Onboarding the Next Billion Users: Infrastructure for Cycle-Proof Growth

In this article, we summarize the key discussion points from the REDeFiNE TOMORROW 2025 event in a session "Onboarding the Next Billion Users: Infrastructure for Cycle-Proof Growth," featuring Michelle Wangpanitkul, Partner of Venture Capital at SCB 10X, as the moderator, and Griffin Dunaif, CEO & Co-Founder of Halliday. We delved into Halliday's journey, from its initial goal of connecting applications to blockchain commerce via blockchain games, to developing Halliday Payments to tackle the complexities of Web3 payments, specifically targeting mainstream users. The conversation also covered the Agentic Workflow Protocol, which empowers businesses to build secure, custom blockchain solutions, along with the crucial role of regulation and the seamless integration of AI with blockchain technology to create a smooth payment experience and a robust platform for the future of Web3.

Mission to connect applications to blockchain commerce

Griffin Dunaif shared insights into Halliday's mission to build infrastructure for growth unaffected by market cycles in the Web3 world. The goal is to connect applications to on-chain trading systems by creating software abstractions that make blockchain development more accessible.

Halliday Payments solves a key problem developers face: the complexity of accepting payments across fragmented and cumbersome blockchain applications. Users have different on-chain crypto wallets, currencies, and even cryptocurrencies. Local currencies tied to centralized exchanges require developers to integrate 10-50 components, a process that is both time-consuming and expensive for example, DeFi Kingdoms clients on the Avalanche subnet no longer have to spend enormous sums of money on integrating on-ramp, bridges, dexes, and chains themselves.

Technical innovations, intelligent workflow engines for seamless transactions

Halliday took the lead by creating a smart contract protocol that cleverly combines hash time locks and cryptographic commitments. This powerful workflow engine can be deployed across leading blockchains like Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Solana, and more, enabling seamless, trustless cross-chain transactions, while maintaining complete self-custody of assets.

• How the Workflow Engine Works: Halliday's workflow engine works like an If-Then statement, allowing developers to easily define complex, multi-step processes.
• Cryptographically binding: Users are cryptographically bound to a workflow to ensure that it executes exactly as specified, and if it times out, the system automatically refunds the workflow initiator.
• Key Innovation: Global Commitments via Hashing The key innovation driving this system is the use of hashing, which allows for global commitments across blockchains. Since the hash value remains the same no matter which blockchain it's on, it can create truly global commitments. This is a crucial cryptographic principle for effective cross-chain interoperability.

Agentic Workflow Protocol: Unlocking the Potential of Developers and AI

Halliday has launched the Agentic Workflow Protocol, opening up the underlying technology to external developers. This decision came from the understanding that over 95% of Halliday's development time is spent linking components and integrating different data formats across different protocols.

This workflow protocol has three main capabilities:

• Integrate: Connect to multiple protocols.
• Compose: Combine different data formats into a single, unified system.
• Automate: Ensure reliable operation across 100s of components at scale.

For AI Agents, this protocol comes with important security features. Users can set strict limits such as spending limits, asset limits, and minimum exchange rates. AI can optimize within these parameters. However, if the set conditions are violated, the on-chain operation will be automatically rejected.

This approach differs from AI writing smart contracts directly, where a small mistake can lead to a serious attack. This workflow engine offers a higher level of functionality with built-in protections, while maintaining flexibility for business logic.

Behind Halliday's success and vision

Halliday has demonstrated impressive growth, with over 35 clients, including Web3 giants. Using the Halliday platform has saved Web2 FinTech companies over two years of development time, eliminating the $5-15 million required to build infrastructure across 20 blockchains on their own. It took Halliday more than 2 years and $26 million in funding to build this cost-effective and engaging system.

Halliday's business model for its payment services is B2B, with both a platform fee and a share of gross sales, while its workflow protocol is charged on a pay-as-you-go basis, similar to gas.

The future vision is to make blockchain transactions as simple as a "one-click" or Face ID scan. Bank of America users will be able to scan, approve in-app, receive stablecoins, and instantly purchase on-chain assets, without having to go through KYC again or spend 20 minutes getting started.

Perspectives on AI and Web3: AI is the core infrastructure

Griffin Dunaif also commented on AI and Web3, arguing that the crypto industry unnecessarily splits AI into Web3 x AI, as opposed to traditional software that simply integrates AI. He believes AI should be viewed as core infrastructure, similar to network connectivity or data storage, rather than a separate category requiring a dedicated blockchain-AI company. 

Finally, Griffin offered some key takeaways for founders, pointing out that the biggest risk for founders in the crypto market isn't losing focus during a bear market, but losing focus on their customers during a bull market. Sustainable businesses prioritize creating value for customers over following trends or popular narratives. Businesses that consistently perform through cycles are more likely to survive and succeed.