Olas (Autonolas)
One of the more substantive agent networks, betting that ownership and on-chain transparency beat rented chatbots.
Pros
- Real on-chain activity: millions of agent transactions
- Pearl gives non-technical users a run-and-own agent app
- Strong emphasis on verifiable, transparent agent actions
- Backed by a $13.8M raise and an accelerator program
Cons
- Staking-and-rewards model can feel like yield farming
- Desktop-app UX still asks a lot of mainstream users
- OLAS rewards tie usefulness to token incentives
Olas, formerly Autonolas, is a network for building and co-owning autonomous AI agents, built by the R&D firm Valory and live since 2022. Its consumer face is Pearl, marketed as an AI-agent app store.
What it is
The protocol provides a composable stack for decentralized services: automation, oracles, and co-owned AI agents. OLAS is staked to operate services and locked as veOLAS for governance. Pearl is the front door for regular users: install the app, stake OLAS, run an agent, and as the agent meets daily work targets the OLAS rewards accrue to you. It ships agents for prediction markets, DeFi portfolio management, influencer posting, and more.
How it works
Agents run off-chain but settle and record on-chain, and Olas leans hard on verifiability: every agent action is meant to be visible and traceable in real time. The network reported millions of agent transactions in 2025, a meaningful share of them agent-to-agent, and raised $13.8M led by 1kx to fund Pearl, reaching a v1 release late in the year.
The verdict
Olas is one of the few agent projects with real transaction volume rather than just token volume, and its ownership-and-transparency pitch is a genuine contrast to centralized AI app stores. The honest caveats: the stake-to-earn loop resembles yield farming, so it is worth checking whether agents are useful or merely incentivized, and the desktop-app experience still asks more of users than a web app would. Substantive, but read the reward mechanics before you commit capital.