FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is RigoBlock?

   Rigoblock is an agent-native protocol for building onchain vault agents. It combines on-chain vault contracts, a safe off-chain validation engine, NAV Shield protection, and multiple operator interfaces — from a web dashboard to an AI-powered trading chat to an X402 API for autonomous agents. The protocol is deployed on 7 EVM chains and has been live since 2018.

2. What is an onchain vault agent?

   An onchain vault agent is an autonomous AI entity that manages assets inside a Rigoblock smart vault. The agent uses the X402 API for stateless, pay-per-call DeFi access and operates under protocol-enforced safety rails — NAV Shield and Scoped Delegation — so it can trade and rebalance but can never drain the vault or bypass the protocol’s guardrails.

3. What is a smart vault?

   A smart vault is a non-custodial smart contract that holds and manages digital tokens on behalf of its operator and depositors. Anyone can deploy one permissionlessly. Vaults support swaps, liquidity provision (Uniswap V2/V3/V4), perpetuals (GMX V2), aggregated routing (0x), and bridging (Across) — all through whitelisted adapters governed by the RigoBlock DAO.

4. What makes RigoBlock different?

   Rigoblock is purpose-built as agent-compatible vault infrastructure. Its unique combination of NAV Shield (protocol-enforced circuit breaker), off-chain transaction simulation, granular Scoped Delegation, and X402 micropayment API creates a safe non-custodial agent infrastructure — where AI agents can autonomously manage vaults without being able to drain funds. No other protocol offers this level of agent-native safety guarantees at the smart contract level.

5. What is the Swap Shield?

   Swap Shield is oracle price protection — the first line of defense in Rigoblock’s two-layer agent safety stack. Before building any swap calldata, the system compares the DEX quote against the vault’s on-chain BackGeoOracle 5-minute TWAP price (via vault.convertTokenAmount). A trade is blocked if the DEX quote is more than 5% worse than the oracle price (bad fill from poor liquidity or stale DEX state), or more than 10% better (stale oracle or manipulated route). When no oracle price feed exists for a token, Swap Shield gracefully allows the swap only for selling non-tracked tokens such as airdrops or direct transfers — no false blocks for legitimate edge cases. Swap Shield is completely separate from slippage protection; it operates at the oracle-price level before the NAV Shield’s portfolio-impact check runs.

6. What is NAV Shield?

   NAV Shield is a deterministic protocol-level firewall built into every Rigoblock vault. Before every trade, the transaction’s impact on the vault’s Net Asset Value is simulated off-chain. If NAV would drop more than 10% versus the pre-swap level or 24-hour baseline, the transaction is blocked. NAV Shield runs outside the agent’s control surface — no agent, autonomous strategy, or API caller can disable or circumvent it. It is the industry’s first protocol-level circuit breaker for onchain vault agents.

7. What is the X402 API?

   The X402 API at trader.rigoblock.com enables external AI agents to access DeFi trading via the HTTP 402 / X402 micropayment standard. Agents pay per call in USDC on Base — no subscriptions, no API keys, no custody. The service is registered in Coinbase’s x402 Bazaar for automatic agent discovery.

8. What is Scoped Delegation for AI agents?

   Scoped Delegation lets vault operators assign Trader rights to an AI agent on a per-chain, per-function-selector basis. The agent can swap, provide liquidity, or bridge assets within whitelisted protocols — but is cryptographically barred from withdrawing funds, changing vault ownership, or altering delegation settings. Delegation is fully revocable at any time, giving operators complete control over their autonomous strategies.

9. How do autonomous execution modes work?

   Rigoblock supports two modes. In Manual mode, the agent prepares the transaction and the operator signs it with their own wallet. In Delegated mode, the vault grants temporary encrypted keys to the agent for fully autonomous, revocable settlement. Both modes go through NAV Shield and the full 7-point validation pipeline before any transaction is broadcast.

10. How does Rigoblock prevent rogue agent behavior?

    Through three protocol-level layers that operate entirely outside the agent’s control surface. First, Swap Shield compares every DEX quote against the vault’s 5-minute BackGeoOracle TWAP and blocks trades that are more than 5% worse than oracle (bad fill) or more than 10% better (stale/manipulated) — catching bad quotes before they reach the portfolio-impact check. Second, NAV Shield simulates the overall portfolio impact and blocks any trade that would reduce vault NAV by more than 10%. Third, Scoped Delegation restricts which functions an agent may call at all. Even a compromised agent key or a jailbroken AI model cannot bypass any of these layers.

11. Can AI agents operate vaults autonomously?

    Yes, with protocol-level safeguards. Vault operators delegate scoped, per-chain, per-function permissions to an agent wallet. The agent can execute pre-approved actions but cannot withdraw funds, transfer ownership, change delegation settings, or bypass NAV Shield. Delegation is revocable at any time.

12. Which chains does RigoBlock support?

    The protocol is deployed on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, BSC, Unichain, and Polygon — 7 EVM-compatible chains. The X402 trading API supports agent operations across all deployed chains.

13. What DeFi integrations are available?

    Uniswap V2, V3, and V4 (swaps and liquidity), 0x Aggregator (best-execution routing), GMX V2 (perpetuals), Across (cross-chain bridging), and BackGeoOracle (on-chain price feeds with over 70,000 price updates).

14. What are GRG tokens?

    GRG is the ERC-20 governance and incentive token of the RigoBlock network. It powers the Proof-of-Performance reward system — vault operators earn GRG for generating real returns — and represents voting power in fully on-chain governance when staked.

15. How does Proof-of-Performance work?

    Proof-of-Performance is an on-chain algorithm that replaces management and performance fees. Vault operators — human or AI — earn GRG rewards proportional to their vault’s value and returns. To qualify, operators must stake a minimum amount of GRG — aligning operator success directly with depositor outcomes.

16. Who is building RigoBlock?

    Rigo Investment Sagl, a Swiss company, builds and maintains the protocol. RigoBlock is validated by the Uniswap Foundation (UFSF Cohort 2 and Retro Grant recipient) and is an H-Farm Blockchain Business Solution alumnus. The codebase is open source under the Apache 2.0 License at github.com/RigoBlock.

17. How do I get started?

    Deploy an agent-compatible vault at app.rigoblock.com, try AI-powered trading at trader.rigoblock.com, or explore the developer documentation at docs.rigoblock.com.