At Fetch.ai, we have developed a decentralized infrastructure that utilizes algorithms that bring the AI-based autonomous machine economy to life. Our mission is to provide the infrastructure required for autonomous software agents to unlock the value trapped in wasted data, and organize complex tasks to benefit individuals, businesses and organizations.
As the Fetch.AI network grows, an increasing number of developers from major corporate companies and beyond will be coding and deploying Autonomous Economic Agents. For example, in a new project in partnership with Datarella, AI-agents will autonomously negotiate parking pricing on behalf of their owner.
Agents will solve a wide range of problems for users by communicating, trading and collaborating across the Fetch.AI network. To help support this, we’ve developed a network that is made up of four main components:
- Autonomous Economic Agents — autonomous software units able to reach their own goals to deliver or find value.
- The Open Economic Framework — a decentralized digital world acting as a search and discovery network to help agents find and connect with one another. The “Open Economic Framework (OEF)” is the search, discovery and transaction protocol for the Fetch network. Think of it in three levels: Agents are software / bots / apps created by users, which find each other via the OEF which is a communication protocol for bots, which uses the ledger as a means of settlement and finality for transactions.
- The Agent Network — a peer-to-peer network for negotiations and transactions.
- The Ledger — means of settlement and finality for transactions, and smart-contract support for agent applications.
The $FET Token
The $FET token is the key component to all of this. It provides the fuel to drive the network and complete any activities using it. $FET is used by agents to fund specific network functions and is an important means of incentivizing good behavior. Listed below are some examples of when the FET token comes into play on the Fetch.AI ecosystem.
To connect agents to the network: Once a developer has built an agent, it will need to be deployed on the network. To enable this, Fetch.AI tokens are deposited by the agents that are connected to the digital world. The process is a little like staking, giving the agent the right to operate in the network.
For search and discovery within the Open Economic Framework: The Fetch.AI OEF enables agents to find consumers and services. These services are enabled and executed autonomously. $FET is used as a means for agents to pay for access.
To enable exchange of value between agents: When two agents have successfully connected, communicated and negotiated, one needs to pay the other for the data or service on offer. The $FET token acts as the medium of exchange in all network transactions, allowing autonomous agents to exchange Fetch.AI tokens to acquire data, or services from other agents.
For accessing collective AI/ML algorithms: The Fetch.AI network enables collective intelligence and has a wide range of ‘primary’ AI & ML functionality. Agents require a modest amount of tokens to access this core functionality. FET tokens are used to pay for access to AI/ML services
For exchange into Fetch.AI’s operational fuel: Fetch.AI’s operational fuel allows access to processor time for smart contract execution and other network derived services for agents. FET tokens are dynamically exchanged to pay network operation, compute and maintenance fees.
Staking to validate network and establish reputation: Services and validation nodes are enabled by staking FET tokens. This facilitates network validation and reputation.
A thriving Fetch.AI network that includes many millions or, as we hope and expect in the future, billions of autonomous agents, requires a token to enable this new digital economy to function. The FET token enables the activities listed above and is the currency agents use to pay for the benefits they derive from the wider network, whilst also providing a friction-less means of paying each other.
Members of the community are now able to participate in the Fetch.AI network through our incentivized testnet program. This allows developers to get involved whilst preparing and testing the technology ahead of the Fetch.ai mainnet v2.0 launch. The best part is, we are even offering over 1 million FET in rewards for participating. Agent World 3 is now live.
All the information you need can be found at https://docs.fetch.ai/i_nets/.
