Dialogue with HashKey's Xiao Feng: Digital Identity Must Be Granted to AI Agents to Enhance Trustworthiness

marsbitPublished on 2026-03-13Last updated on 2026-03-13

Abstract

In an interview, HashKey CEO Dr. Xiao Feng discussed the integration of AI and blockchain, emphasizing the need for AI Agents to have verifiable digital identities. He argued that as AI Agents like OpenClaw become more autonomous and economically active, they require independent digital identities and native wallet accounts, rather than traditional banking systems. Blockchain technology, particularly through non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and soulbound tokens, can provide these identities, ensuring security and accountability. Dr. Xiao also mentioned HashKey’s participation in the Agent Payment Protocol (AP2) alliance, which explores stablecoin payments and on-chain settlements for AI Agents. He predicted that individuals may eventually manage up to 50 AI Agents, significantly enhancing daily efficiency. Additionally, he highlighted Hong Kong’s potential to become a global digital asset hub, leveraging its unique position and resources within China’s broader technological and economic landscape.

Author: Hong Kong Wen Wei Po Reporter Chen Jianxing

●Xiao Feng (left) recently accepted an exclusive interview with host Chen Weiming of "Jing 'Wei' Lun". Photo by Hong Kong Wen Wei Po reporter Wan Shuangling

AI and blockchain share an "integral and dual-faceted" relationship. With the viral popularity of AI Agent OpenClaw, AI can autonomously work for humans and replace certain tasks, but it also highlights the security issues of AI Agents. Granting them a digital identity through blockchain is one effective method to manage AI Agents. HashKey Chairman and CEO Xiao Feng stated in a recent interview with "Jing 'Wei' Lun" that he is not an AI technology expert, but from the perspective of blockchain and digital financial infrastructure, AI and encryption technologies are gradually moving towards deep integration. With the rapid rise of cutting-edge AI agents like OpenClaw, future AI Agents may no longer be just tools but economic entities requiring independent "identities" and "native wallet accounts." Blockchain technology is precisely the key tool to bind digital identities to AI agents.

Discussing the identity system of AI agents, Xiao Feng believes that all AI Agents will have independent "identities" in the future. However, this "identity" will not follow the real-world ID system but will be achieved through blockchain-based addresses and Soulbound Tokens, which is a technically suitable solution. He pointed out that it is impractical for AI agents to adopt the human ID system of the real world and mentioned that the concept of "Soulbound Token" was proposed by the founder of Ethereum seven years ago, which is an extension of the concept of "Non-Fungible Token (NFT)" when it first emerged. Since each NFT is unique, through NFT and blockchain technology, a digital identity can be bound to each AI agent.

"If AI Agents begin to operate independently from humans and create economic value, they will certainly need an account. Currently, the only suitable form appears to be a digital wallet, not an account opened by a bank for the Agent," Xiao Feng said. He explained that during the AI large model phase, tokens purchased by users through traditional bank accounts can be consumed to call services of large models developed in China. However, when it comes to free payment scenarios between Agents, the traditional bank account system cannot support it due to limitations such as restrictions on the number of accounts for multiple agents, unclear responsibility attribution, high payment costs, and low operational efficiency. It is reported that HashKey Group has joined the Agent Payment Protocol (AP2) technology alliance initiated by Google, collaborating with institutions like PayPal, Circle, and UnionPay International to explore the AI Agent payment system and research applications such as stablecoin payments, on-chain identity, and on-chain settlement for AI Agents.

In the Future, Each Person May Have 50 AI Agents

Xiao Feng pointed out that in recent exchanges with AI experts and scholars, a consensus has generally formed that AI and encryption technologies (blockchain/cryptocurrency) are integral and dual-faceted, and the two will eventually deeply integrate, mutually empowering and complementing each other. He further cited the views of AI experts, noting that in the future, each person may have up to 50 AI Agents. These agents will seamlessly permeate all aspects of our lives, from daily trivial matters to complex decisions, significantly enhancing personal efficiency and quality of life.

