"Leading 'Automated Finance' with AI"... MagicNewton Foundation to Unveil Token Next Week [Cointerview]

Sean Li, CEO of MagicLabs & Mohammad Akabanik, Executive Director of MagicNewton Foundation Interview

Founded Web3 infrastructure startup 'MagicLabs'... Surpassed 50 million wallets

Business diversification through AI agent platform 'MagicNewton'

Focusing on user-centric design, from UX to security and trust

MagicNewton Foundation to unveil its own token 'NEWT' next week

"Technology has always made human life simpler. Through artificial intelligence (AI), I want to enable the use of virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) without complicated processes."

Sean Li, CEO of MagicLabs, stated in an interview with BloomingBit on the 21st about the goals of the AI agent platform MagicNewton (Magicnewton.com), which launched this May.

Sean is a developer who studied software engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada. The software 'Kitematic,' which he developed during his school years, was acquired by Docker and has now become a product called Docker Desktop.

Subsequently, in 2016, Sean entered the industry after investing in virtual assets and engaging in various development projects on the Ethereum (ETH) network. In 2018, together with his university alumnus Jae-Min Jin, he founded MagicLabs, the company behind MagicNewton.

We spoke with Sean about the core values and long-term goals of MagicLabs and MagicNewton.

50 million wallets onboarded through UX innovation

As a Web3 infrastructure project, MagicLabs initially focused above all on improving the user experience (UX). Sean said, "I thought that in order for the public to embrace virtual assets, it was necessary to enhance the user experience," and added, "I felt that mass adoption would never be possible with complicated methods like 'seed phrases' (a kind of phrase required for wallet login)."

To this end, MagicLabs developed an embedded virtual asset wallet utilizing Web2 methods such as email and social media (SNS) logins and gained recognition by applying it to various applications. Notably, they collaborated with the world's largest decentralized prediction market Polymarket, Helium, and Korea's Naver Financial. The number of wallets created through MagicLabs' solution has reached 50 million, and an ecosystem of 200,000 developers has also been established.

"Financial activities with simple commands"... Focusing on security and trust

Last May, MagicLabs launched the AI agent platform 'MagicNewton' and began diversifying its business. An AI agent is a tool that executes virtual asset financial activities according to the user's preferred investment style. For example, if a user enters a command such as "Buy Ethereum when gas fees are low," the AI agent will purchase Ethereum according to the gas fee threshold set by the user.

MagicNewton also shares the goal of 'improving user experience' like MagicLabs. Sean explained the background of MagicNewton's launch by saying, "There is a vast amount of on-chain data in the virtual asset industry, and I believed that automating this with AI could further enhance the user experience."

Sean also noted that various systems have been built to ensure the reliability of MagicNewton. These systems are powered by the Newton protocol.

First, an 'Automation Guardrails' function has been implemented that acts as a kind of restriction for AI agents. Users can set specific conditions such as eligible tokens for investment and daily spending limits to clearly define the scope of activity for AI agents. This is a measure to prevent unexpected incidents.

'Verifiability,' which combines zero-knowledge proofs (Zk Proof) and a trusted execution environment (TEE), guarantees the protection of all code and data and enables precise verification of AI agents.

Finally, it will be mandatory for those wishing to sell their AI agents in the AI agent marketplace to stake tokens. With this structure, sellers are rewarded when their AI agents operate normally and penalized for any abnormal behavior.

Sean emphasized, "Since last year, numerous LLM-based AI agents have come out, but most do not prioritize trust and security. For AI agents carrying out financial activities, it is crucial to ensure reliability, as they deal with real assets."

Foundation to unveil token next week... "Expecting participation from the Korean community"

Meanwhile, the MagicNewton Foundation plans to hold a Token Generation Event (TGE) for its own token 'NEWT' next week.

NEWT will be used for ▲staking by ZK rollup validators ▲the AI agent marketplace and evaluation system ▲gas fees ▲governance, and other core elements of the ecosystem. Mohammad Akabanik, Executive Director of MagicNewton Foundation, said, "NEWT is the key to institutionalizing trust within the ecosystem," and added, "We aim to create a healthy ecosystem through evaluators and AI agent assessments."

Director Mohammad especially emphasized the importance of the Korean community. He stated, "Recently, clear regulations for Web3 are being established globally, centered around the US, and I understand that Korea has also joined this trend. Moreover, Korea has a high level of acceptance for new technology." He continued, "We plan to actively engage with the Korean community by translating technical documents and hosting various events."

Finally, MagicNewton's long-term goal is to usher in the era of automated finance through fintech innovation. Sean summed up MagicNewton's vision as "Auto-Fi (Autonomous Finance)," stating, "The future that MagicNewton aims for is a time when users own and command their own AI agents, making investments easy for everyone."