Mary Lopez Paiva@mary_mlp8

The problem AI agents are becoming increasingly autonomous. They can already search, decide, negotiate — and now they can buy. But there is a critical problem: no one should give an AI agent a credit card. Traditional payment systems were designed for humans, not autonomous software. They lack fine-grained limits, real-time enforcement, and transparent accountability when decisions are made by an AI. Without proper guardrails, agentic commerce becomes a financial risk. The solution Aegis introduces programmable financial guardrails for AI agents. Instead of unrestricted payment methods, Aegis allows AI agents to operate using programmable accounts with: Spending limits per transaction and per day Rule-based approvals and rejections On-chain enforcement through smart contracts Full audit trails for every decision and transaction Every payment is checked before execution, not after the damage is done. How it works An AI agent expresses an intent to make a purchase Aegis evaluates the intent against predefined financial rules Smart contracts enforce limits and policies on-chain Transactions are either approved or blocked in real time All actions are logged and auditable The AI never bypasses the system. The rules are the final authority. Why it matters Agentic commerce is inevitable. Uncontrolled agentic commerce is dangerous. Aegis provides the missing infrastructure layer that makes autonomous spending safe, auditable, and trustworthy — enabling businesses and developers to deploy AI agents without sacrificing financial control. What we built In this project, we built a working prototype of Aegis including: A smart contract–based vault with enforced spending limits A rule-driven approval and rejection flow A live demo showing real transaction execution and blocking A visual audit trail of all decisions This is not a concept. It’s a foundation for safe agentic commerce.

In this hybrid hackathon powered by Arc, developers will build the next generation of agentic commerce systems using Arc with USDC. Explore a world where AI agents and web services can pay for APIs, data, compute, and content in dynamic, usage-based ways, while Arc provides stablecoin-native settlement with predictable USDC fees and deterministic, sub-second finality. This hackathon is supported by Google & Google DeepMind, with a dedicated challenge and $40,000 in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) credits awarded for the best use of Gemini models and Google AI Studio. 📅 January 9 – 24, 2026 • Jan 9 – 23 (Online Phase) – Collaborate and build online with developers and AI innovators from around the world. All projects must be submitted by the end of the online phase on January 23rd. • Jan 23 (On‑site Build Day – San Francisco, CA) – Selected participants will be invited to an exclusive in‑person session to refine their projects and connect directly with mentors. • Jan 24 (On‑site Demos & Awards – San Francisco, CA) – Live pitching sessions to a panel of judges and ecosystem partners, followed by the official winner announcement. Get guidance from Arc and Circle experts through on-site support. 📍 On-site Venue (Jan 23–24): MindsDB SF AI Collective 3154 17th St, San Francisco, California, USA 🤝 Go solo or team up, it's your flow. 🏆Compete for $50,000 in USDC & GCP Credits. 📍 On-site participation is by invitation only. Travel and accommodation expenses will not be covered. 🧑🏻‍💻 Secure your spot now - sign up before the Kick-Off Stream!