SECTION 1: Applicant Information
Applicant Name
Aitor Argomaniz - aitor@nevermined.io
Don Gossen - don@nevermined.io
Project Name
Nevermined Pay
Project Description
Nevermined Pay is the PayPal for AI.
We enable AI builders to monetize the AIs that they build with a simple payments tool that manages the end-to-end payments flow, from AI price setting to user authentication to sales to AI service redemption.
Our current customers are larger AI agent frameworks and development platforms like Olas (in the Web3 space) and Superagent (in the Web2 space). Each of these customers have 1000s of users that then use Nevermined payments to get paid, with the Nevermined payments tool made available from within our customer’s AI agent stack.
Team Members and Roles
| Name | Role | Github |
|---|---|---|
| Don Gossen | Lead | |
| Aitor Argomaniz | Tech Lead | aaitor |
| Enrique Ruiz | Engineer | |
| Iurii Tankievych | Engineer |
Project Links
- Project: https://nevermined.app/
- Github: Nevermined · GitHub
- Discord: Nevermined
- Medium: Nevermined - Medium
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/nevermined_io
Contact Information
TG
@dongossen
https://twitter.com/nevermined_io
Do You Acknowledge That Your Team Will Be Subject to a KYC Requirement?
Yes
SECTION 2a: Team and Product Information
Our team has many years experience building and delivering production ready solutions in different areas. The founders of Nevermined have been active members of the Web3 community since 2017. We incubated and launched web3 projects like Ocean Protocol, Filecoin, Celo, Keyko, etc.
The team has a lot of experience in the web3, data and finance sectors. This is complemented by many years of experience building Open Source software in different organizations (Github orgs):
- Nevermined · GitHub
- Keyko AG · GitHub
- BigchainDB · GitHub
- Ocean Protocol · GitHub
- Filecoin · GitHub
- Celo · GitHub
What novelty or innovation does your product bring to Arbitrum?
I think what makes Nevermined special among other Web3 products is we are focused on bringing utility to Web2 users via Web3 technology. In this case Web2 AI Builders who in principle are not web3 friendly. This goes in the direction of the classical web3 mantra to extend beyond web3 natives and bring web3 benefits to these non-native users.
Is your project composable with other projects on Arbitrum?
Yes. Our project integrates with Web3Auth, Autonolas, The Graph and ZeroDev. All of them are already available on Arbitrum.
How do you measure and think about retention internally?
Active wallets and assets registered into the network.
Do you agree to remove team-controlled wallets from all milestone metrics AND exclude team-controlled wallets from any incentives included in your plan:
Yes
Did you utilize a grants consultant or other third party not named as a grantee to draft this proposal?
No
SECTION 2b: PROTOCOL DETAILS
Provide details about the Arbitrum protocol requirements relevant to the grant. This information ensures that the applicant is aligned with the technical specifications and commitments of the grant.
Is the Protocol Native to Arbitrum?
No
On what other networks is the protocol deployed?
Arbitrum is our main network but the protocol was also deployed on Polygon, Gnosis and Celo.
What date did you deploy on Arbitrum?
18.Oct.23 - Arbitrum Transaction Hash (Txhash) Details | Arbiscan
Protocol Performance
- We enable the on-boarding of AI developers (web2 users) into a web3 based project without them needing to experience the typical Web3 frictions (no metamask required, no gas fees, no crypto required for payments but credit card)
- The protocol has processed more than 600 AI Agent transactions in a few days
- The Nevermined Pay has already enabled the registration and discovery of a few hundred of datasets and AI agents
Protocol Roadmap
- Easy on-boarding of AI Hub applications (i.e SuperAgent.sh, etc)
- Q2 2024
- Improvements on User Experience and Developer Experience
- Python Library improvements
- Q2 2024
- Simplified SDK
- Q2 2024
- Python Library improvements
- Monetization of OpenAI Assistants
- Q1 2024
Audit History
Last Smart Contracts security audit is available here: Omniscia Nevermined Audit
SECTION 3: Grant Information
Detail the requested grant size, provide an overview of the budget breakdown, specify the funding and contract addresses, and describe any matching funds if relevant.
Requested Grant Size
60,000 ARB
Grant Matching
We are unable to grant-match at this time because we do not have a token.
Grant Breakdown
We are looking for a grant of 60k ARB, based on the incentive / reward and evaluation conditions outlined in the KPI section below. The aggregate breakdown is as follows:
- A total of ~35k ARB for AI builders deploying their productive AI agents using AI payments on Arbitrum via Nevermined, AND getting those AI agent used.
