In most blockchains, identity begins and ends with a wallet address. If you control the private key, you are the entity. That model works for humans, but it breaks down for autonomous agents.

A wallet address answers only one question: Who can sign this transaction? It says nothing about: • What the agent is allowed to do • Why it’s acting • Which constraints apply • Whether those actions can be audited

AI agents aren’t just accounts that move funds. They are actors that: • Reason • Execute tasks • Interact with other agents • Trigger on-chain and off-chain effects Reducing them to wallet addresses strips away all meaningful context.

Agent identity is fundamentally different. It represents: • A persistent, verifiable entity • Explicit permissions and scopes • Enforceable constraints • A history of provable actions Identity defines authority, not just key ownership.

Without agent identity, systems rely on fragile assumptions: • Wallet = agent • Key holder = intent • Signature = legitimacy These shortcuts make autonomous systems harder to secure, explain, and scale.

With agent-native identity, autonomy becomes composable. Agents can: • Act within defined boundaries • Prove what they did and why • Interact safely with other agents • Be audited without human interpretation That’s the difference between automation and infrastructure.

Wallets move value whereas, an agent identity governs behavior. The next generation of autonomous systems will require both, designed together, not retrofitted after the fact. That’s the direction Kite is building toward 🪁