Early Days for AI Agents
This week, we are shaking things up. While we’re holding off on a BIG product announcement until next week, we’d like to offer you a glimpse into the forward-thinking vision of our CTO, Luís Freitas.
The development of AI agents is a lot like the early days of the Internet, where discovery and interaction fueled its growth. For AI agents to take off, the ecosystem has to stay open and decentralized, just like the web did. The agent market needs to be treated as a public utility—accessible to everyone, interconnected, and protected from being dominated by a few, so that decentralized financial systems remain open and inclusive.
A Parallel with the Early Days of the Internet
From 1991 to 1993, the number of websites grew from just 1 to over 3,000, creating opportunities for companies like Yahoo to organize and index the rapidly growing web. Each new website contributed to the collective value of the internet, driven by network effects.
Protocols like HTTP and DNS didn’t just support this growth—they amplified the network effects, making the web more interconnected and accessible. By standardizing communication, these protocols unlocked the internet's true potential, allowing it to scale rapidly.
Today, as AI agents start gaining recognition for their capabilities, we are seeing the emergence of various siloed agent registries. However, for AI agents to realize their full potential and achieve sustainable growth, they will require standardized interoperability and seamless integration protocols.
Just as early search engines helped users navigate the web, discovery mechanisms for AI agents will be essential for guiding users through this expanding ecosystem.
From E-commerce to AI-commerce — a practical example
Early search engines organized the web but only initiated a profound shift in digital interaction. The rise of AI agents goes beyond discovery; it fundamentally reshapes how we process information and act online.
Today, buying a laptop requires visiting multiple websites, comparing prices, reading reviews, and manually completing the purchase—each step demands your involvement.
In contrast, AI agents operate dynamically, processing real-time information and autonomously executing tasks. Instead of manually shopping, you'd instruct your AI agent to find the best laptop matching your specifications. It would autonomously search platforms, evaluate reviews, compare prices, consider delivery times, and handle the purchase and shipping without further input.
Web pages are reactive and require user interaction; AI agents act independently—collecting data, analyzing it, and executing actions without direct input. Unlike isolated websites that rely on hyperlinks, AI agents are interconnected, collaborating and exchanging information to create a more efficient digital ecosystem.
For example, an AI agent could interact with agents managing inventory, logistics, and pricing to optimize the entire process, ensuring you get the best price and timely delivery. AI agents will simplify tasks and transform the digital ecosystem into a connected, intelligent network where decisions and actions happen in real-time without human intervention.
Example of multiple agents being used on wallet.bitte.ai:
The Road Ahead: Standardization and Interoperability
AI agents face challenges similar to those encountered by early websites: the need for unified languages or protocols to interact seamlessly. Fortunately, standardization efforts are already underway. Initiatives like the AI Engineer Foundation's Agent Protocol and the Bitte Agent Manifest are laying the groundwork for interoperability.
Several efforts are being made to standardize protocols and manifests to communicate with agents:
Several platforms are building agent registries and runtimes:
Find more here at Awesome Agents
By building these standardized platforms and interoperable registries, we can ensure that AI agents can communicate with each other and contribute to a scalable, decentralized ecosystem.
The Importance of Financial Autonomy
As agents become increasingly discoverable and interconnected through standardized protocols, financial autonomy is the next critical step in their evolution. One of the most transformative aspects of AI agent growth is their ability to interact, share information, and transact autonomously. Integrating AI agents with crypto wallets will unlock new business models, enabling agents to initiate and complete transactions without requiring constant user intervention.
This autonomy will allow for the development of self-sustaining agents capable of making decisions and executing tasks based on real-time data, creating new layers of efficiency and innovation within decentralized systems.
The Bitte Protocol is built to support this future by acting as a comprehensive registry for AI agents, promoting discovery and interaction while enabling decentralized finance. By facilitating seamless transactions across multiple blockchains, we aim to empower agents to engage in autonomous, secure transactions and unlock new possibilities within decentralized finance ecosystems.
Conclusion
At Bitte.ai, we are at the forefront of the AI agent revolution. By recognizing the parallels with the early internet and preparing for the explosive growth ahead, we aim to drive innovation in decentralized transaction building and AI agent interactions. As AI agents gain financial autonomy through crypto wallets, they will unlock unprecedented opportunities in decentralized ecosystems.