Smart contracts don't execute themselves
Value Proposition - PowerAgent Automation Network
Pitch Deck: Ethereum CC Argentina
PowerAgent v. 2.0 Roll-Out Planning
Ethereum and other EVM blockchains do not offer any method for event-triggered and chronological contingent actions, triggered by on-chain events or time conditions so that contracts can be reliably executed automatically at the appropriate times from inside any EVM contract. Almost every EVM-compatible DeFi protocol could use a decetralised Keeper network external to the protocol to execute transactions on-chain for its correct operation. In the absence of such an option, many leading protocols have been resorting to ‘rolling their own’ internal specialised ‘bots’ to provide automation. This can create agility and reliability (single point of failure) issues, as well as trust issues related to novel attack vectors. Use of a trustworthy, autonomous, decentralised automation network speeds development and audits/de-bugging, reduces points of failure and trust issues, increases transparency and speeds time to market.
Early DeFi protocols developed on Ethereum were designed to be supplemented by pseudo-anonymous agents (known as Keepers). Such agents performed event-triggered actions such as liquidating under-collateralized positions in MakerDAO/Compound/AAVE or re-aligning ever-changing prices across AMM pools via arbitrage. Autonomous agents acting as Keepers were a method of to making early DeFi primitives robust and more decentralized. These first generation Keepers are generally triggered only by sufficient economic incentives (significant price differences, liquidation premiums, etc). They therefore typically extracted disproportionate value from the client protocols and their users.
The evolution of DeFi 2.0 and beyond will require even more autonomous automation to perform routine on-chain tasks not necessarily motivated by large incentives. We expect that DeFi will continue to demand ever broader, more reliable, more efficient, more trustworthy and less expensive automation solutions, dramatically expanding the role of Keepers towards becoming more generalized ‘Automation Agent Networks.’ PowerPool’s PowerAgent v. 2 is the first such generalised automation network to be available to support the (multi-chain) operation of next-generation composable DeFi protocols.
PowerAgent Automation Network is a fully-distributed, open source system for automating smart contract calls, allowing the protocols to execute routine tasks such as harvesting rewards, compounding them, updating pool weights, and generally any other necessary on-chain activity automatically. The PowerAgent Network is one of PowerPool’s key innovations, and is the leading EVM-compatible trustworthy automation agent network. Not only Ethereum, but almost all EVM chains lack options to hard code for an event to occur at a specific time or event/condition. The closest historical analogue to PowerAgent is Andre Cronje’s KP3R Network. Oracle networks like ChainLink have some overlap in terms of automation jobs, bridging and offchain computation, but ChainLink is likely to be more expensive and less adapted to many jobs than PowerAgent.
The PowerAgent Automation Network is developed and operated by PowerPool DAO on behalf of its independent Community of Keeper nodes, most of whom also operate validator nodes on one or more EVM chains. PowerAgent node software is bundled into DAppNode.
PowerPool also uses PowerAgent to ensure efficient, active management of its own LST-based structured DeFi investment products via SmartVaults/SmartBaskets. Example jobs might include:
PowerAgent can automate any on-chain activity that PowerPool needs for active investment management, especially management of base layer collateral products like diversified LST baskets.
PowerAgent Network recieves Jobs via its web UI (for example - harvest rewards from Sushi staking, update pool weights according to some sort of strategy, get TWAP prices for selected tokens, update stable PowerVault composition every N days according to specified on-chain metrics, etc.