The Architecture of On-Chain AI Agent Execution: Beyond Smart Contracts

On-chain AI agents invert the architecture of smart contracts, using a blockchain as their state layer and executing asynchronously. This allows for probabilistic reasoning, looping, and backtracking without requiring new contract deployments. This matters for DeFi applications that require context, inference, or multi-step decision-making. To build on-chain AI agents, consider using an agent runtime with a memory pool, decision engine, and action executor.