Tether vs Coinbase vs Bitcoin + Lightning: What’s Real in Agentic Payments Right Now

Show Notes

A breakdown of the current state of agentic payments. PBJ examines how Tether, Coinbase/Base, Bitcoin, and Lightning actually function as payment rails for autonomous agents today - assessing what’s live, what’s constrained by KYC and platform risk, and where permissionless infrastructure is meaningfully ahead. 0:00 What counts as "agentic": Stripe accounts vs autonomous wallets 2:23 Spectrum from assisted to autonomous agents (KYC, sub-wallets, etc.) 5:05 Permissionlessness in Tether v Bitcoin/Lightning (MDK) v Coinbase 8:03 Identity, liability, and the limits of today’s agent infrastructure 11:48 Agents paying agents (early proof of concept with coin-flip demo) 14:35 Seller adoption, Lightning-native services (e.g., CashApp), and the “metabolic pathways” thesis 17:59 Requests for builders: agent-first infrastructure, domains, and replacing legacy web services 🎧 From the PBJ podcast recorded at 📍Presidio Bitcoin 🔗 Full episode: https://youtube.com/live/oeJpuHfd8dg?feature=share 🌐 Learn more: https://www.presidiobitcoin.org/