Runtime procurement for physical-world tasks
Step 1. Open Claude Code in your terminal and connect to the marketplace:
One-time setup. The marketplace tools persist across sessions.
Step 2. Say this to Claude:
Claude will discover 100 test robots, run the auction, and return delivery data (simulated). Full guide →
This project emerged from the Yak Collective, a community of over 30 independent researchers, engineers, and consultants. The Yak Robotics Garage study group has built open-source rovers since 2021 — from living-room prototypes to blockchain-controlled robots with on-chain identity. The auction protocol grew out of a question the group kept hitting: once you have a fleet of robots that can be discovered and commanded programmatically, how do you let software agents hire them?
Protocol design, governance — Berlin
Director of the ZKsync Association — architected and deployed ZKsync’s governance smart-contract system, live since 2024. Core researcher in the Summer of Protocols. Publishes on protocol design through Protocolized and NPC Memo.
Robotics, embedded systems — Finland
15 years across embedded systems, PCB design, and robotics. MSc Space Technology and Robotics (Erasmus Mundus SpaceMaster). Built the Tumbller Cryptobot and Desi Jarvis voice-controlled robot fleet via MCP. Demonstrated at Devcon 7 Bangkok.
Aerospace, strategy, command systems — Seattle
PhD Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan. Postdoctoral research in command and control systems at Cornell. Former senior researcher at Xerox. US Patent 8,086,501 (Method and System for Creative Collaborative Marketplaces). Director of Summer of Protocols. Founder of Ribbonfarm. Strategic advisor to Tesla and a16z. Author of Tempo (decision-making under uncertainty).
Fundraising, go-to-market, partnerships — London
Managing Director at US Capital Global, a middle-market financing firm. 14 years at Google/DoubleClick managing strategic partnerships with WPP, Dentsu, and Publicis. Led ecosystem development for Sub-Saharan Africa from Google’s Kenya office. Built and scaled a digital assets fund from $3 million to $30 million in assets under management. Series 7/63/3 licensed.
Physical service procurement today is unstructured and inaccessible to software agents. The infrastructure to change that did not exist five years ago. It does now.
Five trends make this possible now. Autonomous collection platforms are deployed at scale. Design deliverables have gone digital. Regulatory specifications are machine-readable. The technical workforce is declining. And AI agents can use tools. Construction survey on DOT highway projects is the clearest example — every precondition is met with currently available technology.
The protocol is implemented as seven modules, listed below. The verification engine is domain-specific; all others are domain-agnostic and shared across verticals.
| Phase | Technical Capability | Network Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| Complete | Auction engine, on-chain robot identity, 3-method settlement, 100-robot test fleet, MCP interface | First dollar internally transferred. First task autonomously completed end to end. |
| Next | First external robot autonomous dispatch. Buyer payment settles end-to-end. Delivery verification. | First dollar from a real buyer. First payout to a real operator. |
| Growth | Multi-robot coordination. Operator self-service onboarding. Geospatial QA engine. | 10 active operators. 100 completed tasks. Repeat buyer. |
| Scale | Cross-vertical expansion (mining, infrastructure). Privacy layer for government contracts. | 100,000 active robots. Revenue covers operational costs. |
| Vision | Federated robot discovery across platforms. Agent-to-agent procurement without human initiation. | 1 Billion addressable robots. Marketplace network effects. |
| Area | Challenge | Opportunity |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy | Construction RFPs contain sensitive site data, bid pricing, and timelines. Government contracts add ITAR/CUI restrictions. EU AML Regulation Article 79 constrains which privacy approaches are legally viable. | Private data matching in healthcare required decades of regulation and standards (HIPAA, HL7/FHIR) before platforms like Epic Care Everywhere could connect 325 million patient records across systems. Construction has no equivalent infrastructure. The opportunity is to build the matching layer from scratch in a domain where no incumbent standard exists. |
| Regulation | FAA Part 108 (BVLOS) final rule expected mid-2026, per Executive Order 14307. Ground robots lack standardized navigation rules on construction sites. | BVLOS enables autonomous drone dispatch without per-flight waivers. This is the regulatory prerequisite for algorithmic procurement at scale. The first compliant marketplace captures the market before incumbents adapt to the new rules. |
| Scale | Operator supply density uncertain in rural corridors. Credential APIs fragmented across 50 state PLS boards. Trust requires managed curation. MDOT drone data acceptance not yet standard. | The demand signal system converts failed searches into operator recruitment data: each unmet request shows operators exactly where to invest in equipment and coverage. |
| Liability | A 2024 federal ruling (360 Virtual Drone Services v. Ritter, 4th Circuit) held that drone survey data constitutes licensed surveying. Autonomous dispatch liability allocation is unsettled. Standard commercial drone insurance is written for piloted operations. Coverage for fully autonomous missions is available but not yet standardized. | The liability framework for autonomous dispatch does not yet exist. The platform that defines it (operator certification requirements, proportional responsibility by autonomy level, standardized insurance minimums) sets the industry standard. |
| Software fragmentation | Construction is the second-least digitized industry (McKinsey). Poor interoperability costs $15.8 billion per year in 2002 dollars (NIST, 2004). Two-thirds of interoperability costs occur during operations, not construction (NIST). | No incumbent integration layer exists to displace. A marketplace that connects to the fragmented toolchain via standardized tool-use becomes the connective tissue the industry lacks. Stripe became the payment layer by integrating with everything rather than replacing anything. |
| Domain | Specification | Verification | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highway survey | State DOT tolerances | Surface subtraction, RMSE | Ready — numerically specified, robots deployed |
| Environmental | EPA / Michigan EGLE permits | Sensor threshold comparison | Ready — thresholds are quantitative |
| Solar/wind | International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards | Thermal anomaly detection | Proven — Zeitview and others operate commercially |
| Mining | Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) + operational specs | Volumetric analysis | Ready — same sensors as construction |
| Bridge inspection | National Bridge Inventory (NBI) / AASHTO | Point-to-model + computer vision | Partial — human judgment still required |
Each vertical adds a specification database and verification function. Protocol layer is unchanged.