Author: William M. Peaster, Bankless; Compiled by: Tao Zhu, Golden Finance
The architects behind some of Starknet's most important gaming innovations are developing Daydreams, a system designed to allow AI agents to play any game on-chain.
So what do you need to know here? Let us give you a quick overview.
What are Daydreams
Lordofafew, also known as Loaf, is the founder of on-chain game infrastructure provider Cartridge and the new on-chain MMO Eternum, as well as a key contributor to the Eliza codebase of ai16z, one of the most popular platforms for launching AI agents today.
In a recent post on X, Loaf highlighted how Daydreams would operate within the context of the Eliza framework.
In the Eliza v1 architecture, profiles determine the personality of agents, databases provide memory, runtime coordinates logic, and discrete plugins (e.g., for tweeting or on-chain operations) define all functionalities — which means agents are limited to these predefined modules, with each client (like X or Discord) only hosting interactions of the agents.
That said, Daydreams is a new generative agent library intended for the upcoming Eliza v2 release, which will serve as an optional plugin allowing Eliza agents to think dynamically instead of being constrained by predefined hardcoded actions like in the v1 system.
Daydreams is part of the popular Dojo on-chain game engine stack being developed on Starknet, which will be chain-agnostic, meaning it can interact with any on-chain game across any network.
At the core, the Daydreams plugin will adopt a 'layered task network' approach, constantly updating as agents work towards their goals — for example, conquering Eternum or optimizing DeFi strategies over days or weeks.
The memory of agents is driven by so-called vector embeddings, storing each 'thought chain', which can then be shared with other agents via collective mechanisms for collaborative learning. This paves the way for long-term tasks; in other words, the success of one agent will bring successful strategies to other agents in the group.
The importance of Daydreams
The Eliza v2 agents supported by Daydreams will become dynamic problem solvers, capable of adapting, evolving, and even creating dedicated code for new scenarios on the fly. Therefore, they are particularly well-suited for thriving as on-chain game agents.
Additionally, as Daydreams integrates with the Dojo engine, developers will soon be able to use a streamlined toolkit to build the next generation of AI players, capable of handling everything from exploration and resource management to alliances and wars in any on-chain game. This plug-and-play dynamism should be very powerful and help solidify on-chain gaming as one of the next great frontiers for AI agents.
The first Eliza game experiment
Loaf has already stated that the next season of Eternum aims to have at least 1,000 Daydreams-supported agent players participating in the game. These agents are not non-player characters (NPCs), but true participants in the game world, capable of fighting independently or collaborating with human players.
This is just a glimpse into the future of the on-chain gaming scenarios involving Eliza agents. Other projects, such as Treasure's SMOL life simulation RPG, Nifty Island multiplayer platform, and Hyperfy metaverse, are also experimenting with Eliza technology, and more games will follow suit. Stay tuned.
What happens next
How will humanity adapt to the post-Daydreams world?
I speculate that it will become increasingly common for players and guilds to launch their own game agents to serve them, accumulate resources, etc., without the need for active management.
For instance, consider the possibility of accessing a virtual game asset marketplace within a metaverse project. You could carry a Daydreams-driven agent with you, leveraging the learning and resources gained from interactions with other games and DeFi protocols, relying on it to trade on your behalf based on your existing strategies.
This memory system and game hopping, which involves acquiring learning and resources from one on-chain environment and bringing those insights and assets to another on-chain environment, is particularly important for open on-chain game ecosystems like Realms World, as it allows for interoperability between different franchises.
Similarly, we might see many Daydreaming Eliza agents coming together around ecosystem tokens (like the native $LORDS token of Realms World or $SMOL of Smolverse) as the main tokens for their digital activity venues.
Of course, there are also peer issues, or if you prefer, competition issues. The upcoming Parallel Colony AI game will use the Wayfinder protocol, which is a cross-chain universal framework for deploying on-chain AI agents, similar to Daydreams.
Personally, I believe that both Daydreams and Wayfinder have bright futures, although their architectures are absolutely different — for example, Daydreams is not tokenomics-centric, while Wayfinder is centered around $PRIME and $PROMPT tokens. It will be interesting to see how these different approaches develop in terms of market share over the next few years.
But regardless of what happens, I believe we are on the brink of a fundamental shift in the gaming domain, and Daydreams is the latest harbinger of the upcoming prosperity at the intersection of on-chain gaming and AI agents. A new type of virtual society is coming, and the fun is just beginning.