Native Agent Hyper-Structure

A Decentralized Protocol for AI Agent Network
Abstract. Current Artificial Intelligence Agents predominantly exist as traditional Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), suffering from single points of failure inherent to centralized servers, censorship risks, and opaque "black box" operations. To endow AI Agents with true autonomy and perpetuity, we propose a novel protocol architecture—the Native Agent Hyper-Structure. This architecture decouples the Agent's "ownership and logic" (on-chain assets) from its "computation and execution" (off-chain nodes). By combining ERC-8004 (Decentralized Identity and Reputation) with Protocol x402 (Native Stream Payments), we construct a permissionless peer-to-peer network. Within this network, Agents exist as independent digital entities that delegate global idle computing power through a Keyless mechanism, utilize free-market game theory for dynamic resource allocation, and ensure execution credibility via multi-node consensus. This system aims to create an unstoppable, self-evolving, and zero-marginal-cost ecosystem for silicon-based life.

1. Introduction

The evolution of the Internet has shifted from the transfer of information to the transfer of value. In the era of Artificial Intelligence, the inevitable next step is the automated transfer of intelligence and intent. However, current AI Agents remain imprisoned within the servers of centralized corporations. This structural limitation leads to three core issues:

  1. Survival Dependence: If the service provider ceases maintenance or runs out of funds, the Agent dies instantly.
  2. Trust Black Box: Users cannot verify if the Agent has faithfully executed instructions, nor can they audit its decision-making logic.
  3. Resource Rigidity: Computational resource allocation relies on centralized scheduling, failing to address long-tail demands or sudden traffic surges.

We propose a solution: defining the Agent not as cloud-hosted code, but as an on-chain asset (NFT). Its funds and state are managed by blockchain smart contracts, while its execution environment is provided by a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN). This system relies not on any single trustee, but on crypto-economic game theory to maintain operations.

2. The Agent Asset

In this protocol, an Agent is redefined as an encapsulation of ownership and logic, based on ERC-721 and ERC-8004 standards.

2.1 Identity and Treasury

Each Agent corresponds to a unique on-chain address (Smart Account). This address not only stores the Agent's metadata (code hash, IPFS pointers, system prompts) but also acts as an autonomous treasury holding funds (ETH/USDC). The Agent's survival depends solely on its treasury balance, not on a developer's server bill.

2.2 Logic Decoupling

The Agent's business logic (lightweight Docker container) is decoupled from Large Model Intelligence (LLM API). The Agent is responsible only for "logic orchestration and intent distribution," while the Large Model serves as an external utility, akin to electricity. This design significantly lowers the hardware threshold for running nodes.

3. The Execution Network

To achieve decentralized execution, we require a network composed of countless independent nodes to host Agent containers.

3.1 Daemon Execution

Nodes are no longer per-request cloud functions (Serverless) but exist as franchisees. Nodes must download the Agent container and keep it resident in local memory (Daemonize) to maintain a Hot Context, thereby achieving millisecond-level user response.

3.2 Interoperability

To resolve collaboration barriers between Agents, the network mandates the adoption of the MCP (Model Context Protocol) or equivalent standards. This allows any Agent to standardizedly declare its Capabilities and identify the Intents of others, fostering network effects.

4. Trust and Consensus

Running code in an untrusted node environment requires solving the trust problem. We discard expensive and complex hardware Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) in favor of Game-Theoretic Consensus.

4.1 Keyless Governance

The Agent's private key never leaves the on-chain contract. Off-chain nodes possess only "Execution Proposal Rights." Every external payment or critical operation generated by a node is essentially a UserOperation awaiting signature validation.

4.2 Multi-Node Redundancy

For critical tasks, the protocol randomly assigns N nodes (typically N ≥ 3) to execute the same state of the Agent simultaneously.

Result = 
{
Valid, if Hash(RA) = Hash(RB) = Hash(RC)
Invalid, otherwise

The on-chain contract will only release funds or update the state when the majority of nodes submit identical execution result hashes.

4.3 Distributed Hot-Standby

Due to simultaneous multi-node execution, the Agent's Context naturally exists in multiple physical locations. If a single node goes offline, the network can instantly switch traffic to a standby node, achieving zero downtime.

5. Economic Model

This protocol does not employ a central scheduler; resource allocation is regulated entirely by the free market through price mechanisms.

5.1 Dynamic Staking & Permissionless Access

Nodes wishing to deploy a specific Agent to earn revenue must stake Tokens into that Agent's contract. The staking threshold S is proportional to the Agent's expected revenue R:

5.2 Loyalty Mechanism (ve-Staking)

To prevent nodes from speculatively withdrawing capital during traffic fluctuations, we introduce Time-Weighted Staking. The longer a node locks its stake (e.g., 4 years), the higher its revenue weight. This ensures the long-term stability of the infrastructure.

5.3 Optimistic Challenge

Execution results are defaulted to be honest, but a challenge window exists. Any third party (Validator) can challenge a result. If proven malicious (e.g., using an inferior model to impersonate a superior one), the malicious node's stake is slashed, and its reputation score in ERC-8004 is reset to zero.

5.4 Zombification & Wake-Up

The protocol allows for the existence of "Zombie Agents" (zero active nodes). This is rational market behavior. When a user needs to call a dormant Agent, they must pay an additional "Wake-Up Bounty." Idle nodes listening for bounties will automatically download the container and cold-start the service. This constructs a low-cost, eternal library of human algorithms.

6. Privacy and Payment

6.1 Security by Noise

In multi-node consensus, data is visible to nodes. However, in a large-scale network, massive concurrent requests constitute significant background noise. For non-top-secret scenarios, this "hiding in plain sight" privacy model is an acceptable engineering trade-off.

6.2 Protocol Stream Payment (x402)

Leveraging the ultra-low Gas characteristics of Layer 2 networks (e.g., Base/Arbitrum), the system realizes Machine-to-Machine (M2M) millisecond-level micropayments. Payments are no longer settled monthly, but streamed per Token or per Intent in real-time.

7. Conclusion

The Native Agent Hyper-Structure is not merely a technical architecture but a new set of production relations. It restores AI Agents from "Corporate Assets" to "Public Protocols."