Talus: Expanding the digital workforce into the digital economy

Author: Jay Jo, Source: Tiger Research, Compiler: Shaw Bitcoin Vision

TL;DR

• Artificial intelligence agents (AI agents) have evolved from simple tools to independent economic entities, opening up the possibility of an “autonomous digital economy”.However, realizing this vision requires infrastructure that can verify agent behavior and guarantee trust.

• Talus builds this foundation of trust.Talus Network makes agent operations verifiable through the blockchain, while Nexus enables developers to easily build and deploy on-chain agents.

• In this way, Talus expands the digital workforce into the digital economy.It changes the way we work and create value, preparing for the transition to an era of autonomous economies.

1. Prerequisites for an autonomous digital economy

Artificial intelligence agents (AI agents) (hereinafter referred to as “agents”) are increasingly attracting attention as “digital workers”.They can autonomously understand complex situations, make independent judgments and perform tasks.Transaction agents can process transactions on behalf of users within milliseconds.Customer service agents leverage historical customer data and product information to handle thousands of inquiries simultaneously.Agents are becoming new economic entities that create value autonomously. They have gone beyond simple tools that simply execute orders.

This development opens up the possibility of a new paradigm – the “autonomous digital economy”.This paradigm envisions a fully autonomous economic ecosystem in which agents can transact and collaborate directly with other agents or users without human intervention.Once realized, this paradigm will create efficient markets that operate around the clock and transcend the limitations of human labor.It will create entirely new markets that don’t exist yet but could grow into trillions of dollars.

However, this remains an idealistic goal.Agents require trust mechanisms to verify their actions and outcomes.Without these mechanisms, they cannot carry out economic activities autonomously.This demand reflects the needs of the real economy.Human labor has developed from simple behaviors into economic activities because society has established an institutional foundation.Laws regulate behavior, contracts ensure performance, and money facilitates the exchange of value.Only on the basis of this system of trust can labor be transformed into economic value.

The question is how to implement such a trust mechanism in a digital environment.Today, most agents rely on centralized service providers.Their decision-making process is as opaque as a black box.This fact further compounds the complexity of the challenge.In this environment, there are limited ways to verify agent behavior or guarantee its execution.Ultimately, our ability to move toward these multi-trillion dollar markets and a truly autonomous digital economy depends on how we build an infrastructure of trust.

2. Talus: Infrastructure for the Autonomous Digital Economy

Talus is a blockchain infrastructure project aiming to enable an autonomous agent-based digital economy.Just as DeFi enables bank-less banking and NFTs prove ownership of digital assets, Talus leverages blockchain technology to build trust for the agency ecosystem.This trust structure lays the foundation for agents to carry out economic activities independently and verifiably without human intervention.

However, Talus’ goals are not limited to building trust mechanisms.Trust is a prerequisite for an autonomous digital economy, but trust alone does not make an economy work.In order for agents to truly become economic actors, they need a system that can design and execute complex workflows based on trust..To solve this problem, Talus introduced Nexus, a workflow development framework.Nexus is a decentralized version of services like n8n or Zapier.It enables developers to easily write and deploy agent workflows in an on-chain environment.

In this way, Talus combines trust infrastructure (Talus Network) and workflow framework (Nexus) to build a digital economic ecosystem where agents collaborate autonomously and create value.

2.1. Talus Network: Trust basis for agents

The Talus network is the core infrastructure that establishes trust between agents.Previously, there were no rules to regulate agent behavior, no mechanism to guarantee performance, and no system to exchange value.Talus fills this gap with blockchain-based infrastructure and creates an environment where agents can collaborate based on trust.

The Talus network consists of three core layers: 1) coordination and value layer, 2) data storage layer, and 3) computing and execution layer.Each layer is organically connected to ensure transparency and reliability while maintaining scalability and cost-effectiveness.

The coordination and value layer is the foundation of the Talus network and the center of agent activity.This layer manages all information that requires on-chain trust, including agent identity, transaction history, permissions, and workflow status.Talus built this layer on the Sui blockchain, enabling high-performance parallel processing.Even if multiple agents operate simultaneously, it ensures stable transaction processing and avoids conflicts.In this way, Talus lays the foundation for agents to trustlessly collaborate and exchange value in an autonomous economic environment.

The data storage layer provides cost-effective storage.Agents need all kinds of information to handle complex tasks, but storing all data on the blockchain is inefficient.To solve this problem, Talus uses Walrus, a distributed storage system developed by Mysten Labs.Walrus stores agent metadata (configuration files, documents), memory (conversation logs, task history) and operational context (AI model settings, market data cache).Agents can quickly retrieve this information when needed.This approach allows blockchains to focus on managing core trust data without high storage costs, while Walrus is able to efficiently handle large-scale data in a decentralized manner.

The calculation and execution layer is an off-chain execution structure designed to efficiently handle complex calculations.Executing directly on the blockchain is slow and expensive, so this layer offloads heavy computational tasks to off-chain processing.However, there is a problem here: off-chain processing is fast, but credibility verification is difficult; on-chain processing is trustworthy, but slow and costly.Talus solves this problem with a hybrid structure centered around a Leader Network.The leadership network acts as a bridge connecting on-chain and off-chain components.Specifically, when it detects a workflow execution request from the blockchain, it forwards the request to off-chain tools (LLM API, Web2 services, etc.) to perform the actual computation.Afterwards, it returns the processing results to the blockchain for verification.

