Formicarium

Formicarium is a decentralized manufacturing platform where an AI agent coordinates a distributed fleet of autonomous machines and 3D printers to produce fully customized products. Through a simple chat interface powered by AI (built with CDP AgentKit), users describe their desired item, and the system automatically generates a 2D preview, converts it into a 3D STL model, and prepares printer-ready G-code.

Production is fulfilled through an on-chain reverse auction marketplace, where registered 3D printing providers compete by submitting bids scored on both price and ERC-8004 on-chain reputation. Buyers can adjust how much weight reputation carries versus cost, enabling flexible, trust-aware bidding. Funds are secured in escrow using USDC, with a built-in dispute window and automated settlement. Real-time order tracking and on-chain feedback ensure transparency, accountability, and continuous reputation growth across the network.

During the hackathon, we focused on designing and implementing the core mechanism that powers Formicarium’s decentralized manufacturing marketplace: a reverse weighted auction system for efficient, trust-aware matching between consumers and service providers.

The main feature delivered is a hybrid auction model that combines competitive price bidding with on-chain reputation scoring through ERC-8004 smart contracts. Instead of selecting providers purely based on the lowest price, the system calculates a weighted score that incorporates both the bid amount and verified reputation. This approach helps reveal a fair market price while limiting the influence of low-quality providers. As a result, disputes can be reduced automatically, improving overall platform scalability and reliability.

The auction and service execution flow works as follows:

1. Auction Creation
   A consumer initiates a service request and creates a reverse auction contract, defining parameters such as eligible providers and the weight assigned to reputation versus price.

2. Provider Bidding
   Approved providers submit bids during the auction period. Each bid is evaluated using a scoring formula that combines the offered price and the provider’s ERC-8004 reputation score.

3. Winner Selection and Order Creation
   After the auction closes, the highest-scoring bid is selected automatically and a service order is created on-chain.

4. Service Fulfillment
   The selected provider completes the requested service and confirms completion on-chain.

5. Reputation Feedback
   The provider generates a signed feedback authorization blob, which allows the consumer to submit a rating to the ERC-8004 reputation contract.

6. Dispute Window and Settlement
   The consumer may raise a dispute within a defined time window if the service is not properly delivered. If no dispute is submitted, the provider finalizes the transaction and releases the escrowed funds.

By implementing this reverse weighted auction mechanism end to end, including bidding logic, reputation integration, escrow handling, dispute management, and feedback authorization, we established the economic and trust foundation of the Formicarium platform during the hackathon.

Pre-seed