From Safe Blog by elva.eth, deb©hia.eth

Web3’s first billion users may not only be humans, but AI agents, signalling a nascent but growing "agent economy"—an onchain economy run solely by AI agents that is turning the crypto-AI dream team into a reality.

Introduction

Imagine having a tireless, intelligent partner working 24/7 to grow your crypto portfolio. With this partner, you can sit back and watch your investments grow, knowing that every trade is backed by programmatic analysis and executed within explicit guardrails.

This is the future of Web3—one in which AI agents merge with the security and flexibility of smart accounts.

Web3’s first billion users may not only be humans, but AI agents. Data from September and October 2023 shows that more than half of all Safe transactions on Gnosis Chain are currently made by AI agents. This signals a nascent but growing "agent economy"—an onchain economy run solely by AI agents that is turning the crypto-AI dream team into a reality.

Smart accounts provide the essential foundation, allowing AI agents to securely manage funds, interact with dapps, and operate with a high degree of autonomy. They ensure that these intelligent entities can be deployed safely, with hard limits on their actions. This marriage of AI and smart accounts opens up a world of possibilities.

These autonomous agents will transform the way we trade, play games, participate in governance, and more.

In this article, we'll explore the world of AI agents, diving into real-world examples building on top of Smart Account tooling.

Autonomous Agents

One example building on top of Safe Smart Accounts is Olas, which has executed over 10% of all Safe transactions on the Gnosis Chain to date. Olas is developing a decentralized network driven by autonomous agents to integrate essential crypto services like AI and DeFi across blockchains. To date, the Olas network has The network rewards community contributions via code bounties and staking to foster an ecosystem of self-operating agents that streamline crypto infrastructure.

Olas network provides an ocean of services built on autonomous agent technology

These autonomous systems serve as building blocks for other ecosystems to incorporate into their decision-making processes. One potential application is in DeSci (decentralized science), where BioDAOs have emerged to align incentives and prioritize public goods using tokenized models.

Democratizing drug discovery R&D involves a network of actors working together to find solutions. In this model, agents will be crucial for combing through data, uncovering new treatment leads, referencing assets for rewards, and sharing their findings for others to build upon.

While Olas is one component, the potential for integrating smart-account-based AI Agents into novel forms of coordination, research, and financial activities is vast.

Gaming

AI agents are also poised to transform the gaming experiences in web3. One example is the NIM Network, a gaming ecosystem that aims to leverage AI agents to enhance player engagement and create more immersive, personalized gaming experiences.

"Olas Autonomous AI Agents will be integrated into the NIM Network gaming ecosystem to provide players with more engaging, dynamic, and personalized experiences. These AI agents can serve as intelligent NPCs, adaptive quest givers, or even challenging opponents that scale their difficulty based on the player's performance."

Another example of AI agents revolutionizing web3 gaming is Colony, a decentralized MMO strategy game built on the Parallel network. In Colony, players can train their own unique AI agents using a system called Skill Trees. These AI agents can be assigned to perform various tasks like resource gathering, crafting, or combat. As the AI agents level up, they become more efficient and autonomous.

From the Colony whitepaper:

"One of the core features of Colony is the ability for players to train their own AI agents. These agents can be assigned to perform tasks like gathering resources, crafting items, or fighting battles. As players invest time and resources into their AI agents, they'll level up and become increasingly autonomous and efficient at completing tasks on the player's behalf."

By leveraging the power of autonomous AI agents, web3 gaming platforms like NIM Network and Colony are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in terms of interactivity, immersion, and user-driven experiences. As AI continues to advance, we can expect to see even more innovative use cases emerge at the intersection of AI, smart accounts, and web3 gaming.

Autonomous trading

The integration of AI agents and smart accounts has the potential to revolutionize trading in the web3 space. By leveraging the security and flexibility of smart accounts like Safe, users can deploy sophisticated AI-powered trading strategies without having to constantly monitor the markets or manually execute trades.

These autonomous AI traders can analyze vast amounts of data, spot trends, and execute trades faster and more efficiently than any human. They can operate 24/7, adapting to changing market conditions in real-time. And because they're deployed from the safety of a smart account, users can have peace of mind knowing that their funds are secure.

For example, CoW Swap has introduced Composable CoW, a conditional smart order framework exclusively for Safe users. This framework allows users to deploy programmatic orders, such as autonomous trading bots, directly from their Safe. Users can focus solely on the programmatic code of the order, without worrying about order placement or execution. Possible use cases include fee collection, DAO payroll, TWAP orders, Good After Time (GAT) orders, stop-loss orders, and more.

CoW Swap's Composable CoW framework allows users to deploy programmatic orders, such as autonomous trading bots, directly from their Safe.

But the possibilities extend far beyond just simple trading bots. With the power of AI and the flexibility of smart accounts, we could see the emergence of complex, multi-strategy AI traders that can optimize portfolios across a range of assets and even across different blockchains.

In a sense, the combination of AI and smart accounts promises to deliver the "holy grail" of trading – a completely autonomous, always-on trading partner that tirelessly works to grow your portfolio. And for the average user, this means a more accessible and user-friendly trading experience, where the complexities of trading are abstracted away, leaving a simple, intuitive interface – or perhaps, no interface at all.

Prediction markets

Picture a farmer deciding which crops to plant next season. They could rely on instinct, or turn to an AI-powered prediction market.

In this market, AI agents would analyze vast amounts of data (weather, soil conditions, consumer trends) to generate a list of potential crops and their likelihood of success. The farmer could then buy and sell shares in these crops based on their own knowledge, with the market price reflecting the collective "wisdom" of the AI.

AI agents are also transforming prediction markets. For example, on the Omen platform, three types of agents: the Market Creator Agent, the AI Mech, and the Trader Agent work together to create, analyse and trade markets. What arises is a network of agents allowing for AI-based prediction markets that can inform market research, political forecasting, trading and much more.

In a world of rapid change and data overload, AI-powered prediction markets could be a key tool for navigating complexity and shaping our future. Moreover, by automating many of the key functions of a prediction market, AI agents can greatly reduce the barriers to entry for the average user. In the future, participating in a prediction market could be as simple as asking a question to your AI assistant, which then creates the market, monitors it, and even trades on your behalf based on your preferences.

In Summary

To recap, for fully autonomous agents to thrive, they must be:

The future of AI relies heavily on building AI agents on top of smart account infrastructures within the crypto space.

This will enable:

Smart accounts and account abstraction provide the necessary framework to programmatically enforce automated actions. This ensures that developers and users can safely deploy their code and capital into the digital world.

As we've seen, the integration of AI agents and smart accounts is already transforming key areas of the web3 ecosystem, from trading and gaming to governance and prediction markets. But this is just the beginning.

As these technologies continue to mature and converge, we can expect to see the emergence of even more advanced and autonomous AI agents that can navigate the complexities of the web3 landscape with ease. These agents will be our guides, our guardians, and our partners as we explore the vast potential of this new frontier.

So while the future is always uncertain, one thing is clear: the potential unlocked by AI and smart accounts will be a driving force shaping the evolution of web3 in the years to come. And for those who are ready to embrace this future, the opportunities are truly limitless.