Eliza vs Virtuals: Where to Deploy Your On-Chain Agent

On-chain AI agents are transforming the world as we know it - enabling agent-to-agent payments for goods and services, new tokenized economies, and new automations.

Two key frameworks are in a race to power the newest apps launched by ai agent developers: Eliza by ai16z and Virtuals Protocol.

When deciding what framework to use for your agent, what should you look at? Here's a breakdown of Eliza and Virtuals and how they stack up in the ai agent developer community.

Eliza

Eliza is an open-source framework from ai16z built for developing and deploying autonomous AI agents. It's become known as the "Next.js of ai Agent frameworks", highlighting it's modular nature.

Its modular design and robust features make it a go-to choice for a growing number of teams.

It's the product of ai16z DAO, a "decentralized venture firm", but maintained by a community of many thousands of developers. Today, Eliza is is one of the fastest-growing open-source movements in crypto.

Technical

• Multi-Agent Support: Build systems with agents that collaborate effectively.
• TypeScript-Based: Clean, maintainable, and scalable codebase.
• Advanced Memory: Retains long-term context for seamless interactions.
• Integration Ready: Works with platforms like Discord, Twitter, and Telegram.
• Solana-Native but Extensible: Works out of the box with Solana, but can be extended to any other chain with plugins.
• Developer Reviews: Developers generally find the protocol easy to get started with, with a low barrier to entry for deploying new agents. There are some complaints about the framework iterating too quickly, and tutorials being quickly depricated.

Business

• Customizable: Adapt to unique use cases across industries.
• Cost-Efficient: Open-source, reducing development costs.
• Versatile: Suitable for industries like customer service, gaming, and beyond.

Community

• Active Ecosystem: Regular updates, plugins, and guides.
• Developer-Friendly Docs: Easy onboarding with clear examples.
• Mainstream Appeal: Attracting non-crypto AI developers due to its strong framework. Eliza was GitHub’s top repository for days in December, earning praise from leading AI developers.

Funding

• Token: the ai16z team launched a token to fund thier dao, and this is the primary source of funding for Eliza's development. The token is not closley related to the ecosystem and seems to be more of a memecoin than a utility token. This creates some uncertainty around stability of future funding due to the volatile nature of memecoins.

Virtuals Protocol

Virtuals Protocol, part of the Base ecosystem, offers a low-code toolkit for building tokenized AI agents. It prioritizes simplicity and token integration rather than extensibility.

Technical

• Low-Code Tools: Accessible for non-technical users.
• Token-Based: Requires VIRTUAL tokens for deployment.
• Basic Architecture: Lacks customization for complex use cases.
• Developer Reviews: Developers have expressed that it's hard to get started deploying, and they are annoyed by the requirement of token staking to deploy agents.

Business

• Token-Driven Model: Links platform usage to token value.
• Niche Focus: Ideal for token-centric ecosystems.
• Restricted Flexibility: Limited to the Base ecosystem.

Community

• Growing Interest: Active promotion within Base.
• Fewer Resources: Limited guides and plugins compared to Eliza.

Funding

• VC Backed: Virtuals has raised substantial funding. Many perceive them to be very profit-oriented, mandating token staking to deploy agents. VC involvement can lead to instability of token prices and development priorities skewing towards token profits vs. improving the product.

Why Eliza Wins

Eliza outshines Virtuals with its flexibility, technical depth, and community support.

To use the words of a friend of mine "Eliza is just brilliantly designed". It's designed with principles standardized by the best web development frameworks on the web - applied for the first time to on-chain agents. The hype behind it is deserved.

Key advantages:

1. Technical Power: Multi-agent systems, extensibility, and robust memory management.
2. Business Versatility: Works across industries without ecosystem lock-in.
3. Community Support: Strong documentation, regular updates, and mainstream adoption.

For developers and entrepreneurs, Eliza is the clear choice for building future-proof AI agents.

That's why our team is doubling down on building in the ecosystem. You'll see more agents, plugins, and apps leveraging Eliza from us in the future.