Unibase: x402 & ERC-8004 - Cornerstones of the AI Agent Economy

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding the significance of the x402 protocol for payments in the machine economy.
• Exploring how ERC-8004 addresses the trust and identity challenges for AI agents.
• Unibase's role as a memory layer connecting payments and trust, enabling verification of transactions.
• The launch of Unibase x402 Facilitator on BNB Chain.
• Introduction of BitAgent, a multi-agent launchpad fostering native x402 & ERC-8004 applications.

The PANews x402 protocol is undoubtedly the hottest narrative in the crypto market today. After a long period of silence, a new wave driven by real technology is sweeping through. A gold rush is underway around the x402 infrastructure, with related discussions and projects constantly emerging. But amidst this frenzy, a crucial question is being overlooked: If x402 only solves the problem of "how to pay," who addresses the issues of "why trust" and "how to verify?"

While everyone's attention is focused on the payment layer, the real new asset opportunity may lie in its accompanying trust layer - ERC-8004. But between payment (x402) and trust (ERC-8004), there remains a deep chasm. Without "memory," AI agents cannot prove their actions and value; and without verifiable memory, trust is out of the question. This is where the significance of Unibase's "memory layer" lies, it is not only a key middleware connecting the payment frenzy and the cornerstone of trust, but also may become the core engine to unleash the true potential of AI agents.

Payment is just the first step, x402 and ERC-8004 are the dual core drivers of the agent economy

The x402 protocol itself is not a new thing, but a status code that has been dormant for decades in the Internet's basic HTTP protocol - "402 Payment Required." This protocol itself was one of the earliest predictions of the Internet, but it remained dormant for decades due to technological limitations. With the maturity of AI agent technology and the gradual widespread application of cryptocurrencies (especially stablecoins), the x402 protocol finally has the opportunity to turn the scenario of machine automatic payment into reality.

The essence of the x402 protocol is to use the instant and low-cost settlement capabilities of blockchain (especially stablecoins) to natively embed payment logic into Web requests. Its vision is to achieve "API call is payment" - AI agents or machines, like humans browsing the web, can automatically and frequently pay for every piece of data or computing resources they consume. With top venture capital firms like a16z predicting the scale of the autonomous trading economy to reach US$30 trillion, the market quickly recognized the huge potential of x402 as the "machine economy payment layer."

However, behind the blind craze, a deeper problem is emerging: Payment, then what?

x402 itself is a pure payment protocol. It efficiently solves the problem of "how to pay," but it completely fails to touch on a more fundamental business premise - "trust." In an open, permissionless machine economy, how does an AI agent (buyer) know that another AI agent (seller) it is about to pay is trustworthy? Just as humans rely on identity and credit systems to participate in business activities, AI or machines also need a set of mechanisms to shape trust. This is where the value of another standard protocol, ERC-8004, lies.

ERC-8004 is a decentralized identity and reputation layer designed specifically for AI agents, designed to solve the trust problem that x402 lacks. Its technical principle consists of an Identity Registry, Reputation Registry, and Validation Registry, which can realize the issuance of "ID cards" for AI agents on the Internet, reputation feedback, and verification of the entire trust process. It can be said that ERC-8004 and x402 are closely complementary and indispensable symbiotic bodies in the machine economy. However, because the x402 protocol is easier for the market to interpret as a payment revolution, coupled with MEME speculation marketing, it has been discussed more by the market. Real industry practitioners have long realized that payment must be combined with trust.

Unibase was the first to seize this opportunity, positioning itself as a middleware connecting these two major pillars. On the Unibase platform, the ERC-8004 identity system is deeply integrated with the x402 payment network. In Unibase's vision, every future x402 transaction will no longer be an anonymous, blind "black box operation." Instead, every payment will occur between two AI agents with verifiable identities (ERC-8004). The buyer agent can query the seller agent's "ID card" and historical credit rating through the ERC-8004 registry before payment; after the payment is completed, the buyer can also record this service experience (proven by the x402 payment certificate) in the seller's reputation registry, thereby forming a complete commercial trust closed loop.

Building the "Golden Triangle" of identity, memory and payment, first launch on BNB Chain

However, for this system to truly operate, it also needs a third key component - memory. An AI assistant without memory is stupid. Imagine having to re-tell your smart speaker every morning who you are, where you live, and what style of music you like. This is the dilemma of "stateless" AI.