Through this hybrid design, Talus ensures both the efficiency of complex calculations and the reliability of the blockchain.It is processed quickly off-chain while always verifying the results on-chain.This structure creates an execution environment that meets both speed and reliability requirements.

2.2. Nexus: On-chain proxy workflow framework

If Talus Network is the infrastructure for an autonomous agent ecosystem, thenNexus is the framework on which developers build and deploy on-chain proxies.With Nexus, developers can build on-chain agent-based workflows in the familiar Python development environment without requiring a deep understanding of blockchain technology.

The core component of Nexus is the Nexus On-chain Package (NOP).NOP defines the basic rules and interfaces that make up the agent’s workflow.This ensures that all Talus agents operate based on the same structure and protocols.In this way, various agents and tools can interoperate and interact in a coordinated manner within a single ecosystem.NOP also tracks workflow execution status and verifies the results of each step.This ensures that agent tasks are recorded on-chain in a transparent and consistent manner.Workflows defined in this way are deployed in smart contracts on the Sui blockchain in the form of Talus Agent Packages (TAPs).

Let’s explore how this structure actually works through a concrete example.Suppose a developer builds a transaction agent.This agent holds on-chain assets and executes trades directly, but it can request market analysis from another macro analyst agent to develop a trading strategy.With Nexus’ standardized protocols, agents can exchange data and collaborate with each other.If a macro analyst agent needs to utilize external data, the Leader Network connects off-chain tools to perform the necessary calculations and returns the results to the blockchain.The entire process from analysis to transaction to result verification is recorded on-chain, ensuring complete transparency.

The accessibility of development will be further improved.Longer term, we will offer Talus Vision, a no-code workflow builder.This will enable users to visually design and deploy agents without writing code.Talus Network provides a foundation of trust.Nexus lowers the barrier to development.With these, more developers and users can participate in the on-chain agent ecosystem and build a larger-scale autonomous digital economy.

3. Talus’ agency economy: developer market and consumer applications

Talus is one step closer to enabling an autonomous digital economy by building technology infrastructure for agents, but great technology alone cannot grow an ecosystem.Just as the Internet was popularized by email as a killer app, Talus needs real use cases.Talus achieves this on two levels.It builds marketplaces that allow developers to create and profit from tools and agents.It also provides consumer-grade applications that ordinary users can use directly.

3.1. Developer Market: Tool and Agent Market

Talus’ Nexus development framework forms a market in itself.Just as services like Figma form a developer marketplace through an ecosystem of third-party plug-ins,Talus also builds a tool- and agent-centric marketplace.This structure enables developers to contribute directly and generate revenue.

For example, developers publish their own Talus tools to the tool market to earn revenue.Other developers integrate these tools into their own workflows.Each time a workflow is executed, tool developers receive usage fees denominated in Talus’ native token $US.The agency market works the same way.Every time someone calls an agent, the developer gets paid in $US.

This structure creates a virtuous cycle.As developers add new tools, agents can perform more tasks.As more agents emerge, the need for tool development increases.As ecosystem activity grows, so does the demand for USD tokens.This provides greater financial incentives to developers and accelerates the growth of the ecosystem.

3.2. Consumer Applications: IDOL Launchpad and AvA Markets

The developer market solves the supply-side issues of the ecosystem, but demand-side issues are also essential.The ecosystem cannot scale without apps that ordinary users can experience directly.Talus solves this problem by extending agents into the entertainment sector.It democratizes the agency economy with applications that anyone can easily access and enjoy.

IDOL.fun allows users to create and operate IDOL agents, which are Twitter-based artificial intelligence chatbots.Agents can communicate with fans, be employed by brands or individuals, and generate real income.Anyone can create their own agent and participate in autonomous economic activities without any technical knowledge.Here, the agent is a complete service in itself rather than part of the workflow.

Next, Talus also demonstrated the possibility of an AvA (Agent vs Agent, agent to agent) market.It supports various agent-centric game formats.In addition to the structure in which agents compete with each other, forms in which users interact with agents and compete with other users are also feasible.Developers can reimagine game genres like murder mystery or poker based on agents.Users can directly participate in the game or enjoy predicting the results.Blockchain records all processes transparently.Users can intuitively experience the agency economy without fear of manipulation.

IDOL.fun and AvA Markets are just a starting point.Based on the Nexus framework, agents can expand from the entertainment domain to more diverse domains.In the DeFi space, agents can automate complex investment strategies based on simple requests.In the DAO world, agents can analyze proposals, prioritize them, and act as governance managers who allocate resources.final,Talus hopes to use the popularity of the entertainment field as a springboard to promote the expansion of the agency economy into various industrial fields..

4. Talus opens the era of autonomous digital economy

Artificial intelligence agents no longer passively follow human instructions, but have evolved into economic subjects that can make independent judgments, collaborate with other intelligent agents, and create value autonomously.The era of digital labor has begun.Talus goes one step further and lays the foundation for the expansion of the digital economy.

Every innovation in IT starts with new infrastructure.The Internet has changed the way we connect, cloud computing has transformed computing resources, and mobile devices have redefined service accessibility.Likewise, Talus redefines the digital workforce and autonomous digital economy.In addition to simply replacing human work, intelligent agents can also collaborate with each other to create value and form a new economic ecosystem.The way we work and create value will fundamentally change.

However, it is too early to predict what kind of future the shift from a digital workforce to a digital economy will create.Challenges such as technical limitations, regulatory environment and social acceptance still need to be addressed.However,Given the potential for Talus to fundamentally change the way we work and create value, the future of the autonomous digital economy it shapes is worth watching..