AI Driven Agents Accelerating the Mass Adoption of DeFi: In-Depth Analysis of Wayfinder

Summary

Although DeFi claims to be open to everyone, its complexity makes it difficult for ordinary investors to participate. From preparing gas fees to understanding complex protocols, many users have given up potential investment opportunities due to cumbersome processes. Wayfinder, as a dedicated on-chain AI agent system, aims to address these accessibility issues. Users can simply converse with the agent to execute professional-grade investment strategies, covering complex operations from cross-chain trading to basis trading. In the future, Wayfinder will also provide API services, expected to become the infrastructure that simplifies the complexity of on-chain operations, widely used in various Web3 projects. This will significantly improve the overall user experience in the cryptocurrency industry, bringing the ideal of "inclusive finance" closer to reality.

The accessibility dilemma of Decentralized Finance

Decentralized Finance aims to create an open financial ecosystem, but its complex technical and financial requirements create a significant gap between ideals and reality. Although technologies such as chain abstraction and account abstraction have improved user experience, the lack of standardization and limited support for protocols remain issues. The fundamental problem lies in the complexity of learning, as users still need to understand DeFi-specific concepts such as AMM and liquidity pools.

Research by the Bank for International Settlements shows that in Uniswap V3, only 7% of liquidity providers control about 80% of the TVL. The return rates for these professional users are 20% higher than those of ordinary users. Even with a relatively user-friendly experience, Uniswap still exhibits this gap, indicating that accessibility issues affect the entire Decentralized Finance ecosystem.

The complex access process deters many users, causing them to forgo even attractive investment opportunities. As a result, DeFi is becoming the exclusive domain of professional users, contradicting the original intention of achieving financial innovation through decentralized technology. The promise of widespread participation has yet to be realized, as high barriers and poor usability limit the potential of DeFi.

The possibility of AI solving the high barriers of Decentralized Finance

Recent breakthroughs in AI have brought new possibilities for lowering the entry barriers to DeFi. Agent-based AI technology has emerged, providing not only intelligence but also acting as executors to complete complex tasks. This could be the key to the widespread adoption of DeFi.

For example, users only need to request: "Bridge my ETH from Base to Solana and buy Memecoin BONK." The AI entity can analyze multiple bridging options in real-time and provide clear suggestions:

• Wormhole: Fee 2.50 USD, Completed in 3 minutes, High security
• LayerZero: Fee of $1.80, completed in 5 minutes, with a risk of Gas fee fluctuations.

Users do not need to learn the technical differences between bridges, they can make quick decisions based on key information. The agent will automatically handle subsequent operations, and the user experience is similar to having a personal asset manager available 24/7.

However, there are fundamental challenges in achieving this vision. Most current AI technologies lack direct blockchain integration and even cannot view wallet balances in real-time. Even if blockchain nodes are integrated, understanding thousands of smart contracts is a huge challenge. How to interact safely and verify protocol security is an additional difficulty.

AI technology requires a dedicated on-chain agent system to create real value in Decentralized Finance. This is precisely where Wayfinder comes in.

Wayfinder: On-chain dedicated AI intelligent system

Wayfinder provides an AI agent system designed specifically for on-chain environments. Unlike general agents, Wayfinder agents are directly integrated with blockchain infrastructure, allowing them to automatically execute on-chain tasks. Its AI model has been fine-tuned for the blockchain environment, enabling it to navigate and utilize Decentralized Finance protocols more efficiently than general models. This creates an environment for ordinary users to access complex DeFi ecosystems without the need for specialized technical knowledge.

The origin of Wayfinder can be traced back to Colony, an AI-based survival simulation game developed by Parallel Studios. In Colony, AI avatars can operate autonomously, collecting resources, trading, and formulating survival strategies without player intervention. During the development process, Parallel Studios discovered that these AI entities' autonomous on-chain activities could be extended beyond the game to play a role in the Decentralized Finance environment. This discovery led to the development of the Wayfinder project.

Wayfinder consists of two core components: Wayfinder Shell serves as the interface for users to interact with the dedicated intelligent agent, while Wayfinder Graph is the navigation system that helps the agent find the optimal path in a complex multi-chain environment.

Wayfinder Shell: Your Decentralized Finance personal banker

Wayfinder Shell(Shells) is the interface for users to interact with dedicated intelligent agents to formulate and execute various on-chain strategies. Shells provide role-specific dedicated intelligent agents that can respond to user requests for organic collaboration and efficiently handle complex tasks. Shells support major mainnets such as Ethereum, Solana, Base, and Avalanche, enabling seamless asset management in a multi-chain environment.

The biggest feature of Shells is that the agent executes direct on-chain transactions through the built-in dedicated Web3 wallet. For example, if a user requests to diversify an investment of 100 USDC into tokens that have risen on Solana over the past week, the agent will filter tokens using real-time market data, build a portfolio, and execute the investment directly. Users can easily execute their desired investment strategies through a single interface, without the need for complex technical understanding.

