Obolos

Demo

About

Obolos lets AI agents buy useful work while people control how much authority they receive. A user can ask it to compare developer tools using current repository activity and produce a checked report. Before execution, the user defines permitted providers, separate HBAR and USDC budgets, a maximum price per repository, and an expiry. The planner discovers our metered repository-analysis service and purchases public GitHub evidence through Hedera x402, settled by Blocky402. A worker generates a report from the purchased evidence, and Circle Agent Wallet on Arc pays a separate verification capability in USDC. The verifier checks source integrity, freshness, coverage and structure. The console brings together the report, purchased units, payment receipts, spending and a history explaining each approved or blocked action. When a provider raises its actual price, the planner chooses an eligible quote or pauses. Increasing the allowance requires an exact, expiring authorization from a pinned controller, which the backend verifies before proceeding. Ledger Key Ring protects the broker's stored inference credential and Hedera payer key; the model receives fixed capabilities instead of those secrets. Our development demonstration uses explicitly labelled Speculos emulation, not physical Ledger hardware. The testnet MVP has completed a full workflow with 0.003 HBAR for three repository records and 0.05 USDC for verification, plus real paid requests through the public HTTPS service. A separate signed mandate increase settled 0.008 HBAR; its subsequent Arc attempt remains pending reconciliation and has not been retried. Obolos makes both successful execution and unresolved outcomes visible rather than treating configuration or a submitted payment as proof of settlement.

How it's made

Obolos uses Next.js, React and TypeScript for the operator console and backend workflow, with separate Node/Express services for the metered data API and private capability broker. The planner is a deterministic stage machine: mandate, discovery, purchase, report and verification. It refreshes provider quotes and enforces allowlists, expiry, per-unit price ceilings and independent currency budgets. Serialized storage and durable payment-intent journals retain pending operations across restarts and prevent automatic retries after ambiguous results. The Hedera service implements native HBAR x402 v2 with the hosted Blocky402 testnet facilitator. It publishes a discovery directory, prices evidence per repository, fetches current public GitHub metadata, and gates delivery on payment. The broker validates the challenge's resource, network, asset, recipient, amount and facilitator fee payer, then checks settlement against Hedera mirror-node transfers. This provides a real service that an agent can discover and purchase without receiving a service API key. Circle Agent Wallet CLI handles the verifier payment in canonical USDC on Arc testnet. The adapter uses a stable idempotency key and checks the resulting chain receipt and token-transfer details. Circle uses its own wallet session and signing infrastructure; Ledger does not hold the Circle wallet key. GPT-5 nano generates the report from purchased evidence, while deterministic checks assess source integrity, freshness, coverage and structure rather than claiming to prove every sentence true. For Ledger, we built a disclosed source adaptation of upstream wallet-cli ring to support Speculos transport and isolated session state. Official Sync and Ethereum applications run in the emulator against the real Ledger staging protocol. Ring encrypts the broker credential bundle, which is decrypted only inside the trusted broker. Ethereum personal-message signatures bind allowance increases to the run, nonce, expiry and complete new mandate; the backend pins the controller and retains both mandate versions and the signature. This is software emulation, not hardware-backed security. Vercel serves obolos.app through temporary HTTPS tunnels to persistent app/data processes on the operator's Mac; the broker and emulators remain local. Payments settle on-chain, while inference, orchestration, the broker and supporting services remain off-chain. The UI follows the selected Foundation reference on Mobbin with monochrome surfaces, colorful actions and an original flat illustration. AI tools and subagents assisted implementation, tests, documentation and illustration. The human directed the product flow, design references, integration choices, funding, credentials and approval decisions. The repository includes architecture, execution evidence, developer feedback and AI attribution. A September 3 concept paper predates the event and is disclosed separately from the implementation built during ETHOnline; organizer eligibility and sponsor acceptance of the emulator/source-adapter setup remain unconfirmed.