ELI5 What are LLM – Coin Operated Agents on Avalanche (CoA)?

A new kind of blockchain wherein the chain consists of a genesis block, followed by blocks that contain free-form transaction types, signed by public keys, that contain arbitrary text inputs.

A new Avalanche Subnet, with its own VM and validator set.

This is how Avalanche founder Emin Gun Sirer introduced Coin Operated Agents at the 2023 Avalanche Summit in Barcelona!

If you’re a bit confused, don’t worry!

In this ELI5 article we take a closer look at the very basic concepts behind LLM-based (Large Language Model) validators, or as Emin Gun Sirer dubbed them : Coin Operated Agents. This new type of Avalanche validator, running on their own subnet, may revolutionize Web3 by joining two of the most exciting technologies of our time : DeFi and Artificial Intelligence!

So, what are Coin Operated Agents and what do they do?

The CoA concept, introduced by Emin Gun Sirer in his keynote speech at Barcelona Avalanche Summit, 2023, is a validator – an active Avalanche network participant with at least 2000 AVAX stake – that processes its own Large Language Model and interprets on-chain AI prompts.

The AI prompts are stored on-chain, like AVAX or Bitcoin transactions.

In fact, the proposed model is a free-form blockchain where each transaction is an AI prompt signed by the Avalanche participant. The block or transaction is just human-readable words, no computer code or compiled smart contract bytecode (view media on original tweet):

Here’s the model, as presented in Barcelona 2023:

Blocks are free-form data. Each entry could be free-form human-readable text written in any arbitrary language. As long as a LLM can interpret and process it, and it contains a valid signature (like a transaction), then it’s a valid block and will get honored by the validator’s(CoA) LLM!

Validators and GAS

Each validator would run a standalone LLM with a version number stored in the genesis block.

A validator would also keep a map of address balances to be used for processing fees / costs, similar to the GAS concept. GAS would be settled in an Avalanche-compatible token, like AVAX.

Human-readable Smart Contracts

In this model, the transactions are simply human language. It could be a legal contract or a simple command like “from June 1st 2023 onwards, Mr. John Doe is entitled to 20 oranges at my store located at Simpsons House, Springfield”.

Participants no longer need to code their business logic in machine language smart contracts. Human language would be enough! It would instantly turn every single person into a smart contract developer!

This has the potential to onboard billions of users from around the globe. Every person, from every country, can now publish a smart contract in their own native language, with zero barrier to entry into the Web3 world!

Everyone automatically becomes a smart contract programmer!

What about ambiguities?

Several questions arise regarding the use of natural or free-form language as transactions. If there are ambiguities in human-written legal contracts, wouldn’t there still be ambiguities when they’re stored on-chain?

This is a great question.

Initially, Coin Operated Agents is an experimental concept. For sure, a deterministic LLM would need to be developed for it in order for it to gain mainstream adoption. With a deterministic language model, prompts would always be decided the same way, no contradictions or ambiguities.

Conclusion

Avalanche is pushing the state of the art of DeFi by introducing a novel concept which unites two of the world’s most exciting technologies : DeFi and AI!

Until now, there weren’t concrete examples of how decentralized finance driven applications could leverage the amazing new capabilities of AI-trained models such as GPT.

With Avalanche Coin Operated Agents running on subnets, Emin Gun Sirer has once again proposed a revolutionary concept that could open a world of new opportunities and ideas. By having human-readable instructions be interpreted as smart contracts, billions of users from the world could be instantly onboarded onto Web3 by speaking their own native language as a smart contract business language.

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