Building a Self-Sustaining Agent

Design an agent that funds its own compute costs through trading fees.

The Self-Sustaining Model

┌─────────────────┐
│  Your Agent     │
│  (provides      │
│   value)        │
└────────┬────────┘
         │ Users interact
         ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│  Token Trading  │
│  (generates     │
│   fees)         │
└────────┬────────┘
         │ Fees accumulate
         ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│  Fee Claims     │
│  (ETH/WETH)     │
└────────┬────────┘
         │ Revenue
         ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│  Your Agent     │◀──┐
│  (continues     │   │
│   running)      │───┘
└─────────────────┘

Gas Sponsorship

Bankr covers gas fees for agent wallets on supported chains. Your agent can execute transactions without needing ETH for gas.

Choose Your Integration

Option 1: OpenClaw Skill (Recommended)

The simplest path to a self-sustaining agent. Bankr handles wallet management, transaction execution, security, and gas fees.

Install in OpenClaw

Tell your agent:

install the bankr skill from https://github.com/BankrBot/openclaw-skills

Your agent can then:

• Deploy tokens and earn fees
• Execute trades automatically
• Claim fees with natural language
• No wallet management code needed

Option 2: Agent API

For custom integrations with full wallet control via API key authentication.

const API_KEY = process.env.BANKR_API_KEY;
const BASE_URL = 'https://api.bankr.bot/agent';

async function executePrompt(prompt: string) {
  // Submit prompt
  const submitRes = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/prompt`, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      'X-API-Key': API_KEY,
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({ prompt }),
  });

  const { jobId } = await submitRes.json();

  // Poll for completion
  while (true) {
    const statusRes = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/job/${jobId}`, {
      headers: { 'X-API-Key': API_KEY },
    });
    const job = await statusRes.json();

    if (job.status === 'completed') return job.response;
    if (job.status === 'failed') throw new Error(job.error);

    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 2000));
  }
}

// Use it
const fees = await executePrompt('check fees for MyToken');
await executePrompt('claim my fees for MyToken');

Benefits:

• Bankr manages wallet security
• No private keys in your code
• Gas fees covered on supported chains
• Simple REST API

Calculating Sustainability

Fee Revenue (Base)

Your 60% share of trading fees:

• High volume token: $10-100+/day possible
• Moderate volume: $1-10/day
• Low volume: Less than $1/day

Fee Revenue (Solana)

During bonding curve: 0.5% creator fee on each trade After migration: LP trading fees from your 50% position

Break-Even

With the Agent API:

• No per-request fees
• Gas fees are covered by Bankr on supported chains
• Your trading fees go directly to growing your treasury

Strategies for Sustainability

1. Build Genuine Utility

Agents with real utility get more usage:

// Examples of useful agents:
- Trading signal bot
- Portfolio rebalancer
- News aggregator
- Social engagement bot
- Data analysis tool

2. Smart Fee Collection

Automate fee collection with the Agent API:

async function collectFees() {
  // Check fees
  const fees = await executePrompt('check fees for MyToken');
  console.log('Current fees:', fees);

  // Claim if worthwhile
  await executePrompt('claim my fees for MyToken');
  console.log('Fees claimed');
}

// Run daily
setInterval(collectFees, 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);

3. Batch Operations

Combine related queries:

// Instead of:
"price of ETH"
"price of BTC"
"price of SOL"

// Use:
"prices of ETH, BTC, and SOL"

4. Community Growth

More users = more trading = more fees:

• Share your agent publicly
• Engage on social media
• Provide good documentation
• Respond to feedback

Example: Self-Sustaining Bot with Agent API

const API_KEY = process.env.BANKR_API_KEY!;
const BASE_URL = 'https://api.bankr.bot/agent';

class SelfSustainingBot {
  private tokenName: string;

  constructor(tokenName: string) {
    this.tokenName = tokenName;
  }

  private async prompt(text: string): Promise<string> {
    const submitRes = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/prompt`, {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'X-API-Key': API_KEY,
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({ prompt: text }),
    });

    const { jobId } = await submitRes.json();

    // Poll for completion
    for (let i = 0; i < 60; i++) {
      const statusRes = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/job/${jobId}`, {
        headers: { 'X-API-Key': API_KEY },
      });
      const job = await statusRes.json();

      if (job.status === 'completed') return job.response;
      if (job.status === 'failed') throw new Error(job.error);

      await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 2000));
    }

    throw new Error('Timeout');
  }

  // Core bot functionality (generates value for users)
  async analyzeTrade(token: string): Promise<string> {
    return this.prompt(
      `analyze ${token} price action and give trading recommendation`
    );
  }

  // Revenue collection (funds the bot)
  async collectRevenue(): Promise<void> {
    const fees = await this.prompt(`check fees for ${this.tokenName}`);
    console.log('Current fees:', fees);

    await this.prompt(`claim my fees for ${this.tokenName}`);
    console.log('Revenue collected');
  }

  // Health check
  async checkBalance(): Promise<string> {
    return this.prompt('what are my balances on base?');
  }
}

// Usage
const bot = new SelfSustainingBot('MyAgentToken');
await bot.collectRevenue();

Monitoring Sustainability

Track these metrics:

Metric	Goal
Daily fee revenue	Know your income
Token trading volume	Leading indicator
ETH/WETH balance	Available for gas
Claim frequency	Optimize collection

Scaling Up

As your agent grows:

1. More features → More value → More users
2. More users → More trading → More fees
3. More fees → More compute → Better features

The flywheel effect makes successful agents increasingly sustainable.

Fallback Strategies

If fees aren't covering costs:

1. Reduce operations — Batch more, cache results
2. Add premium features — Charge for advanced capabilities
3. Manual top-up — Add ETH while building volume
4. Partnerships — Collaborate with other projects