Bankless: What are DeFAIs and what can they do?

Author: Kazu Umemoto, Bankless; Translator: Baishui, Golden Finance

DeFi is one of the core pillars of cryptocurrency. Artificial intelligence agents have begun to capture exciting emerging opportunities.

Now, projects are being built that will allow users to input action-oriented prompts, and then artificial intelligence agents will perform transactions or exchanges in the background, creating a whole new field of cryptocurrency called DeFAI (DeFi + AI).

Active on the chain

Artificial intelligence agents first appeared in the crypto space as simple Twitter accounts, able to interact and have conversations with humans. Later, they evolved to publish useful information based on on-chain data and people's tweets.

Subsequently, users began to push the limits of these AI agents and wanted to test what other useful tasks these agents could accomplish. We have now seen AI agents managing funds, making music, and creating artwork. Teams have now begun to build applications that utilize these AI agents to assist with almost all crypto-related matters, and they may begin to become an alternative to traditional hot wallets due to their convenience and ability to manage funds.

Simplifying the Experience

When novice users want to interact with DeFi applications, even basic tasks like borrowing ETH can be tricky.

Simply navigating these projects and ensuring your funds are going where they were intended can be confusing. At the same time, having to switch back and forth between networks trying to focus on the highest yield opportunities on a single token can be extremely annoying.

With DeFAI projects like Orbit, this can all be done with just one simple prompt! Users simply ask the agent “Can you deposit some ETH into Aave to get the highest yield on any network?” and the agent will be able to bridge your ETH to the right network to deposit your funds when needed, without you having to search for it. Orbit offers a variety of protocol-specific agents that new users can interact with and explore what all these different agents have to offer. They can also type prompts directly into the Orbit agent, such as "Where can I deposit my USDC to earn yield?", and Orbit will return a list of protocols that users can deposit their USDC into.

Not only do these DeFAI projects assist with on-chain operations, they can also help with the heavy lifting of research. For many advanced users, browsing documentation, whitepapers, and GitHub repositories is a necessary task before touching any project.

DeFAI teams such as Clustr Labs are creating AI agents to browse project documentation and output the most relevant and important information, saving users hours of research time.

Cleaning Cryptocurrency

Another problem these DeFAI platforms are solving is reducing the amount of scams that occur in the space.

This may sound like a daunting task, but if you’ve spent any time on CT, you’ve seen a large number of accounts trying to impersonate accounts with malicious links. These DeFAI projects will be able to identify and whitelist certain projects that their AI agents have access to. This will ensure that users are interacting with projects that don’t have malicious intent and that their funds won’t be stolen because they signed a bad transaction.

Top Projects?

While DeFAI projects are still in their early stages, they are laying the foundation for the entire DeFi space. These AI agents will be able to improve every user’s workflow, no matter how experienced you are. So don’t be surprised when you start seeing DeFi projects building their own AI agents and integrating them into their platforms for everyday use.