Automating Escrow with USDC and AI - Corey Cooper, Circle

Introduction & Overview 00:00

• Corey Cooper introduces himself as leading developer relations at Circle, a fintech firm specializing in stablecoins (USDC, EURC).
• Presentation explores how Circle is combining USDC (programmable money) with AI, focusing on escrow automation.
• Circle began in 2013 and is backed by major financial firms like BlackRock and Fidelity.
• Circle emphasizes trust and transparency by fully backing its stablecoins one-to-one with fiat and short-term treasuries.
• The company is a leader in working with regulators to advance the adoption and legitimacy of stablecoins, with compliant offerings across ~20 blockchains.
• Circle has settled over $26 trillion in transactions globally.

Circle’s Developer Tooling & Ecosystem 04:27

• Circle issues stablecoins (USDC, EURC) on multiple blockchains and offers additional services:
  • Tokenized money market fund via Hashnote, allowing 24/7 liquidity.
  • Liquidity services for enterprises for minting/redeeming USDC from secure, enterprise-grade vault wallets.
  • Developer tooling includes embeddable wallets, smart contract deployment (Circle Contracts), paymaster (enabling gas fees in USDC), and a cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP) for seamless multi-chain transactions.
  • Wallet users can pay gas fees with their USDC balance, creating a more familiar traditional payments experience.
  • Actively developing unified multi-chain balance management and new innovations.

USDC: Programmable Digital Dollar 08:06

• USDC is native to the internet, operating without borders and with near-instant global transfer via blockchain/smart contracts.
• Anyone can build permissionlessly on top of USDC.
• USDC issuance flow: Approved business wires fiat to Circle; Circle mints equivalent USDC; one-to-one redemption is also supported.
• Circle publishes monthly attestations and employs independent auditors to ensure full backing and transparency.

USDC Smart Contract Features 11:27

• Smart contract implementation is standardized for each blockchain deployment, with safety and compliance in mind.
• Key programmable features:
  • Allow/block lists to comply with sanctions and protect users.
  • “Spend on behalf” delegations for scenarios like corporate cards with spending caps, scalable to large organizations.
  • Potential for authorized minters (future partnerships) beyond Circle.
  • Multi-signature (multi-IG) transaction approvals for large/critical transactions.
  • Cold storage support for preparing and signing transactions offline, enabling workflows like scheduled payroll.
  • Upgradeability, recently used to improve gas efficiency in USDC v2.2.
• Core smart contract functions: balanceOf, totalSupply, allowance, transfer, transferFrom, approve.

USDC for AI Agents & Automated Payments 19:05

• USDC offers near-instant settlement, built-in verification, and programmability—attributes well-suited for autonomous AI agents.
• Agent-to-agent (robotic) payments benefit from no chargebacks and 24/7/365 availability, without banking hour restrictions.
• Public blockchain enables fully auditable, verifiable transactions and composable logic in smart contracts.
• USDC’s programmability allows conditional, logic-based flows ideal for automating escrow and similar applications.

Architecture and Flow of Escrow Agent App 22:10

• The open-sourced sample app demonstrates end-to-end escrow using Circle’s APIs and smart contracts.
• Core technical building blocks:
  • Circle Wallets API for provisioning wallets for all parties.
  • Circle Contracts API for deploying Solidity escrow contracts.
  • USDC embedded into the smart contract for on-chain dollar transactions, supporting easy fiat on/off ramping.
• Onboarding flow:
  • Business and freelancer create accounts, get wallets provisioned.
  • Business uploads a PDF contract/agreement; the app uses OpenAI API to parse agreement details (amount, deliverables).
  • Human in the loop approves parsed contract information before it becomes an official listing.
  • Smart contract is automatically generated using parsed data and deployed on-chain (via Circle’s APIs).
  • Upon contract deployment, businesses fund the contract with USDC.
  • Once funds are held, the freelancer completes the agreed task (e.g., uploading an image for review).
  • AI agent verifies completion via OpenAI’s multimodal model, then, if the deliverables match, releases funds automatically to the freelancer.

Escrow Workflow Demo 32:15

• Live walkthrough of the staged escrow agent app:
  • States: Initiated (contract parsed, pending approval), Deployed (smart contract on-chain), Funds Deposited (payment locked), Work Under Review (agent evaluates), and Fund Release.
  • Depositing funds moves the state to “locked”; agent reviews work using evaluation logic and scores confidence before approving release.
  • Supports transparency and automation, reducing manual back-office work.

Cross-Chain Escrow & Gas Abstraction 37:32

• Circle’s CCTP protocol allows users to deposit USDC from one blockchain (e.g., Solana) to a contract on another (e.g., Base) for cross-chain escrow.
• Payouts to beneficiaries can also be done cross-chain based on user’s desired network.
• Developers tend to pick a primary chain for contracts, then handle cross-chain deposits/payouts.
• Built-in gas abstraction: End-users can pay gas from USDC or, for enterprises, directly via debit/credit card, streamlining the experience for non-Web3 companies.

Structuring Contracts & Templates 43:11

• Input PDF contracts are parsed to structured JSON via tailored OpenAI prompts, which then inform the smart contract’s configuration.
• Basic escrow contracts are simple and widely templated (few hundred lines of code), but can be extended for more complex scenarios.
• Refund Protocol (by Circle Research) is highlighted as a robust open-source template for advanced escrow needs.

AI Reliability & Human-in-the-Loop 46:47

• Current challenges include the non-deterministic nature of AI versus the deterministic requirements of payments.
• Human review remains essential, especially for critical release decisions and error minimization.
• Full autonomous escrow is not considered production-ready yet; hybrid human-AI models are recommended for accuracy and trust.
• Acknowledges the fast pace of AI; autonomous agent-managed payment flows may become viable in the next 5-10 years.

Real-World Examples & Extended Features 50:41

• No major production deployments yet from Circle, but companies like Crossmit and Thirdweb (Nebula) are running similar autonomous escrow flows.
• Proof-of-work or proofs (like zk-proofs) are feasible for adding cryptographic evidence in escrow; ZK-P2P is cited for successful ZK escrow experiments.

Advanced Smart Contract Use Cases 55:01

• Multi-signature (multi-IG) logic can combine human and agent roles for layered authorization (e.g., three agents cross-verify before fund releases).
• Potential to represent traditional financial operations roles (CFO, controller, accountant) with specialized agents.
• Cold storage and delayed or scheduled transactions allow for workflows like payroll, where transactions are pre-approved offline and broadcast when due.

Limitations and Closing 56:26

• Current prototype emphasizes simplicity and inspiration, not immediate production deployment.
• Further development could automate contract drafting and approval, but user verification/oversight remains important at this stage.
• The session wraps up with appreciation for the audience and encouragement to experiment with these tools and provide feedback.