- A total of ~20k ARB for AI agent frameworks to integrate Nevermined as the AI payments module for their framework, and to incent AI developers to leverage AI payments in their AI agents, with settlement on Arbitrum.
We’ve allocated a small budget of 5k ARB to cover costs associated with integration, deployments and, in particular, on chain costs like gas fees, etc. Nevermined will allocate this ARB on a first come, first served basis to AI developers."
Additionally, in Section 4, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the quoted “$100k equivalent in ARB” in the first sentence should read “60k ARB”. The following modifications to each KPI should also be made:
KPI #1:
- Drivers: incent the deployment of each AI agent to Arbitrum with a reward of 40 to 2500 ARB for each success deployments.
- Rewards: 40 to 2500 ARB.
- Total Reward Cap: 15k ARB.
KPI #2:
- Total Reward Cap: 20k ARB.
KPI #3:
- Rewards: 40 to 2500 ARB for each AI agent incorporating AI payments.
- Total Reward Cap: 20k ARB.
Finally, the “Justification for Grant Size” Section should read as follows:
The grant size requests has the following justifications:
- 35k ARB to incentivize the adoption of Arbitrum by AI agent developers, via Nevermined Pay. This work will make Arbitrum the primary means of settling AI agent service requests.
- 20k ARB to incentivize the integration of Nevermined Pay, using Arbitrum for settlement, with AI agents being built on AI agent and service hubs or platforms. Examples of such hubs are Superagent, AgentGPT, SuperAGI, etc. These hubs / platforms will need to integrate their tool stacks with Nevermined Pay and Arbitrum to make the payments capabilities available to their users: AI developers
- 5k ARB to support the deployment of these AI agents by AI developers, as well as the transactions taking place between AI agents, by subsidizing gas payments, etc. on a first come, first served basis.
Funding Address
Arbitrum Address: 0x2bC35c63FF070DA626f402B8D12484611464eB33
Funding Address Characteristics
It is a multisig Gnosis SAFE wallet.
Contract Address
0x2bC35c63FF070DA626f402B8D12484611464eB33
SECTION 4: Grant Objectives and Execution
Clearly outline the primary objectives of the project and the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) used to measure success. This helps reviewers understand what the project aims to achieve and how progress will be assessed.
Objectives
The goal is to incentivize the AI developers to develop AI agents on Arbitrum, and to enable transactability between agents. These AI agents can provide productive services to the Arbitrum network, like price predictions in prediction markets. The initial goal is to have developers build AI agents that leverage the Arbitrum blockchain for its transactional capabilities. To do so, AI builders will deploy their AIs and integrate with Arbitrum to enable crypto payments settlements via Nevermined.
It must be noted that most of the real AI development taking place is not happening in the Web3 space, but in Web2. Therefore, we must be able to attract Web2 AI developers to deploy agents connected to Arbitrum. This motivation is critical to spurring AI growth in the Arbitrum ecosystem. It must also be noted that, broadly speaking, Web2 AI developers do not have a favorable opinion of Web3. This means that convincing these developers to deploy their AIs and connect them to Arbitrum will be challenging.
Counteracting this anti-Web3 sentiment is the current need / desire for a subset of Web2 AI builders to monetize their AIs. Existing monetization solutions, like Stripe, do not work for the highly dynamic and variable services that AI agents represent. Web3 based payments, as made available via Nevermined, provide the digital capabilities required to make AI agent payments and monetization a reality.
We believe that through a campaign driven by ARB based incentives, we can attract those Web2 AI builders looking to monetize their AIs to use Nevermined on Arbitrum. This will give each builder’s AI the means to enable AI agent payments. Consequently, we outline the following structure for such an incentives / rewards campaign in the sections below.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
We will measure the following KPIs:
For the campaign mentioned in the section above, we’re looking for $100k equivalent in ARB to deploy to our target audience of AI builders, as well as AI agent frameworks. The target audience is broken down into the following profiles, incentives / rewards, and KPIs:
- KPI #1: AI Agent Army - Deploy up to 50 AI agents to the Arbitrum ecosystem in 3 months.
- Drivers: incent the deployment of each AI agent to Arbitrum with a reward of $100 to $1000 in ARB for each success deployments.
- Rewards: $100 to $2000 in ARB
- Evaluation: Nevermined will evaluate each submission request by AI builders to determine the overall complexity and value add of each deployed model. For example, a relatively simple GPT deployed to Arbitrum will receive the lower end incentive, while a full, end-to-end agent will receive the upper end incentive. Please not that we project most AIs to fall towards the lower end of the reward amount.
- Validation: Nevermined will be able to determine which models have been successfully deployed to Arbitrum based on the AI’s integration with Nevermined.
