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We’ve been listening to loads about AI brokers — instruments powered by generative AI fashions that may carry out actions with out a lot human supervision or intervention.
However they nonetheless stay largely a novel curiosity for most individuals, and so far as we will inform, only a few persons are trusting AI brokers to purchase or enter contracts on their behalf — for now.
GenLayer, a startup simply out of stealth, believes it has a know-how that may present the lacking “trust” part to the AI agent economic system.
GenLayer’s thought is a blockchain-powered infrastructure that enables AI brokers to draft contracts, settle funds and execute agreements autonomously.
Final fall, the corporate introduced it had raised $7.5 million from notable traders, together with Arthur Hayes (Maelstrom), Arrington Capital and North Island Ventures, to carry this imaginative and prescient to life.
make AI brokers reliable to folks — and to 1 one other
AI brokers are already proving their potential to research information, make offers and handle property, however there’s a basic downside: They don’t inherently belief one another. Not like people, AI brokers don’t concern lawsuits or reputational injury — so how do they implement agreements?
Albert Castellana, CEO of YeagerAI (the corporate constructing GenLayer), sees this as a vital flaw in right now’s AI growth.
“Even in a situation where you have agents that can do commerce between themselves, how do they trust each other?” Castellana mentioned in a latest interview with VentureBeat. “AI doesn’t sleep, AI works globally, AI cannot go to jail. The legal system will have a big issue dealing with that type of situation.”
Conventional good contracts, which energy blockchain-based transactions, are too inflexible for AI-driven commerce.
They will’t course of unstructured information, perceive complicated language or adapt to real-world modifications.
GenLayer desires to improve good contracts into “intelligent contracts” — extra versatile, AI-powered agreements that operate very like human contracts.
Not like conventional blockchains that require exterior oracles to entry off-chain information, GenLayer integrates AI instantly on the protocol stage. Clever contracts can natively fetch reside internet information, course of pure language inputs and motive about complicated, real-world circumstances — all with out counting on third-party companies.
“Blockchains allow for self-enforcing contracts, but they have limitations,” Castellana defined. “They can’t connect to the outside world, they can’t understand unstructured data. But AI needs contracts that are much more like human contracts — fast, cheap and adaptive.”
GenLayer solves this with “optimistic democracy, an AI-driven consensus mannequin the place a number of validators — every utilizing totally different massive language fashions (LLMs) — vote on whether or not an AI-generated contract or resolution is legitimate. This ensures that no single AI mannequin has management and prevents manipulation.
“We’ve created a blockchain where validators, even if they get different responses from AI or the internet, can still reach consensus,” mentioned Castellana. “It’s basically a court system for the future of commerce.”


How GenLayer’s strategy works
At its core, GenLayer operates as an AI-native belief layer — an impartial system that ensures AI brokers function pretty in monetary transactions, contract execution and dispute decision.
Key options embody:
- Clever contracts: AI-powered agreements that course of pure language and entry reside internet information.
- AI-driven decision-making: A consensus mannequin the place a number of AI fashions vote on outcomes to make sure reliability.
- Optimistic democracy: A blockchain-based governance mannequin that stops AI manipulation by utilizing decentralized decision-making.
- On-chain and off-chain interoperability: The power to attach good contracts with real-world information and web sources.
- ZKsync integration: Scalability, low prices and Ethereum-level safety.
On the coronary heart of GenLayer is “optimistic democracy,” an enhanced delegated proof of stake (dPoS) mannequin that integrates AI instantly into blockchain validation. As a substitute of counting on deterministic logic, validators hook up with LLMs to course of pure language, interpret information and execute complicated selections on-chain.
When a transaction is submitted:
- A pacesetter validator processes the request and proposes an consequence.
- A set of validators recompute the transaction independently, validating the chief’s proposal.
- If the bulk agrees, the transaction is finalized. If not, a brand new chief is chosen, and the method repeats.
This mechanism prevents manipulation and ensures AI-generated selections are backed by consensus quite than a single entity’s judgment.
Impressed by Condorcet’s Jury Theorem — an 18th-century mathematical and political science idea by the Marquis de Condorcet that claims a jury is extra more likely to attain an accurate resolution with extra contributors — the system aggregates AI outputs throughout a number of validators, guaranteeing equity and reliability even for non-deterministic duties like deciphering authorized contracts, verifying provide chain information or setting dynamic pricing fashions.
The strategy is described in a whitepaper printed by GenLayer’s three co-founders — Castellana, José María Lago and Edgars Nemše. Yow will discover it embedded beneath.
Why GenLayer thinks its second has arrived
The race to create autonomous AI companies is accelerating. Corporations like OpenAI are rolling out AI brokers that may work independently, however they nonetheless depend on sluggish, human-driven authorized and monetary programs.
“AI won’t wait for lawyers,” Castellana emphasised. “If we want AI to participate in the economy, we need infrastructure that matches its speed.”
Different startups are tackling AI-agent transactions — equivalent to Skyfire and Pin AI — however GenLayer takes a distinct strategy. As a substitute of specializing in constructing AI brokers themselves, GenLayer is creating the belief layer that allows them to transact.
“There are 100 startups working on AI agents,” mentioned Castellana. “But trust requires a third party. We’re building that third party — the infrastructure that makes AI commerce possible.”
To incentivize validators and canopy the prices of executing Clever Contracts, GenLayer introduces a local fuel token known as GEN. Customers pay transaction charges in GEN, that are then distributed to the validators as a reward for his or her companies.
This strategy ensures that AI-driven transactions stay quick, low-cost and self-sustaining. Moreover, GenLayer’s token-based staking mannequin aligns incentives by rewarding trustworthy validators and penalizing dangerous actors via slashing mechanisms.
What’s subsequent?
GenLayer’s testnet is launching early tasks centered on:
- AI-run provide chains that autonomously negotiate logistics.
- AI-powered influencer advertising the place funds are performance-based.
- Decentralized finance purposes that use AI for commerce execution.
- Autonomous decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that regulate governance primarily based on real-time neighborhood suggestions.
- AI-powered insurance coverage and lending that adapt phrases primarily based on exterior threat elements.
The corporate will showcase its know-how on the Ethereum Neighborhood Convention (EthCC8) happening June 30-July 3 in Cannes, France.
The AI economic system is coming — however with out belief, it received’t scale. GenLayer is betting that AI-driven contracts, enforced on the blockchain, would be the basis for a trillion-dollar machine-driven market.
“We are building the legal framework for global AI commerce,” mentioned Castellana. “This is about enabling AI to work together, not just faster, but with trust.”