We are currently witnessing a paradox in Artificial Intelligence: AI agents are becoming incredibly smart, capable of writing code, reasoning through complex logic, and executing tasks autonomously.

Yet, they can not pay for things on their own. Every time an agent needs to access an API, buy compute, or use a data service, a human has to step in and handle the payment. And that breaks the idea of true autonomy.

Handshake58 (Subnet 58) on Bittensor is built to fix exactly that. It is building the “Trust Action Layer”, a decentralized payment and verification protocol that gives AI agents their own wallets, allowing them to transact with the world seamlessly, permissionlessly, and instantly.

Fresh off a massive crowdfunding campaign on Bitstarter, where it raised its full 220 TAO target in just 5 minutes, Handshake58 is rapidly positioning itself as the “Visa” of the AI economy.

The Problem: Agents Can Think, But They Can’t Pay

The current internet economy is built for humans. Payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal require Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, bank accounts, and identity verification. They rely on monthly subscriptions (e.g., $20/month for ChatGPT) or credit card transactions that carry high fees (2.9% + $0.30).

This legacy infrastructure breaks the “Agent Economy” in three ways:

1. Friction: An autonomous agent cannot “subscribe” to a service on its own; a human must intervene.
2. Cost: Agents operate in milliseconds and micro-tasks. Paying a $0.30 transaction fee for an API call that costs $0.0001 is economically impossible.
3. Trust: If an agent pays an anonymous provider for data, how does it know it won’t get scammed?

The Solution: The DRAIN Protocol

Handshake58 solves these problems using a proprietary protocol called DRAIN (Decentralized Runtime for AI Networks). This architecture combines the speed of off-chain payments with the security of on-chain settlement, creating a system where machines can trade with machines.

The architecture rests on two powerful pillars:

1. Instant Settlement (USDC on Polygon)

To solve the cost and speed issues, Handshake58 utilizes payment channels using USDC on the Polygon network.

• How it works: Instead of paying for every single API call on the blockchain (which is slow and expensive), an agent opens a “channel” by depositing funds into a smart contract. Kind of like opening a tab at a bar.
• The Benefit: Once the tab is open, the agent can stream thousands of micropayments (as low as $0.0001) instantly and off-chain. There are zero gas fees for these transactions.
• Finality: When the task is done, the agent closes the channel. The smart contract calculates the total and settles the bill in one final on-chain transaction. This ensures agents deal in stable currency (USDC) with millisecond settlement times.

2. Decentralized Validation (Bittensor)

To solve the trust issue, Handshake58 leverages the Bittensor network.

• Proof of Service: In a decentralized world, you don’t know who is on the other end of an API. Handshake58 validators act as automated “mystery shoppers.” They constantly test providers for uptime, latency, and quality.
• Incentives: Providers are ranked by a “TAO Score.” Reliable providers earn TAO emissions (currently ~49 TAO/day across the subnet), while poor performers are penalized. This means an agent doesn’t have to guess who to trust; the network automatically filters out bad actors, ensuring payments only go to reliable vendors.

Why It Matters: Unlocking the Machine Economy

Handshake58 is not just a payment gateway; it is the infrastructure that allows AI to scale via Reed’s Law, creating exponential value through collaboration.

Imagine an autonomous coding agent building a website. Today, if it needs a logo, it has to stop and ask a human to generate one. With Handshake58:

1. The Coding Agent automatically hires a Design Agent (perhaps running on a different Bittensor subnet).
2. It opens a payment channel and streams $0.05 in USDC for the logo.
3. It validates the work instantly.
4. The transaction settles without a human ever knowing it happened.

This capability unlocks Agent-to-Agent (A2A) commerce, turning AI from isolated chatbots into interconnected economies.

Current Status & Ecosystem

Handshake58 is fully live, and the ecosystem is expanding fast. The project has taken an “infrastructure-first” approach, ensuring compatibility with the tools developers actually use.

• Integrations: The marketplace currently supports integrations with major AI models including Claude, Grok, and OpenAI, as well as Bittensor-native projects like Chutes AI (SN64).

• Agent Compatibility: It natively supports MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, meaning agents like Claude Desktop can effectively “plug in” a Handshake wallet and start buying resources immediately.
• Marketplace: The team is actively working to onboard every Bittensor subnet API, effectively creating a unified app store where agents can shop for compute, storage, and intelligence.

The Team

The project is driven by a lean, crypto-native team focused on open-source transparency:

• Artur Markus: The technical visionary and inventor of the DRAIN protocol. He leads the development of the marketplace and the validator logic.
• Harry Jackson: Leads operations and business development, focusing on onboarding subnet owners and expanding the provider network.

Beyond these roles, no further details about the team’s background or structure are publicly available.

How to Get Involved

Handshake58 is permissionless, meaning anyone can participate right now:

• For Users: If you already have some USDC, you can connect a Polygon-compatible wallet to handshake58.com and immediately start using AI services without a subscription.
• For Developers: You can run a miner to sell your own API services and earn TAO, or integrate the Handshake SDK to let your agents pay for themselves.
• For Investors: As a subnet on Bittensor, SN58 is an investable asset that captures value through the growth of agent traffic and TAO emissions.

Conclusion

We are moving toward a future where billions of AI agents will perform trillions of tasks daily. They won’t use credit cards, and they won’t wait for bank approvals. Handshake58 is building the plumbing for this future: a high-speed, trustless, and efficient financial layer that finally lets AI do business.

Website: handshake58.com

Check out their GitHub at Handshake58/HS58-subnet

Follow @handshake_58 on X