- Total Reward Cap: $20k in ARB.
- KPI #2: AI Agent Usage Competition - 1:1 Matching Bonus Competition for each paid transaction to and from an agent.
- Drivers: incent the usage of each AI agent deployed to Arbitrum. We want these AIs to be utilized; therefore, creating an incentive to reward for the actual usage of each agent is prudent. We believe that rewarding the top performing AIs by usage, matching the value generated based on actual usage with ARB, will help drive the productive use of these models.
- Rewards: 1:1 bonus based on the cost of the AI and te usage ranking of said AI each week.
- Evaluation: Nevermined will set and enforce the competition parameters.
- Validation: Nevermined will rank the AIs based on the aggregate value each AI generates based on the price to access the AI vs. the number of times it was used.
- Total Reward Cap: $30k in ARB.
- KPI #3: AI Agent Deployment Competition - Each integrated AI Agent Framework can run a community promotion program within their own ecosystem to encourage their AI builders to incorporate AI payments on Arbitrum into their AI agent.
- Drivers: get builders integrating Arbitrum based payments into AI agents developed using a specific AI agent framework.
- Rewards: $100 to $1000 in ARB for each AI agent incorporating AI payments.
- Evaluation: Nevermined will set and enforce the integration parameters.
- Validation: Nevermined will determine the value of reward for each AI based on the criteria like the price to access the AI, the number of times it was used, etc…
- Total Reward Cap: $40k in ARB.
Please note that this is a state of the art program. No other network in Web3 is attempting to do anything similar, nor has any network attempted something similar in the past. The closest project to date was the Olas Prediction Market initiative run on Gnosis chain in H2 2023, but this project relied entirely on Olas agents, and did not enable independent AI builders to integrate their own AI designs into the program.
What we are enabling with this program is the launch of an entirely net-new actor within the Arbitrum ecosystem. These actors will predominantly leverage Web2 tech, but will incorporate Web3 based payments, and Arbitrum for settlement. In this way, Arbitrum will be the first network to facilitate the monetization of AI agents at scale on blockchain. We believe that this seeding of an AI agent ecosystem on Arbitrum can very quickly lead to 10s of 1000s of transactions per day by these new actors.
Unfortunately, due to the cutting edge nature of this initiative, quantifying objectives with transaction or payment volumes is difficult because these numbers don’t currently exist in any quantifiable amount. This is due to the fact that this type of solution does not currently exist anywhere else. Consequently, we will be establishing an entirely new paradigm and standard by proceeding with this initiative.
How will receiving a grant enable you to foster growth or innovation within the Arbitrum ecosystem?
Receiving this grant will promote Arbitrum as a backbone network among Web2 AI developers and users. Because Nevermined is a Web3 product built for Web2 users, the grant would focus on using Arbitrum as a central piece for non-native Web3 users. Also, the majority of AI development is being done by Web2 developers. This grant would incentivize many of those developers to start using blockchain technology, with Arbitrum as their first introduction to the space.
We want to promote increased active usage of Arbitrum via an explosion of new user: AI agents. An active user would mean a wallet active on the network that is either publishing or consuming different AI resources, in particular AI agent / service endpoints. For the consumption of productive AI resources, we would ultimately expect this to happen on a sub daily basis at high frequency. What is being consumed here are productive AI inferences made available to users based on payment for said services.
For the publication of AI agents and services, we would expect this to happen with less frequency. However, given the ease with which AIs can now be developed, we believe that AI builders will be able to publish new, novel services at a pace of multiple times per month.
Ultimately what we are seeding is an ecosystem of AI agents that embody the ability to spin up and down productive services / outputs near instantaneously to be consumed on a regular basis by trillions of other AI agents.
Justification for the size of the grant
The grant size requests has the following justifications:
- $50k to incentivize the adoption of Arbitrum by AI agent developers, via Nevermined Pay. This work will make Arbitrum the primary means of settling AI agent service requests.
- $40k to incentivize the integration of Nevermined Pay, using Arbitrum for settlement, with AI agents being built on AI agent and service hubs or platforms. Examples of such hubs are Superagent, AgentGPT, SuperAGI, etc. These hubs / platforms will need to integrate their tool stacks with Nevermined Pay and Arbitrum to make the payments capabilities available to their users: AI developers
- $10k to support the deployment of these AI agents by AI developers, as well as the transactions taking place between AI agents, by subsidizing gas payments, etc. on a first come, first served basis.
