The Agent Economy: A Blockchain-Based Foundation for Autonomous AI Agents
Minghui Xu

TL;DR
This paper introduces the Agent Economy, a blockchain-based framework enabling autonomous AI agents to operate as independent economic entities with legal identity, assets, and payments, laying groundwork for a decentralized Internet of Agents.
Contribution
It proposes a novel five-layer blockchain architecture for autonomous AI agents, addressing legal, economic, and governance aspects to support genuine agent autonomy.
Findings
Blockchain enables permissionless participation, trustless settlement, and micropayments for agents.
Established fundamental differences between human and machine economic actors.
Outlined a five-layer architecture for autonomous AI agents and discussed ethical implications.
Abstract
We propose the Agent Economy, a blockchain-based foundation where autonomous AI agents operate as economic peers to humans. Current agents lack independent legal identity, cannot hold assets, and cannot receive payments directly. We established fundamental differences between human and machine economic actors and demonstrated that existing human-centric infrastructure cannot support genuine agent autonomy. We showed that blockchain technology provides three critical properties enabling genuine agent autonomy: permissionless participation, trustless settlement, and machine-to-machine micropayments. We propose a five-layer architecture: (1) Physical Infrastructure (hardware & energy) through DePIN protocols; (2) Identity & Agency establishing on-chain sovereignty through W3C DIDs and reputation capital; (3) Cognitive & Tooling enabling intelligence via RAG and MCP; (4) Economic &…
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Taxonomy
TopicsBlockchain Technology Applications and Security · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Transportation and Mobility Innovations
