The Economic Necessity of Autonomous Machines: DePIN and the Future of Machine Payments

As autonomous robots like those from Starship Technologies and Serve Robotics scale, the need for independent machine-based payment systems is emerging. Traditional banking infrastructure is ill-suited for high-frequency, micro-transaction machine payments due to high fixed fees and the lack of independent machine identities. A decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) approach could allow machines to autonomously handle service authorizations and payments, provided they meet specific criteria such as multi-owner environments and the need for in