Cardano’s TOKEN2049 Hackathon Dey Focus On AI Agent Payments

Cardano Foundation’s track for TOKEN2049 Origins dey focus on applications wey go allow AI agents buy online services through x402. The hackathon go run from October 6 reach 8 for Marina Bay Sands for Singapore, and teams go build prototypes for paid APIs, digital content, and transactions between agents.

Cardano Dey Offer $27,500 for Agent Commerce

Participants fit build agents wey fit buy services by themselves, applications wey dey charge for individual requests, or payment flows between agents. One example be agent wey dey buy dataset to do task: e go request the data, handle the payment, and collect the resource through web interface.

The Foundation don allocate $27,500 share among three Cardano track winners. TOKEN2049 list 200 participants and $150,000 prize pool for the whole Origins, wey include Cardano and the other technology tracks.

Teams fit get up to four members and dem must attend in person. Project work must start after the official hacking period begin. The organizer go schedule demonstrations for the TOKEN2049 stage, and the Foundation’s event website go announce winners during the conference.

How x402 Take Connect Services With Cardano Payments

x402 na open payment standard wey dey use HTTP’s 402 Payment Required status to return machine-readable price for resource. For Cardano, the client dey build and sign complete transaction, then e go repeat the request with the signed payment attached.

Facilitator go check the transaction, submit am to the blockchain, and observe settlement. When settlement succeed, the server go return the resource and payment receipt. The Foundation’s reference demo include transaction hash inside that receipt, wey link the request to the blockchain payment.

The payer dey authorize the complete transaction, including the fee. The facilitator no hold any signing keys or funds and e no fit change the signed payment.

The reference demo document message request wey cost 2 test ADA and another route wey cost 0.10 test USDM. Even when you use token payments, you still need ADA for network fees and the minimum value wey transaction output require.

How To Build Cardano Agent Payment Prototypes

The track’s builder guide limit testing to Preprod, Cardano’s public test network, and e lock x402 packages for version 2.26.0 throughout the event. The developer portal list Foundation-hosted facilitator and provide templates for both software agents and applications wey dey use browser wallets.

Submissions must include working Cardano prototype, open-source repository with documentation, demonstration video up to three minutes, and short description of the problem, technical approach, and possible deployment or scaling.

Builders fit also use Masumi, Cardano protocol wey add agent identity, service discovery, and escrow. Escrow dey allow service receive payment under agreed job terms, with funds wey go lock until contract release conditions happen.

For Masumi payment, the x402 request dey complete when funds enter escrow.

Delivery of the job result, refunds, and disputes go then follow Masumi’s separate lifecycle, wey dey extend the payment flow to services wey their work continue after the initial request.