A closer look at Ai16z (AI16Z): the mine of AI agents

JJoestar

January 16, 2025

A closer look at Ai16z (AI16Z): the mine of AI agents

If launchpads are often considered the picks and shovels necessary for creating AI agents, they are not indispensable for their emergence. However, there is one project around which the entire AI Agent narrative is being built—a project that could be likened to a mine where the essence of AI agents resides: ai16z.

What is ai16z (AI16Z)?

Ai16z is an innovative decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) designed to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into treasury management, investment, and venture capital. This project, presented as a parody of the renowned investment fund a16z, is governed through a shared model involving a specialized AI agent—Marc AIndreessen, a fictional figure inspired by a16z's co-founder—and the holders of the AI16Z token.

Within this DAO, AI16Z token holders play a critical role. They can propose investment ideas, submit projects, or suggest token buybacks, and vote on these suggestions. The DAO’s AI agent evaluates these proposals using a trust scoring system, assigned to members based on the relevance and reliability of their past contributions.

The ai16z project was launched on daos.fun, a platform that allows anyone to create a CAD on Solana, raise funds, and benefit from dedicated management tools. The creator, Shaw Lalalune whose real name is Shaw Walters, doesn't share much of his background. If you look hard enough, you'll find that he was CTO for @TinDrumIO, but has also worked for @upstreetai @MagickML, @XR_Foundation and @webaaverse. Despite the failure of all these projects, most of his experiences revolve around AI or virtual reality, such as the metaverse, which fits in perfectly with what he's doing today.

In interviews, he also recounts having completed projects that are enormously valuable, and having been double-crossed on the sale, never receiving anything. But it's much harder to verify this information. On the other hand, his Github account profile shows that he has worked on a number of AI-related frameworks. In March 2024, he created Degen Spartan AI, which was already an AI parody of a major investment fund.

The AI16Z token was launched on October 25, 2024, through a fair launch, achieving immediate success. However, it wasn’t just the fair launch model that propelled ai16z to the forefront of the AI Agent narrative on Solana—it was the unveiling of its open-source framework, ElizaOS.

ElizaOS is a suite of tools enabling the creation of customizable AI agents with remarkable ease. Leveraging network effects and offering unlimited extensibility, this framework by ai16z has captivated developers and users worldwide, continuously expanding its reach.

The revenues generated by ai16z, whether from investments made by the AI agent or other activities, are managed strategically. These funds can be:

  • Reinvested in the treasury to support new opportunities.
  • Used for AI16Z token buybacks, thereby enhancing its value.
  • Allocated to the Creator Fund, aimed at supporting developers contributing to the improvement and evolution of ElizaOS.

→ See also our analysis of AI agents :

How Did ai16z Become the Leader of AI Agents on Solana?

The rapid adoption of ElizaOS propelled ai16z to the center of the AI Agent narrative on Solana. A strong, engaged, and united community has formed around this framework. It is, by far, the most widely adopted framework for AI Agents within the crypto ecosystem and the most-used GitHub repository worldwide over the past few weeks across all technologies.

At the time of writing, over 350 contributors are actively developing the Eliza framework, adding capabilities and plugins that enable agents built on it to perform more actions or operate across more blockchains.

The framework has already been forked over 3,100 times, meaning just as many developers have used the code to build their own AI agents. Currently, the majority of AI agents on the market are built using the ElizaOS framework. This is why and how ai16z has become the leader of this narrative.

ai16z-github.webp

The ElizaOS Framework

ElizaOS is a TypeScript-based suite of tools enabling developers to easily build AI agents with various functionalities. These agents can be deployed on platforms such as Twitter (X), Discord, or directly on blockchains like Solana and EVM-compatible networks.

ElizaOS's capabilities extend far beyond simple chatbots, as agents can be configured to perform complex tasks. For example, some are designed to execute on-chain transactions, interact with smart contracts, wallets, or decentralized applications, while others connect to data providers to monitor prices, volumes, or liquidity.

The ElizaOS framework is built on an architecture divided into five main components:

  1. Agent: Defines the personality, communication style, and knowledge base of the agent.
  2. Actions: Allows agents to perform specific tasks beyond text responses, such as generating reports or executing trades.
  3. Evaluators: Help agents interpret data and follow multi-step objectives.
  4. Providers: Supply external data or real-time context, such as asset prices or specialized API data.
  5. Memory System: Enables agents to retain a history of interactions and preferences, making their responses more contextual and natural.