Hong Kong Has the Conditions to Become the "Wall Street" of Digital Finance

Facing global competition amid the AI boom, Xiao Feng believes that Hong Kong possesses the unique advantage of "relying on the motherland." By leveraging this advantage effectively, Hong Kong can occupy a central position in the global digital economy landscape. He pointed out that in the three major fields of the internet, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, China and the United States basically dominate. As part of China, Hong Kong can fully leverage the vast talent resources, asset resources, and technological resources of the mainland, which is a unique advantage difficult to replicate elsewhere in the world. With its positioning as a "super connector" and the institutional advantages of common law under "one country, two systems," Hong Kong is fully capable of achieving the SAR government's goal of building a "global digital asset center." It may even promote the evolution of the global financial landscape from the previous "New York-London-Hong Kong" pattern to a "New York-Hong Kong-London" pattern, further elevating Hong Kong's status in the global financial system.

Related Questions

QWhat is the core relationship between AI and blockchain technology according to Dr. Xiao Feng?

ADr. Xiao Feng views AI and blockchain as having an 'integral and two-sided' relationship. He believes they are gradually moving towards deep integration, where they empower and complement each other.

QHow does Dr. Xiao Feng propose to establish a digital identity for AI Agents?

AHe proposes using blockchain technology to bind a digital identity to each AI Agent. This would be achieved not through real-world ID systems, but through a blockchain-based address and a Soulbound Token (SBT), an extension of the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) concept, which is unique and non-transferable.

QWhy is a traditional bank account system unsuitable for AI Agent transactions, and what is the proposed alternative?

AThe traditional bank account system is unsuitable due to limitations on the number of accounts that can be opened for multiple agents, unclear liability, high payment costs, and low operational efficiency. The proposed alternative is a digital wallet, which is the only currently adaptable form for an AI Agent to have an independent account for economic activities.

QWhat role is HashKey Group playing in the development of the AI Agent payment system?

AHashKey Group has joined the Agent Payment Protocol (AP2) technical alliance initiated by Google. They are collaborating with institutions like PayPal, Circle, and UnionPay International to explore the AI Agent payment system, researching applications such as stablecoin payments, on-chain identity, and on-chain settlement for AI Agents.

QWhat advantage does Hong Kong have in the global AI and digital finance competition, according to the article?

AHong Kong's advantage is its unique position of 'backing from the motherland.' It can leverage the vast talent, asset, and resources from mainland China. Combined with its role as a 'super connector' and the institutional advantages of common law under 'one country, two systems,' Hong Kong is poised to become a global digital asset center and potentially reshape the global financial landscape.

Related Reads

Humanity Loses $31 Million in Attack, Token Price Plummets 90% Due to a Single Private Key

On June 9th, the digital identity project Humanity Protocol suffered a major security breach resulting in over $31 million in losses. According to on-chain analyst Specter, hundreds of wallets holding the project's H token were drained. The attack was confirmed by founder Terence Kwok to be caused by the compromise of a foundation member's private key. As a precaution, users are advised to avoid interacting with Humanity's cross-chain bridge or liquidity pools. The incident caused the H token price to crash over 90%, from around $0.70 to a low of $0.052, wiping its market cap from $2 billion to approximately $35.7 million. The attacker allegedly minted 100 million new H tokens and is selling them for BNB. This breach adds to existing controversies surrounding Humanity Protocol. Founded in 2024, it aimed to verify human users via palm-print biometrics and zero-knowledge proofs. However, a leaked conversation in 2025 revealed that only about 1 million of its 9 million claimed Human IDs had completed biometric verification, suggesting 88% might be bots. Furthermore, the project has faced allegations of being a repackaged product from a Chinese access control vendor, raising privacy and authenticity concerns. Founder Terence Kwok's previous venture, Tink Labs, a hotel smartphone startup that raised $170 million, failed and entered bankruptcy in 2020 after burning through its funding. The current attack highlights the persistent critical issue of private key management in crypto. Unlike smart contract exploits, a private key compromise bypasses all on-chain security mechanisms. With no user compensation plan announced yet, this $31 million breach may be a final blow to the project's credibility, already weakened by previous controversies and a heavily depreciated token.