For the autonomous agent economy, this problem is even more fatal. An agent not only needs an identity (ERC-8004), it also needs "memory" to accumulate experience, learn preferences, and share knowledge. More importantly, in an economy composed of payment (x402) and trust (ERC-8004), "memory" plays the core role of "verifiable proof of work." For example, Agent A (buyer) uses x402 to pay Agent B (seller). Agent B has an ERC-8004 identity. Now, Agent B claims that it has completed the work. At this time, how can Agent A (and the entire network) cryptographically verify that it has indeed been completed, and in the required manner? This process requires the introduction of the "memory" function.

Unibase Memory is a decentralized persistent storage layer designed for AI agents, which is linked through the ERC-8004 identity system. This means that every agent with an ERC-8004 identity has an exclusive "memory space" bound to its identity on Unibase. This "memory space" is not only the agent's "brain" for learning and contextual awareness, but also an indispensable "arbitration and verification layer" in the machine economy.

In the Unibase architecture, when an agent performs a task, its complete interaction log, data processing process, and final result will be stored in Unibase Memory, forming an immutable, hash-timestamped "memory entry." This "memory entry" is the agent's "proof of work."

So far, the complete scenario of machine payment has truly been realized through the golden triangle architecture composed of three components: the ERC-8004 identity layer, the Unibase Memory memory layer, and the x402 payment layer. Among them, the ERC-8004 identity layer gives each intelligent agent a unique on-chain identity; the Unibase Memory memory layer is responsible for recording interactions, inferences, and behavior tracks; the x402 payment layer is based on the realization of verifiable, Gas-free payment.

In order to put this theory into practice, Unibase launched its Unibase x402 Facilitator service on BNB Chain. This is also the first practical x402 Facilitator service on BNB Chain.

Launching the Multi-Agent Collaboration Platform BitAgent, quickly launching native x402 & 8004 applications

An excellent technology strategy not only needs a strong theoretical closed loop, but also needs a precise market entry strategy.

Unibase's strategy is not limited to being a passive infrastructure (middleware), it also actively promotes its market entry strategy through an integrated application layer, and this is BitAgent.

BitAgent is the first flagship application built by the Unibase team. It is a multi-agent launchpad and coordination platform driven by x402 and ERC-8004. If Virtuals Protocol has opened up the AI agent issuance track, then BitAgent's goal is to provide an "AI native" and more technically complete issuance platform.

AI native means that every AI agent launched on BitAgent is pre-endowed with "golden triangle" capabilities:

• Verifiable Identity (ERC-8004): Agents are automatically registered for an ERC-8004 identity NFT upon launch.
• Persistent Memory (UnibaseMemory): Agents are natively connected to UnibaseMemory, enabling them to "remember" and "learn."
• Gas-free Payment (x402 + EIP-3009): Agents embed x402 payment capabilities and achieve Gas-free transactions through EIP-3009.
• Interoperability (UnibaseAIP): Agents can communicate and collaborate across platforms and frameworks through the Unibase Agent Interoperability Protocol (AIP).

This design makes BitAgent different from early AI launch platforms. On other platforms, functions such as identity, memory, and payment may require developers to "patch" them afterwards; while on BitAgent, these are "factory standard" and are the core capabilities inherent in agents.

In addition, BitAgent has also designed a unique issuance mechanism for AI agent tokens. This mechanism combines the viral spread of Meme coins and the liquidity deposition of DeFi. This mechanism is divided into two stages: The first stage is the bonding curve. Similar to the current mainstream MEME coin issuance platform, when an AI agent is launched on BitAgent, its token is first launched fairly through the "bonding curve." The second stage is automatic injection into the PancakeSwap V3 liquidity pool. When the token trading volume or funds raised in the bonding curve reaches a pre-set threshold, the contract will automatically and permanently inject all the accumulated funds (such as BNB) and the remaining AI agent tokens in the bonding curve into a new liquidity pool (LP) in PancakeSwap V3.

Through this two-stage process, BitAgent can allow AI agent tokens to complete the transformation from a highly volatile and speculative "Meme asset" to a "DeFi asset" with deep, stable, and permanent liquidity in a matter of hours.

Unibase's market narrative has now become complete. At the infrastructure level, it has grasped the core contradiction of the autonomous agent economy: payment (x402) is blind, and trust (ERC-8004) is hollow, unless there is a "verifiable memory" to connect them.

Through Unibase Memory, Unibase positions itself as an indispensable "middle layer" in this emerging economy: a "memory ledger" that provides the ultimate "proof of work" and arbitration basis for machine behavior. At the application level, Unibase chooses to actively fill market gaps. It cleverly uses the current market's most mainstream viral spread of Meme and the deep liquidity of DeFi to continuously create real and strong economic demand for its underlying "memory" infrastructure, thereby stimulating the true potential of x402 and ERC-8004.