One Transaction to Rule Them All: Biconomy's ERC-8211 Wants to Make AI Agents DeFi Composers

Biconomy just dropped ERC-8211, a new Ethereum standard that lets AI agents and apps execute complex DeFi maneuvers in a single transaction instead of juggling multiple steps. Because apparently, clicking "approve" seventeen times per swap was just too much friction for the degens.

The system, dubbed "smart batching," bundles several blockchain operations together while resolving transaction values in real-time. It tackles a classic DeFi headache: many transactions depend on outputs that can't be predicted upfront. Think of it as trying to order food while the menu prices are randomly changing every second.

"When you have an output from something like a swap, you don't know how much that will be," Biconomy co-founder Ahmed Al-Balaghi told Decrypt. "Developers have to either hard code that or find another way for that output to be used as an input for something else, like a deposit." It's the blockchain equivalent of trying to build a Jenga tower in an earthquake.

Here's how it works: each step in a transaction can reference the result of the previous one, rather than relying on fixed numbers locked in when the transaction gets signed. Current Ethereum batch systems? Those parameters are frozen before execution even starts. Imagine sending a letter but the postage is calculated by a magic 8-ball that only works sometimes.

Importantly, ERC-8211 isn't an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) — it's an ERC that developers can implement directly without touching the core protocol. That means no hard fork, no new chain. No drama, no DAO wars, just vibes and working code.

"EIPs are still somewhat harder on Ethereum, just because that does needs more stakeholders. That's why ERCs exist, because they don't need a protocol change," Al-Balaghi explained. "If an ERC happens to get a lot of success in terms of adoption and awareness, then either it just stays as an ERC, or it could even be included in the protocol itself." It's the difference between changing the constitution versus just building a really popular app that everyone uses anyway.

With smart batching, each step resolves its value at execution time and must meet predefined conditions before moving to the next. An AI agent could withdraw funds from a lending protocol, swap the exact amount received, and deposit the result into another protocol — all in one signed transaction. There are also controls to restrict what an agent can do. It's like giving your AI butler a budget and a list of approved stores, but for money.

"What we've built lets developers just say: Whatever the balance is of the user, just compose that with the next action. And it's done," Al-Balaghi added. "That means you can create these really powerful flows without writing new smart contracts. You can just do it in TypeScript." For the non-degens in the room, that's a big deal. No need to become a Solidity wizard just to make your DeFi experience slightly less painful.

Barnabé Monnot, a research scientist with the Ethereum Foundation, said the proposal fits the organization's strategic priority to improve blockchain usability. "The protocol cluster of the Ethereum Foundation has 'Improve UX' as one of its strategic priorities," Monnot told Decrypt. "ERC-8211 support is coming from this strategic priority." Finally, someone at the Foundation noticed that regular humans use this stuff.

Monnot noted the collaboration began during a workshop in 2025 organized by the Foundation's Improve UX initiative. "The agentic execution angle is new, but has imposed itself given the rapid developments of agents over the last three months," he said. "It's a perfect use case since agents can orchestrate complex cross-chain interactions, and ERC-8211 gives them the right platform to do so." The robots are coming, and apparently they need better tools to handle our financial chaos.

The Ethereum Foundation chose to collaborate because it hadn't explored this area itself and recognized it couldn't tackle every challenge alone. Al-Balaghi sees this as a sign of the Foundation's renewed competitive edge. "I think the Ethereum Foundation, and this is from what I've seen personally by working with them — they're way more willing to win," he said. "Seeing that level of interactivity, that more competitive nature, wanting things to get done quicker, and being willing to work with the ecosystem is very promising compared to what it was just two years ago." The sleeping giant is awake, and it's scrolling through the ecosystem looking for deals.