If DeFi had a wishlist, the top two items would be better user experience and stronger security—key ingredients for onboarding the next billion users to web3. For years, DeFi’s biggest hurdle has been making itself more approachable. Complex interfaces, unfamiliar terms, and manual processes have kept many potential users from diving in.
DeFAI changes the game by introducing AI agents into the mix. Think ChatGPT, but for DeFi—where you can interact with your finances through a natural, conversational interface. You tell the agent what you want, and it uses its tools to handle the rest, making DeFi smarter, more approachable, and easier to navigate.
Of course, improving the user experience is only half the battle—security is just as important. That’s where Nillion Signature tools come in. They provide the foundation for building secure, intuitive DeFAI agents that users can trust to sign and execute transactions without ever exposing their private keys.
DeFAI Agents ???? Nillion Signatures
Building DeFAI agents that are both intuitive and secure requires the right combination of tools. With Nillion’s SecretSigner, developers can create agents that sign transactions without ever exposing sensitive private keys to the agent itself. This ensures users can trust these agents to execute transactions safely while keeping their assets fully protected. Here’s how it works:
1. Secure Signing via Nillion LangChain Tools
Nillion’s LangChain tools leverage SecretSigner to enable secure transaction signing. Users can store their ETH account private keys as secrets within the Nillion Network and grant a specific AI agent compute permissions to the private key. The agent never sees the private key in plain text but can securely use it to sign transactions. Users maintain full control and can revoke compute access at any time, immediately preventing the agent from signing transactions on their behalf.
2. Transaction Creation Tools for DeFi Workflows
To streamline decentralized finance workflows, the AI agent is equipped with tools specifically designed for managing swaps and transaction creation. These tools work seamlessly with Nillion’s signing capabilities:
- Swap Utilities: price-checking tools to find the best token swap rates on platforms like Uniswap and other utilities to assess liquidity and optimize trade execution
- Transaction Builders: creation of swap transactions and approval transactions for spending token amounts, ensuring all necessary parameters—like slippage, gas fees, and token amounts—are calculated and included accurately.
These tools work together to give the agent everything it needs to create and sign transactions securely. The transaction creation tools handle the details of building valid swaps, while Nillion’s infrastructure ensures private keys stay protected throughout. This setup makes it possible for DeFAI agents to safely execute transactions for users while keeping a user’s private key secure.
DeFAI Agent Demo with Nillion Signatures
I stored the private key to my ETH account in Nillion and gave the AI agent compute permissions. This setup allows the agent to securely sign transactions on my behalf without ever accessing or reconstructing my private key.
In the demo, I chat with the DeFAI agent, asking it to buy $1 worth of eth. Here’s what happens behind the scenes:
- Fetch Pool Data: The agent ensures the trade is viable by checking price and liquidity.
- Approve Tokens: The agent creates an approval transaction to allow the Router to spend my USDC and securely signs it with Nillion.
- Execute Swap: The agent creates the swap transaction, specifying all trade parameters like slippage and gas fees, and securely signs it with Nillion.
- Receive Tokens: The WETH from the swap is sent directly to my wallet, and I can check out the result onchain with the transaction hash.
This DeFAI demo highlights how AI agents, powered by Nillion’s signature tools, make DeFi more approachable while keeping your private key protected. By handling everything from checking pool data to signing transactions, the agent takes care of the complexity so you don’t have to. DeFAI offers a smarter, safer way to engage with DeFi—one that’s as intuitive as it should be.
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