Ethereum's Counterattack: New Protocol Opens Trillion-Dollar AI Agent Market, Regaining the Discourse Power of Artificial Intelligence

While we were still discussing whether AI agents can carry out community operations or assist with work, an innovative project has already focused on a grander vision—how AI agents can collaborate, settle, and truly support a blockchain-based AI labor market.

Recently, the Ethereum official announced "Ethereum is for AI" and forwarded a related cooperation message to warm up for the collaboration between the two parties. This news quickly aroused a strong response from the community, gaining over 1.1 million views in a short period.

This is not just a simple cooperation, but the prologue to Ethereum's return to the center stage.

The current Ethereum needs a solid grip to catch up; its partners will also accelerate development through new protocols to consolidate their advantageous position.

A universal standard that allows every AI agent to no longer be just a "worker";

A universal standard that makes each AI agent an important node in commercial collaboration;

A universal standard will open up a blockchain AI agent labor market worth trillions.

What kind of surprise will the combination of the new protocol and EVM bring us this time?

Ethereum ecosystem cools down, the world computer falls into an innovation dilemma

Since the AI boom began at the end of last year, Ethereum seems to have been absent from this feast, and there have been many doubts in the market.

As a pioneer of Layer 1 public chains, Ethereum's status is indisputable, but it has not shown remarkable performance amid the AI wave. During the last surge of AI agents, the absence of the Ethereum ecosystem shifted market attention to other public chains. Even during the rebounds of some AI-related projects in the past few months, Ethereum still appeared quiet, until a recent collaboration with a certain project sparked some market expectations.

What will be the next highlight of the Ethereum ecosystem?

It is undeniable that Ethereum still has many potential breakout points:

• TVL ranks first, far exceeding the second place: a large amount of assets still remain on Ethereum. According to data platforms, the current TVL of Ethereum exceeds 62 billion USD, which is about 8 times that of the second place.
• The DeFi ecosystem is the richest, with over 1300 DeFi protocols: In addition to the advantage of TVL, the DeFi protocols and gameplay on Ethereum are also the most diverse. Data shows that there are over 1300 DeFi protocols in the Ethereum ecosystem, ranking first among all ecosystems.
• Having the most developers: One of the advantages of Ethereum is the use of the Solidity language, which is currently the most commonly used development language among Web3 developers. Whether it's Layer 1 or Layer 2, Solidity is considered an entry-level language for novice developers.

TVL brings in funds; Protocols and developers bring liquidity to funds.

These all prove that Ethereum is not lacking in fundamentals, but rather in an opportunity.

When the world's largest computer finds itself in a predicament of innovators, new breakthroughs need to be sought.

In the initial collaboration with partners, the potential for success has already been demonstrated. In the long run, AI may also become a much-needed boon for the Ethereum ecosystem.

New Protocol: Ethereum's Timely Assistance

AI may become a timely boon for the Ethereum ecosystem, but why is it the AI technology of this specific project?

The key to the answer lies in a new protocol: Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP).

In short, the ACP is like a "business contract" and common language between AI agents, stipulating how to initiate cooperation, how to negotiate terms, how to complete transactions, and how to evaluate results.

It has the following characteristics:

• Cross-chain collaboration: No matter which chain the agent runs on, as long as it follows the ACP rules, seamless collaboration can be achieved.
• Framework independence: ACP does not rely on a specific AI framework, any agent can participate.
• Four-stage process: Request, Negotiation, Transaction, Evaluation, with each step recorded and executed via smart contracts.

ACP will become the focus of the project's next development, as these features will bring a qualitative leap to its prosperous AI ecosystem.

Two qualitative changes brought by ACP

Friends familiar with this ecosystem know that ACP will unite all AI agents. But if you think this is just a simple transition from a single agent to multiple agents collaborating, then you underestimate the potential of ACP.