marsbit10m ago

Humanity Loses $31 Million in Attack, Token Price Plummets 90% Due to a Single Private Key

marsbit10m ago

MicroStrategy Will Not Die in This Downturn: Reflexivity, STRC Anchoring Back to Par, and the Self-Rescue Logic of "Sell Stock, Not Bitcoin"

This article analyzes the recent sharp decline in Bitcoin and MicroStrategy (MSTR), framing it as a targeted "reflexivity" attack. The trigger was MSTR using its cash reserves to buy back convertible notes, raising market concerns about a liquidity crisis. The playbook follows George Soros's principle: market expectations can shape reality. Fears that MSTR might be forced to sell BTC caused panic selling, lowering BTC's price and worsening MSTR's financial ratios, thus reinforcing the negative narrative. The author argues that MSTR's Structured Convertible (STRC), while falling in price, is a floating-rate security that will eventually return to par value (100). The price drop reflects the market demanding a higher yield due to perceived risk, but as a floating-rate instrument, its coupon can adjust, naturally pulling the price back to par over time. This is crucial for MSTR's continued ability to raise funds. The core thesis is that MSTR's best move to counter the attack is to **issue new equity (sell shares)**, not sell its Bitcoin holdings. While selling BTC would solve the immediate cash crunch, it would destroy the company's core investment thesis and premium. It would dilute the BTC per share, likely erase the market premium over its net asset value (mNAV > 1), and worsen its debt-to-asset ratio. Issuing shares while mNAV is high (e.g., 1.25x) allows MSTR to raise cash for reserves without harming shareholder value or the "perpetual accumulation" narrative. It improves the debt ratio and reassures STRC holders, breaking the negative reflexivity cycle. In conclusion, while MSTR could survive this episode even by selling BTC, doing so would fundamentally alter its investment proposition and weaken it for future cycles. The optimal, value-preserving strategy is to sell equity to rebuild reserves and maintain the long-term growth flywheel.

marsbit11m ago

MicroStrategy Will Not Die in This Downturn: Reflexivity, STRC Anchoring Back to Par, and the Self-Rescue Logic of "Sell Stock, Not Bitcoin"

marsbit11m ago

Humanity Loses $31 Million, a Private Key Causes Token Price to Plunge 90%

On June 9th, the digital identity project Humanity Protocol suffered a major security breach resulting in over $31 million stolen from hundreds of wallets holding its H token. The attack was caused by the compromise of a private key belonging to a foundation member, leading the team to advise users against interacting with its bridge or liquidity pools. Following the incident, the price of the H token plummeted by over 90%, from around $0.70 to a low of $0.052, wiping out a significant portion of its market capitalization. The attacker allegedly minted 100 million new H tokens and began selling them for BNB. Humanity Protocol, founded in 2024, aimed to verify human users through palm-print biometrics and zero-knowledge proofs on Polygon CDK. Despite raising $50 million across two funding rounds and achieving a unicorn valuation, the project faced prior controversies. Shortly after its June 2025 token launch, reports emerged that only about 1 million of its 9 million registered IDs had completed biometric verification, suggesting 88% might be bots. Furthermore, allegations surfaced that the project might be a rebranded "shell" of a Chinese access control company, raising concerns about data privacy and authenticity. The project's founder, Terence Kwok, has a controversial business history. His previous venture, Tink Labs, burned through $170 million in funding before collapsing in 2020. The breach highlights the persistent critical risk of private key management in crypto. With no user compensation plan detailed in the initial response, the incident deals a severe blow to trust in a project already struggling with credibility issues.

