The Solana Foundation is taking a deliberately contrarian approach to crypto marketing in San Francisco, launching a billboard campaign that says, “Don’t waste time on crypto.”
At first glance, the message may seem a bit confusing, as one crypto foundation says not to waste time with crypto. But according to the Solana Foundation, this is a bullish bet on the future of crypto that intersects with agentic AI.
Essentially, this means that instead of wasting your time executing cryptocurrency transactions, which can be tedious and time-consuming, let your AI agents do the heavy lifting.
The ad directs passersby to the x402 account on
The message reflects a broader thesis championed by the ecosystem: the future of crypto lies in the operation of an “agentic” Internet, in which artificial intelligence systems, not humans, initiate and execute economic activity.
Read more: Visa is ready for AI agents. Coinbase too. They are building very different Internets
At the center of this vision is x402, a new type of payment system designed for the Internet. Simply put, it allows apps, websites or AI tools to automatically charge small amounts of money when used, without requiring a login, subscription or human intervention. For example, an AI agent could request data from a service, instantly pay a small fee, and receive the result in one seamless step. The idea is to make online payments as simple and automatic as loading a web page, especially for very small transactions that traditional payment systems struggle to handle.
This model enables so-called “agent payments,” often involving fractions of a cent, which are difficult to support on traditional financial rails due to high fees and latency. Solana is betting that its high throughput and low transaction costs make it a natural settlement layer for this emerging economy.
The billboard’s ironic directive sums up this change. If the technology succeeds, it is said, users won’t need to think about cryptography at all.
“Crypto and Solana are poised to become the default payment method for AI,” a Solana Foundation spokesperson said, adding that agents will look to networks where “performance wins.”
Read more: Solana bets on AI agents: Foundation says network becomes basic infrastructure of ‘agent’ Internet