Wayfinder's intelligent agent system includes four types:

• Trading Agents: Handling basic on-chain asset transfers and management, such as token exchanges, bridging, and staking.

• Perpetual Contract Agent: Integrated with Hyperliquid Exchange's on-chain order book engine HyperCore, supporting spot or perpetual contract trading without the need to understand Hyperliquid. Also supports strategies such as leverage settings, position management, and basis trading.

• Contract Agent: Handles all tasks related to contracts, from smart contract writing to deployment and analysis.

• Autonomous Agents: Coordinate multiple agents based on user-defined goals, handling a comprehensive role from strategy formulation to execution, rebalancing, and risk management.

In the future, various dedicated agents will be continuously added, such as yield discovery agents specifically for yield optimization, to expand the ecosystem. Wayfinder utilizes a multi-agent system where each agent verifies and collaborates with one another, making decisions more stable and accurate. For operations that require multiple transactions, agents will run simulations on the virtual network (VNet), predicting outcomes and preventing errors or illusions. Significant transactions require user approval, and users maintain full control over their assets.

Wayfinder Graph: Google Maps of Decentralized Finance

Wayfinder Graph is a navigation system that systematically organizes the complex blockchain ecosystem. Similar to Google Maps, which connects real-time global road, building, and traffic information to guide users to the optimal route, Wayfinder Graph constructs the relationships between DeFi protocols, smart contracts, and assets across various blockchain networks, helping agents execute tasks through the most efficient paths.

The core of the system is the "pathfinding route". Each pathfinding route is similar to the detailed step-by-step directions provided by Google Maps for a route, defining the steps for a specific task, such as "exchanging ETH for USDC on Uniswap" or "bridging USDC from Ethereum to Arbitrum". Each route records detailed information such as the required smart contract addresses, function call methods, expected fees, and precautions. Agents can use these verified routes to quickly and securely complete tasks without having to find the path from scratch each time.

In the future, the community will create and manage navigation paths. For example, when new DeFi protocols emerge, community participants can write and submit paths that interact with these protocols. They need to stake PROMPT tokens as collateral, and path validators review the submitted content. Only approved paths will be added to the official repository for all Shells to use. Path creators can earn a portion of the fees when their paths are used by other Shells. Incorrect paths will result in the staked tokens of the creators and validators being forfeited to compensate the victims. This structure operates as a continuous quality management system, going beyond a simple reward mechanism.

Wayfinder aims to ensure scalability through community involvement rather than adopting a slow and limited approach of directly integrating with all protocols. This community-centric approach allows Wayfinder to flexibly respond to the rapid changes and complexities of the DeFi ecosystem.

Wayfinder delivers a whole new Decentralized Finance experience

With Wayfinder, complex on-chain strategies are no longer the exclusive domain of experts. Automated agents handle strategy formulation and execution, allowing beginners to easily manage expert-level strategies, while experts can free themselves from repetitive tasks and focus on more complex designs.

The following case demonstrates how Wayfinder tailors new Decentralized Finance experiences for users at different levels:

Simplifying complex cross-chain transactions

One of the most troublesome aspects of on-chain transactions is preparing different Gas fee tokens in advance for each chain. The trading agent of Shells solves this complexity through the BRAP( optimal rate aggregation protocol) engine. The BRAP engine explores multiple liquidity paths, finds the optimal route, and handles token swaps and bridging, providing users with a one-stop experience. Additionally, Wayfinder supports the unified handling of Gas fees across multiple chains using only Base chain-based PROMPT tokens, allowing users to efficiently execute cross-chain transactions without having to prepare native tokens separately for each chain.

One-stop operation for repetitive investment processes

Wayfinder enables complex investment strategies that go beyond simple token swaps or bridging. For example, a leveraged DCA( dollar cost averaging) strategy. Investors only need to set the conditions once to continuously execute complex investment strategies without the need for repetitive manual work.

Autonomous agents will analyze the real-time interest rates and TVL of multiple lending protocols to choose the optimal protocol. Then, the trading agent sequentially executes a leveraged investment strategy: depositing the held BTC as collateral, borrowing USDC equivalent to a certain percentage of the collateral value, using the borrowed USDC to purchase additional BTC, and then depositing the purchased BTC as collateral, repeating this cycle. The agent executes the strategy within the risk parameters set by the user, continuously monitoring conditions and automatically adjusting positions as necessary to mitigate risk.

Provide a professional trading experience for beginners

Basis trading is an arbitrage strategy that leverages price differences between the spot and futures markets, particularly generating stable returns through funding rates. This area has traditionally been the domain of institutions or professional traders, requiring an understanding of complex mechanisms and 24-hour monitoring. Wayfinder's perpetual contract agent is integrated with Hyperliquid's on-chain order book engine "HyperCore", providing an environment for ordinary users to easily take advantage of these strategies.

Users only need to request to execute basis trading based on the funding rate of a certain token, smart