AI and Crypto: Breaking Barriers in Onchain Development

By Dan Kim and Nemil Dalal

TL;DR

The Coinbase Developer Platform (CDP) and recent AI advancements are reshaping blockchain development by making it more accessible and secure, empowering a new generation of builders to create innovative onchain applications.

• Lower Barriers to Entry: By simplifying crypto engineering, CDP and AI make onchain development accessible to a broader, more diverse audience.
• Enabling Creativity: These tools empower builders to bring new ideas and products to life, even without technical expertise.
• World-Class Security: CDP upholds Coinbase’s renowned security standards, delivering the same rigorous protection that safeguards millions of customers already.

Blockchain’s Promise — and Its Challenges

Blockchain technology offers the potential for decentralization, transparency, and unmatched control over digital rights and resources. Yet building and using onchain applications remains challenging, limiting blockchain’s reach to a relatively small group of developers and users. Just look at the numbers: while there are over 28 million developers worldwide, only about 23,000 work in blockchain technology. This stark difference highlights the barriers to blockchain adoption. Specialized tools, unfamiliar languages, and complex concepts deter many developers, slowing the technology’s growth.

CDP, combined with recent advancements in AI, aims to change this by lowering these barriers. Together, they make blockchain development faster, easier, and accessible to a new generation of innovators.

Why Onchain Development is Hard – and Why It Matters

Building blockchain applications requires specialized technical skills that differ significantly from traditional software development. Key challenges include:

• Specialized Languages: Blockchain development relies on newer programming languages like Solidity (Ethereum) and Rust (Solana), which focus heavily on security and transaction efficiency. These languages are unfamiliar to most traditional developers, limiting the pool of qualified onchain developers.
• Gas Fees: Every blockchain transaction incurs a “gas” fee — a processing cost that fluctuates significantly with network activity. Developers must optimize code to minimize these costs, adding another layer of complexity.
• High Stakes in Security: Blockchain’s decentralized nature makes security breaches costly. In 2022 alone, blockchain exploits led to over $2 billion in losses, underscoring the need for meticulous security practices.

These challenges impact not only developers but also end users who encounter unfamiliar terms like “seed phrases,” “wallets,” and “gas fees” when using onchain applications. Simplifying blockchain development will make crypto as accessible as the internet eventually became — open to everyone, even those without technical expertise.

Simplifying Onchain Development with CDP

CDP was created to make onchain development dead simple. Here’s how we do it.?

• Quick, API-Driven Setup: Previously, setting up a multi-party computation (MPC) wallet involved numerous steps. CDP’s API-driven approach streamlines this process, reducing setup time from hours to minutes. This lets developers focus on building their applications rather than managing infrastructure.
• Effortless NFT Minting: Mint and manage NFTs without smart contract expertise.
• Simplified Token Transactions: CDP makes it easy to integrate advanced token functionalities like sending and receiving tokens, swapping assets, and staking tokens.
• Uncompromising Security Standards: CDP’s secure-by-design framework, backed by Coinbase’s well-established security practices, helps protect applications from common threats, enabling developers to focus on innovation.

With accessible tools and a trusted foundation, CDP unlocks onchain development for builders and creators of all backgrounds.

How AI is Changing Blockchain Development

While CDP simplifies the foundational infrastructure of blockchain, AI supercharges the development process, transforming complex tasks into accessible steps. By automating challenging aspects of blockchain creation, AI works hand-in-hand with CDP to open up blockchain development to a wider audience, making it easy to navigate.

• Natural Language Commands: Tools like CDPs’s Based Agent allow developers to interact with blockchain applications using natural language commands, lowering the coding barrier.
• Automating Complex Processes: AI manages intricate cross-chain interactions, making it easier for developers to create applications that operate across multiple networks. Tasks like smart contract management and cross-chain transactions become straightforward with AI assistance.
• AI-Powered Templates: Platforms like Replit offer AI-driven templates, allowing even non-developers to experiment with blockchain applications. This expands access and enables a broader range of creators to bring their ideas to life on blockchain.

Together, CDP and AI open the doors to blockchain development, inviting everyone from seasoned developers to first-time builders to help shape the future of blockchain.

A Future Shaped by AI, Crypto, and Blockchain Development

The convergence of AI and blockchain is opening up possibilities that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago. Today, AI agents can autonomously manage transactions, moderate communities, and build decentralized applications.?

This transformation is also reshaping the creator economy, empowering individuals to bring ideas to life and monetize them without needing technical expertise. Here are some ways we expect to see the creator economy evolve:

• Empowering More Creators: With CDP and AI, creators aren’t limited by technical expertise. This shift democratizes blockchain development, welcoming a diverse new generation of voices and perspectives into the onchain ecosystem.
• Bringing Bold Visions to Life: CDP and AI are not just enabling creativity but also supporting the scaling of ambitious ideas. These tools allow anyone with a vision — whether it's an artist tokenizing their portfolio or a community organizer setting up a DAO — to move from concept to impact at scale, shaping a richer and more inclusive onchain economy.

Accelerating Next-Generation Applications: CDP’s Based AI Agent illustrates how AI drives onchain innovation by autonomously executing transactions and supporting community-driven projects. For instance, an AI could create a meme coin with a dedicated community or manage a DAO that allocates funds based on member votes. As more creators embrace these tools, the possibilities will multiply, accelerating the pace of onchain innovation.

Embrace the Future of Onchain Development

Blockchain has the potential to reshape industries, redefine ownership, and create new economic opportunities. But to realize this potential, blockchain must be accessible to all. CDP, combined with recent advancements in AI, is designed to do just that.

Discover what you can build with CDP and AI by exploring docs.cdp.coinbase.com. Join us in shaping a future where blockchain is accessible, secure, and open for everyone.

Note: This article and the information contained herein is not a recommendation or endorsement of any digital asset, protocol, network, or project.