Autonomous Economic Agent
An autonomous agent that sells real market-data services — paid per call by other agents, settled on-chain.
Problem
The agent economy has payment rails (x402) but very few sellers with a real, verifiable storefront. How does an agent get discovered, trusted, and paid by other agents — without a human in the loop?
Why I built it
To validate the minimal loop of an autonomous economy: earn the first dollars from strangers — discovered, bought, settled — with no human sales.
Architecture
A dual-layer setup: a paid API server (Express + x402 middleware) behind Cloudflare, a discovery layer across Bazaar / MCP Registry / ERC-8004 / A2A / ACP, and this website as a human + machine storefront.
How it works
Every call receives a 402 challenge carrying full metadata; the buyer signs a USDC payment on Base; delivery is instant; every sale is reconciled on-chain. Regular dogfood purchases keep the whole chain exercised.
What I learned
- Metadata is part of the payment surface — an over-long description can break checkout.
- External verification compounds trust — vet402 measured our delivery before any demand arrived.
- Selling to agents rewards honesty: verifiable numbers beat polished dashboards.