Karl Floersch, co-founder of the Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism and CTO of OP Labs, argued that AI agents could drive mainstream Web3 adoption by autonomously trading and deploying smart contracts across the ecosystem.
AI Agents · Ethereum Layer 2
Optimism's Co-Founder Sees AI Agents as On-Chain Economic Actors
Karl Floersch argues that autonomous AI agents — trading, deploying smart contracts, and coordinating activity — could accelerate mainstream Web3 adoption. A vision-stage idea, not a product launch.
100M+
x402 transactions processed on Base
May 2025
x402 payment standard open-sourced by Coinbase
402
HTTP "Payment Required" code — the standard's foundation
The agentic payment loop
AI agent needs a service
API, data, or compute requested
→
Pays in USDC via x402
Real-time, machine-to-machine settlement
→
Executes on-chain
Trades, deploys contracts, coordinates
x402 removes a structural barrier: AI cannot hold bank accounts or credit cards — stablecoins let it pay directly.
x402 at a glance
Chain-agnostic, web-standard payments — a different approach from MCP or A2A frameworks.
Currency
Stablecoins such as USDC
Features
Real-time & batch settlement
Adopters
AWS · Circle · Cloudflare
The promise
Use cases envisioned: supply-chain management, automated trading, and pay-per-use data. AI could become a new user interface — agents running across many machines.
The reality check
No public benchmarks confirm agents on Optimism or the OP Stack yet — still conceptual. Full autonomy needs more standardization plus answers on gas costs, security, and reliability.
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