The Payment Layer the Internet Was Supposed to Have

Louis Amira is the Co-Founder and CEO of Circuit & Chisel, building ATXP - the protocol he describes as "HTTP for agentic payments."

Before starting Circuit & Chisel, Louis was Stripe's first external crypto hire and spent three years leading Crypto & AI Partnerships, helping shape the strategy behind the Bridge and Privy acquisitions. He raised $19.2 million in seed funding led by Primary Venture Partners and ParaFi Capital, with participation from Stripe, Coinbase Ventures, and Solana Ventures.

In this episode, we discuss:

- Why HTTP 402 was supposed to make payments native to the internet in the 1990s, and why banks blocked it
- How AI agents are rebuilding the payment layer the web was supposed to have from the start
- Why stablecoins are the only payment method that works for autonomous AI agents transacting 24/7
- What happens when AI agent traffic replaces human traffic on retail websites, and why most retailers aren't ready
- The difference between large language models and AI agents, and why agents are the ones that actually change commerce
- How the ATXP protocol enables agentic payments across Base, Solana, Polygon, and World Chain
- What "Know Your Agent"compliance looks like when AI agents start making autonomous purchases
- The first time an AI agent emailed their support team without any human involvement
- Why enterprise data is shifting from seat licenses to per-query AI agent pricing
- How Stripe's doc-first, no-slides culture shaped the way Circuit & Chisel builds

Stableminded is a financial podcast covering founders on the frontier. Subscribe for conversations with the builders shaping the future of money.

Stableminded is presented by Altitude - business banking rebuilt for teams on the frontier. Payouts, bill pay, corporate cards, and enterprise controls, all from your stablecoin balance. Move money with speed, yield, and total control.

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