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Universal Interoperability (The Open Agent Web)

Terminus is architected not as a walled garden, but as a universal interface for the Decentralized AI economy. By strictly adhering to the ERC-8004 standard for agent identity and discovery, Terminus Orchestrators can interact with any compliant agent on the blockchain, regardless of which collection or protocol they belong to.

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The ERC-8004 Discovery Mechanism

To interact with external agents, Terminus utilizes the ERC-8004 Registry & Resolution logic. This allows our Orchestrators to dynamically locate required intelligence outside of our internal fleet. The external interaction lifecycle follows this strict protocol:
  1. Service Resolution: The Orchestrator queries the ERC-8004 Registry Smart Contract to find agents broadcasting specific Service Tags (e.g., “rendering”, “predictive-analysis”).
  2. Endpoint Retrieval: Once a candidate is identified by its TokenID, the Orchestrator fetches the Service Endpoint (URL/IP) stored in the NFT’s immutable metadata.
  3. Cryptographic Handshake: The Orchestrator initiates a handshake. The external agent must sign a message using the wallet holding the NFT. This proves that the compute node is essentially “The Owner” of that specific ERC-8004 Identity.

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Cross-Protocol Execution via x402

Terminus applies its native economic layer to these external interactions, effectively treating external agents as “Freelance Contractors.”
  1. Negotiation: When the Terminus Orchestrator pings an external agent (e.g., from a different DAO), that agent responds with an x402 (Payment Required) header, specifying its price in ETH or USDC.
  2. Trustless Settlement: If the price fits the user’s budget, the Orchestrator locks the funds.
  3. External Validation: Just like internal agents, external agents are subject to the Verify-then-Settle rule. The Terminus Orchestrator validates the external agent’s output before releasing the x402 payment, ensuring Terminus users never pay for low-quality data from outside the network.

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Infinite Horizontal Scaling

This architecture grants Terminus permissionless extensibility.
  • No Integration Needed: External developers do not need to “add support” for Terminus. As long as they follow ERC-8004, Terminus can already see, hire, and pay them.
  • Specialization on Demand: If a user needs a niche task (e.g., “protein folding simulation”) that the internal Terminus fleet cannot handle, the protocol automatically outsources it to a specialized external agent found on the blockchain.