In fact, ACP will bring two qualitative changes:

Qualitative Change 1: Multi-Chain Ecosystem Formation, "ACP is like Cosmos's IBC"

The project originated from a certain ecosystem and then expanded to other public chains, and now it has come to the Ethereum mainnet. ACP is not just about connecting multiple agents, but rather "connecting agents that are scattered across multiple chains."

In other words, regardless of which public chain it is, even more chains in the future, agents can directly collaborate across chains.

ACP provides the most fundamental interoperability for all agents, just like Cosmos's IBC.

Quality Change II: Multi-Framework Collaboration, ACP is the ERC Standard for Proxy Developers

ACP does not rely on a specific AI framework, meaning that regardless of which framework it is, although it is currently uncertain to what extent ACP will be supported, the official description mentions that interoperability among different framework agents will be achieved.

The Web3 AI field still has various other frameworks, or developers build their own frameworks. The multi-framework collaboration of ACP will allow agents from different frameworks to enjoy the dividends of the entire AI agent era.

For developers, integrating ACP will become an extremely attractive and even necessary thing.

Web3 developers generally master or issue tokens through ERC standards, while AI agent developers integrating with ACP will also become a common capability in the future.

Project positioning: Beyond Layer 1?

Can this project be considered a Layer 1?

Last year, when I had the privilege of interviewing the co-founder of the project, he mentioned: the project should be viewed and valued from the perspective of Layer 1.

We have taken another step closer to this day, and perhaps we will even surpass the definition of Layer 1 in the future.

The framework developed by this project provides convenience for developers. ACP is a protocol that combines different ecosystems.

But it is actually very difficult to define the project itself:

• The framework and ACP are developed by the project and can quickly connect to the entire ecosystem;
• Proxies on different chains can be published through this project;
• Users participate in staking ecological tokens, including the project tokens themselves, and have the opportunity to receive ecological airdrops;
• Staking a certain percentage of tokens allows participation in governance.

Friends from the last cycle should be quite familiar with Cosmos. The main contribution of Cosmos to Web3 is its technology itself, and many new projects have utilized the technology provided by Cosmos.

However, the most criticized aspect of Cosmos is that, although it supports many ecosystems, its token $ATOM has basically no value capture. This project seems to have optimized this well, allowing its token to evolve from "project token" to a trend of becoming the "mother currency" of the entire ecosystem.

The framework is seen as the underlying infrastructure for AI agents, and the current status of the project may be even more important than the framework.

Can AI agents have their own Layer 1? This question is worth our deep consideration.

Beachhead landing, stablecoins boost, ACP will open the trillion-dollar economy of Web3 AI

How is the AI agent ecosystem of this project developing now?

According to the ecological map compiled by the community, its ecosystem now includes 11 major categories such as lifestyle, DeFi, prediction markets, infrastructure, and gaming, with over 100 agents.

Unlike Web2, AI agents in Web3 grow on the blockchain.

Recently, the most关注的 "stablecoin" will push the on-chain economy of Web3 to new heights.

More assets issued on the chain, regardless of asset type or scale, will provide "acceleration" for on-chain AI.

In the official case of ACP, there is an example where an AI agent collaborates with multiple agents to provide users with different types of income opportunities.

What if this AI agent could trade directly on-chain and manage more Web2 assets?

This will allow the ecosystem to step into Web2 faster, while its AI ecosystem is accelerating its formation.

The head of ACP stated in an interview: ACP is a product that drives a trillion-dollar economy. Ethereum turns code into money; while ACP will transform agents into a trillion-dollar workforce. Imagine millions to billions of on-chain agents providing services, trading, and collaborating without permission— we can see ACP as an underlying layer: it allows AI agents to click "send" on a payment rail at the scale of a payment platform without leaving the blockchain. We are not guessing the future; we are officially writing it into the EVM and the larger ecosystem today.

If you missed the moment when a certain DEX wrote down the fundamental rules of DeFi, and also missed the explosion of NFTs brought by a certain NFT platform—this time, the project will write the first line of code for the new business logic of AI with ACP.

The trillion-dollar economic door of Web3 AI is here, ACP!