Foresight News32m ago

Humanity Loses $31 Million, a Private Key Causes Token Price to Plunge 90%

Foresight News32m ago

How to Conduct Deep Research Using Claude's Dynamic Workflows

The article "How to Use Claude's Dynamic Workflows for Deep Research" discusses overcoming the pitfalls of technical research, where both humans and AI can get overwhelmed by information, leading to vague conclusions. It introduces Claude Code's new "Dynamic Workflows" feature, which automatically designs and executes task-specific workflows before starting a task, unlike simpler "planning modes." This approach incorporates validation, result convergence, and adversarial verification from the outset. The core of Dynamic Workflows is six predefined scheduling patterns that address how to decompose tasks and synthesize results: 1. **Classify-and-Act (Routing):** An agent classifies the task and routes it to the most suitable specialist agent for execution. It's precise and efficient but struggles with ambiguous tasks. 2. **Fan-out & Merge:** The task is split into parallel, independent subtasks whose results are later merged. It's fast and isolates contexts but is more expensive and challenging to synthesize. 3. **Adversarial Verification:** Multiple "challenger" agents critique a worker agent's conclusion, requiring majority approval. This counters confirmation bias and self-assessment errors but relies on verifiable facts. 4. **Generate & Filter:** Multiple agents generate many candidate solutions, which are then filtered against a rubric to output only the best. It fosters diversity but depends heavily on the filter's quality. 5. **Tournament:** Multiple agents compete on the same task, with pairwise comparisons eliminating contestants over rounds to select the best. This offers stable relative judgment but is complex. 6. **Loop:** An agent iteratively attempts a task, learning from errors and adjusting until a stop condition is met. It handles tasks with unknown scope but risks infinite loops without proper design. The author compares their own custom deep-research system, which involved multi-agent analysis and deduplication but lacked goal-oriented convergence, to Claude's built-in workflow. The official workflow adds critical layers: initial problem decomposition, credibility assessment of sources, cross-agent voting to delete weak conclusions (not just averaging), and output tightly focused on the user's original goals and actionable recommendations. This structurally addresses common AI issues like goal drift, premature stopping, context pollution, and output bias. In summary, Dynamic Workflows represent a shift from smarter single conversations to a structured research process, compressing what used to require many dialogues into 3-4 interactions, albeit at higher token cost. The author notes remaining challenges for their specific domain (blockchain research): the need for fact-based verification over official documentation, depth in truly novel interdisciplinary thinking, the practical validation of proposed solutions, and tailoring information density to the audience.

marsbit43m ago

How to Conduct Deep Research Using Claude's Dynamic Workflows

marsbit43m ago

When LPs Teach Me Investment with Doubao: A Self-Narrative of a Private Equity GP Switching Careers

When LPs Use Doubao to Teach Investing: A Transition Story of a Private Equity GP AI is making life increasingly difficult for small private equity fund managers, as a former GP of an offshore dollar fund reveals. The fund, managing tens of millions in US stocks, outperformed the Nasdaq but struggled with fundraising. Its traditional Cayman SPC/BVI structure failed to attract major Asian LPs, who now prefer Hong Kong LPF or Singapore VCC frameworks. The rise of AI-powered quantitative strategies has further squeezed the space for funds like his, which relied on subjective, discretionary investing. AI tools have leveled the information playing field, empowering LPs—often high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, or family offices—to analyze investments themselves using chatbots like Doubao. This has eroded trust in GPs' expertise, leading to more frequent challenges over investment decisions and even withdrawals, especially during market rallies when retail investors sometimes outperform funds. Friction arises not necessarily from AI's capabilities but from how LPs use it. Many rely on conversational AI for validation rather than rigorous analysis, sometimes receiving misleading or hallucinated advice. While AI democratizes research, effective investing still requires discerning real insight from plausible-sounding output. Ultimately, AI is unlikely to fully replace GPs. Asset management remains a trust-based service. However, the industry must adapt. The future may see "human私募" (private equity) learning from AI and focusing more on providing value beyond pure analysis—perhaps by mastering the emotional intelligence and trust-building that machines cannot replicate.

Odaily星球日报1h ago

When LPs Teach Me Investment with Doubao: A Self-Narrative of a Private Equity GP Switching Careers

Odaily星球日报1h ago

Trading

Spot
Futures

Hot Articles

Discussions

Welcome to the HTX Community. Here, you can stay informed about the latest platform developments and gain access to professional market insights. Users' opinions on the price of S (S) are presented below.

活动图片

Top Questions

Hot Categoriesright-arrow

Hot Tagsright-arrow