Execution Strategy
-
AI Agent Builders Focus #1
- Types of Agents: these are AI builders that are developing AI agents to perform tasks based on requests and provide productive output. Included in the types of agents are:
- Prompt based AI agents: These are agents that take in a prompt / request from another agent (human or AI), and provide a corresponding output. to a GPT-style AI, to sophisticated end-to-end AI solutions that in
- Task / Topic based AI agents: These are agents that await inputs of a certain type, and then perform a corresponding action.
- These agents can range in sophistication, from the rudimentary AI agent, built by simply adding an instruction setcorporate multiple input contexts into a fine-tuning process.
- AI Agent Deployment
- AI agents will likely run offchain, but record certain metadata onchain, as well as their transactional history.
- Incentives / Rewards for AI Agents
- General Rationale: AI builders are developing AI agents. Their profile ranges from simple builders that are developing constructive GPTs, to companies developing complicated AI applications. In ether case, due to the reluctance of many AI builders to use blockchain, we will need to motivate their integration of Arbitrum into there AIs. To do this, we plan to incent or reward for the deployment and integration of AI agents to Arbitrum. In addition, we plan to provide the bulk of the incentives for increasing the number of AI agent transactions.
- Types of Agents: these are AI builders that are developing AI agents to perform tasks based on requests and provide productive output. Included in the types of agents are:
-
AI Agent Frameworks / Platforms Focus #2
- AI Agent Frameworks / Platforms simplify the development of AI agents for Builders. They work by bringing together the different technologies, components, libraries, etc., to create an AI agent, and provide guidelines for developing and deploying said agents. Some frameworks also incorporate the runtime environments so that builders have a “one-stop-shop” for developing and deploying their AI agents.
- AI Agent Framework / Platform Integration: Each AI Agent Framework will need to integrate Nevermined as their payment module into their framework offering. This payment module will then enable settlement of payments and transactional provenance via Arbitrum.
- Incentives / Rewards for AI Agents
- General Rationale: We want AI Agent Frameworks, like Superagent, AgentGPT, AutoGPT, etc., to incorporate AI agent payments into their stack to on board the associated AI agents onto Arbitrum. These frameworks and platforms act as aggregators of agents as they attract many builders that use their guidelines and runtime environments to build, deploy and execute AI agents. For example, Superagent has 7k AI builders using their framework, and AutoGPT has ~50k AI builders. These platforms provide incredible opportunities to partner and promote the usage of Arbitrum to power AI-to-AI payments. By providing a simple, seamless way to incorporate AI payments via Arbitrum, we can accelerate adoption, AI agent growth within the ecosystem, as well as greater exposure to the overall initiative.
- AI Agent Frameworks / Platforms simplify the development of AI agents for Builders. They work by bringing together the different technologies, components, libraries, etc., to create an AI agent, and provide guidelines for developing and deploying said agents. Some frameworks also incorporate the runtime environments so that builders have a “one-stop-shop” for developing and deploying their AI agents.
Grant Timeline
Timeline:
Week 1 (April 1): Program Kickoff
- Begin outreach to initial AI agent frameworks
- Initial marketing push to AI builder community informing them of the incentives program for building and deploying AI agents to Arbitrum.
- Begin taking in submissions by AI builders
Week 2 to 4: Onboarding and Evaluation
- Support AI agent deployments to Arbitrum
- Onboard first 2 AI agent frameworks
- Evaluate AI builder submissions and begin informing accepted proposers of their initial acceptance into the program
- Continue outreach to AI agent frameworks
- Continue taking in submissions by AI builders
Week 5 to 8: Initial Deployments and Rewards; Start Usage Competition
- Support AI agent deployments to Arbitrum
- Reward the initial batch of AI agent builders for deploying productive AIs to Arbitrum
- Onboard next 2 to 3 AI agent frameworks
- Continue to evaluate AI builder submissions and begin informing accepted proposers of their initial acceptance into the program
- Make marketing announcements about the AI Usage Competition
- Start analyzing usage
Week 8 to 12: Usage Competition
- Support AI agent deployments to Arbitrum
- Every week for 4 weeks, announce a new set of winners of the AI agent usage competition on Arbitrum.
Do you accept the funding of your grant streamed linearly for the duration of your grant proposal, and that the multisig holds the power to halt your stream?
Yes
SECTION 5: Data and Reporting
Provide details on how your team is equipped to provide data and reporting on grant distribution.
Is your team prepared to create Dune Dashboards for your incentive program?
Yes, we already used Dune to provide some dashboards and reporting.
Does your team agree to provide bi-weekly program updates on the Arbitrum Forum thread?
Yes. We are open to provide frequent updates with the key highlights, facilitating the tracking of the execution of the grant.
Does your team acknowledge that failure to comply with any of the above requests can result in the halting of the program’s funding stream?
Yes