call for moonshot ideas will yield technical breakthroughs that can compete with stablecoins' existing merchant and AI adoption, or whether Bitcoin payments will remain a parallel rail within a broader multi-asset settlement landscape.