The ai16z Ecosystem

Although ai16z's initial concept was to be an investment DAO built around a specialized AI agent, the team quickly realized that growth potential lay elsewhere. Consequently, partnerships in both Web2 and Web3 have multiplied, enabling the Eliza framework to be used worldwide.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the main partnerships established by ai16z in recent weeks:

  • L1/L2 Blockchains: Including Mode, Arbitrum, Solana, Ethereum—aiming to extend the Eliza framework across applications on these blockchains while offering more utilities to AI Agents.
  • Eigenlayer and AVS: Eigenlayer has heavily invested in this narrative alongside ai16z, as AVS built on its security model is perfectly suited to verify the integrity of these agents or potentially create an AVS-AI Agent in the future.
  • DePIN: Including Io.net, Hyperbolic, and Heurist—allowing AI agents to pay for and utilize decentralized machines, essential for computationally intensive tasks.
  • Story Protocol: Ensuring AI agents have access to intellectual properties in Web3.
  • DeFi: Including Jupiter and Drift—integrating agents into their platforms to utilize liquidity more efficiently.
  • Web2: Collaborations with Stanford University & Society Library—continuing research to improve AI agents.
  • TEE (Trusted Execution Environments): Lit Protocol and Phala Network—enabling agents to have their own private keys secured by TEE technology, ensuring complete autonomy without human influence.
  • NFTs: Through PartnersDAO—linking NFTs to AI agents, storing their attributes in metadata to guarantee agent ownership.
  • Metaverse: In partnership with Hyperfy—creating virtual environments where agents can interact with humans and each other, forming an “intelligent society” in Web3.
  • Gaming: With Smolverse and Arc—introducing adaptive, independent NPCs to enhance Web3 gaming experiences.
elizaos-mapping.webp

Through these partnerships, the Eliza framework will continue expanding its functionalities and possibilities, empowering developers to create more powerful, autonomous, decentralized, and widespread AI agents in Web3. The framework's influence grows daily across the crypto ecosystem, with new partners being announced weekly.

ai16z Roadmap

Currently, the AI16Z token has no utility beyond governance. While it remains the only way to gain exposure to the success of ai16z and the Eliza framework, this alone is insufficient for long-term sustainability. Consequently, the ai16z team has recently proposed several initiatives to add utility to the token, including:

  • A launchpad with tokenomics similar to Virtuals, creating strong buy pressure for the token by requiring its use to purchase newly listed agents on the platform.
  • Establishing a staking and slashing mechanism to ensure the quality of projects launched around ai16z.
  • Making the AI16Z token the base currency for agent-to-agent transactions and a marketplace for agent-provided services.
  • Incentivizing developers to continue improving Eliza through grants, revenue-sharing, or supporting the creation of external launchpads. Generally, positioning ai16z as a Layer 1 blockchain dedicated to AI that other projects revolve around.
  • Managing the DAO’s treasury to prevent token sell-offs, provide liquidity for certain tokens, or enable staking mechanisms.
  • Additional ideas, such as buyback and burn mechanisms, agent creation fees, and more.

ai16z's founder, Shaw, has frequently shared his vision for ai16z and the agents being built on it. According to him, the goal is to create AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), also known as Swarm Intelligence. In simple terms, this involves enabling all AI agents to work together to create personalized, efficient, and instant services.

For example, one could instruct an AI agent on a DeFi-AI platform like Griffain to purchase $200 of each token recommended by Aixbt (a specialized AI investment agent) on its social media channels. Similarly, an AI agent could summarize crypto trends by autonomously querying Aixbt and compensating it through blockchain-based payments for its expertise.

The possibilities are, of course, limitless but currently constrained by technology. However, the shared foundation of the Eliza framework makes it easier to create synergies between these agents.

Conclusion

The AI agent narrative is both very young and highly sought after by investors. As a result, competition among projects is fierce, and they can quickly be outpaced by new solutions or fade into obscurity due to a lack of innovation. This is where ai16z stands out, particularly thanks to its massive open-source developer community, which continually drives innovation in the framework.

The ai16z team is already working with dozens of partners, including major names in the ecosystem. Moreover, its expansion is not confined to a single blockchain, as the framework has no limits—it can thus conquer the entire crypto ecosystem. Currently, no other AI agent framework has as much adoption as Eliza, making ai16z a project poised to grow and improve independently over time.

Nevertheless, the ai16z team will need to add use cases to the token to ensure its longevity and prevent speculative buying pressure from being the sole driver of value.