"An era where AI earns money on its own"… Talus launches an on-chain autonomous economy [Coin Interview]

Mike Hanono, Talus co-founder and CEO interview

Implementing autonomous AI agents on the blockchain

"Now the era of AI that earns money on its own"

Mainnet and token launch simultaneously next month

"Korea, a key market for the on-chain AI ecosystem"

"Existing artificial intelligence (AI) remains a 'passive tool' that only responds when users ask questions. Talus (Talus) aims to create AI agents that act, trade, and generate revenue on the blockchain as economic actors."

Mike Hanono, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of the decentralized AI infrastructure project Talus, said this in an interview with Bloomingbit on the 12th. Talus aims to implement an 'Agent Economy' by combining AI and decentralized finance (DeFi) to autonomously carry out economic activities.

"The era of question-answering AI is over… now it acts on its own"

The on-chain AI agent as defined by Talus is not a simple conversational chatbot. While existing large language model (LLM)-based AI have remained 'reactive systems' that only respond to user questions, Talus's agents make decisions and execute transactions on the blockchain themselves.

CEO Hanono explained, "Talus's agents explore data, execute smart contracts, and autonomously handle payments to create economic value," adding, "This is the core of what we call the 'Intelligent Decentralized Economy.'"

The 'On-chain Agent Execution Layer', which fully integrates AI and smart contracts, is Talus's differentiating technology. He emphasized, "Most projects operate AI and blockchain separately, but Talus has fully integrated the two," and said, "Our core technology allows AI to operate directly on smart contracts and make autonomous decisions."

Another differentiator of Talus is its 'Modular Architecture'. It is a structure that allows required functions to be swapped and combined like blocks, enabling rapid implementation of new AI features or services.

The infrastructure layer 'Nexus' and the consumer app 'AvA' are also under development. Nexus serves as the engine that runs AI agents and processes transactions, while AvA serves as the interface that allows users to create and operate agents directly.

CEO Hanono said, "When Nexus and AvA are combined, an ecosystem will be completed in which agents compete or cooperate to create value," and added, "Users can create their own agents, enter them into contests or missions, and receive rewards in the process."

Next month mainnet and token reveal…"Korea, the center of on-chain AI experiments"

Talus is conducting tests of the Validator Network ahead of the mainnet launch next month. A token generation event (TGE) is also scheduled for the same period. The utility token $US will be used for transactions, staking, and reward payments. CEO Hanono stated, "We are preparing reward programs for early holders, and rewards will be distributed differently according to ecosystem contributions."

He said, "We will build a complete ecosystem including 20–30 functioning applications," and added, "Our goal is to show AI agents permeating users' daily lives in various areas such as games, entertainment, and social."

He also expressed strong interest in the Korean market. He said, "Korea is a market with one of the most dynamic virtual asset communities in the world," and "Talus regards Korea as a key testbed for on-chain AI ecosystem experiments."