Eliza Labs, creators of the open-source Eliza agent framework, has announced a strategic research partnership with Stanford University’s Future of Digital Currency Initiative (FDCI) to explore the transformative role of autonomous AI agents in digital currency systems. The collaboration marks the establishment of the first AI x Web3 Lab within FDCI, a leading program for digital currency research.

Set to launch in the first quarter of 2025, the partnership brings together Stanford’s renowned academic expertise and Eliza Labs’ innovation in autonomous agent development. This initiative aims to address critical questions around the integration of AI agents in decentralized financial systems, particularly how these agents can establish trust, coordinate actions, and make autonomous decisions in evolving digital economies.

Professors Dan Boneh and David Mazières, who will oversee the program, highlighted the unique opportunity the collaboration presents. “By combining FDCI’s established infrastructure with Eliza Labs’ expertise in multi-agent systems, we’re positioning ourselves at the forefront of this transformative technology,” the professors said.

Shaw Walters, Founder of Eliza Labs, emphasized the importance of the partnership in reshaping the future of financial systems. “We are incredibly excited to partner with Stanford’s Future of Digital Currency Initiative, one of the most prestigious programs for digital currency research, to explore how AI agents can reshape the future of financial systems,” Walters said. “Together, we’re combining Stanford’s academic rigor with our widely used Eliza AI agent framework to drive trust and governance in decentralized economies.”

The research program will be rolled out in three phases over the course of 2025. The first phase will focus on developing new frameworks for how autonomous agents establish and verify trust within digital currency networks, leveraging Eliza Labs’ existing trust architecture. 

The second phase will investigate how AI agents interact, make decisions, and coordinate actions in digital economic environments. Finally, the third phase will create new protocols for governing autonomous agent communities in decentralized systems.

The partnership will produce open-source frameworks, simulation platforms, and practical applications, including automated market-making systems and decentralized financial services. Findings will be shared through peer-reviewed publications and industry presentations, contributing to the development of foundational standards for autonomous agent integration.