AI agents want to buy things. The internet tells them to ask a human.

Coinbase’s Kevin Leffew joins ZEROPOD to talk wallets for agents, crypto-native payments, and why AgentKit might be the missing link between AI and autonomy.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro — “Every agent deserves a wallet”

1:52 Opening monologue and guest intro

2:24 What is Zero Rights Media?

3:35 Kevin’s early life and interest in tech

4:55 Founding the Wake Forest “Fintech” Club

6:00 First crypto aha moment

6:53 Microsoft and early blockchain work

8:03 Azure Blockchain Workbench

9:15 File integrity, POA Ethereum, and L2s

10:00 Working at Storj and S3 compatibility

11:13 Decentralized object storage and crypto incentives

13:10 Transitioning to AI — distributed infra and agents

13:35 Working at Replit + Hugging Face hackathon

14:53 What is Replit?

15:49 AI-native coding environments

16:52 From crypto aha to AI aha

17:33 Joining Coinbase & the “every agent needs a wallet” thesis

19:00 AgentKit: letting AI agents take onchain actions

20:35 Agents procuring cloud resources autonomously

21:53 Onchain kit + trust in agentic commerce

25:01 Natural language agents with real-time data

26:16 Can agents create content too?

27:26 Are we past the Turing Test?

28:40 Crypto as global registry + file integrity

30:33 Why AI needs crypto-native payments

31:59 Replacing API keys with microtransactions (X-42)

33:14 Agents accessing GPU, storage, and APIs

34:22 Guardrails, alignment, and the “paperclip” problem

36:02 Agents need cloud + context to perform

37:57 Human adaptation and tech anxiety

39:19 Coinbase AI Hackathon recap

40:42 Jailbreaking agents to improve alignment

41:59 Autonomous agents vs human-extensions

43:33 The future of trading bots and flattened edge

45:14 Meme coins, cults, and AI-led virality

47:32 Determinism vs probabilism: crypto’s role in AI media

49:01 X-42 platform: gasless micropayments over HTTP

50:59 Why AI agents will face paywalls too

52:04 Advice for new AI + crypto builders

53:58 Lightning Round: Food, music, parenting, boxing

55:56 Books: Gödel, Escher, Bach + The Sovereign Individual

58:07 Favorite gadget (not iPhone)

59:08 Travel: China, Colombia, Machu Picchu story

1:01:12 Inspirational figures & risk-taking

1:02:34 Productivity tips + AI tool stack

1:04:27 “Not your models, not your brain”

1:04:58 Black Mirror + AI satire

1:05:18 Alternate career path: Venture

1:06:06 Getting started with AgentKit

1:07:00 “We’re all devs now”

1:07:43 Outro and contact info