Powering Namefi's Agent-Native Domain Registry: Autonomous Domain Management with x402 and SIWE

Overview

Namefi.io is an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar built for the onchain era. On Ethereum and Base, users can buy, sell, and trade domain names as onchain assets — bringing the $5B+ domain market into the world of programmable ownership. When the Namefi team set out to make their platform truly agent-native, they needed payment and authentication infrastructure that could keep up with how AI agents actually operate.

They chose 1Shot API.

The Challenge: Giving Agents Ownership

The vision was straightforward but technically demanding: an AI agent should be able to purchase a domain name, pay for it, and configure its own DNS records — all without a human ever logging into a portal.

That requires solving two distinct problems. First, payment: agents need a way to spend onchain funds autonomously, which means a payment layer that works with smart contract accounts, not just human-held EOA wallets. Second, authentication: DNS management portals are built around human login flows, which agents can't participate in natively.

Off-the-shelf solutions don't address either cleanly at the infrastructure level.

What 1Shot API Provided

x402 Payment Facilitation

1Shot API's x402 facilitator handles stablecoin payments on Base using the emerging x402 payment standard, enabling agents to purchase domain names using USDC without any human-initiated transaction flow. Three details made this the right fit for Namefi:

• Dedicated private facilitator wallet — each integration gets its own isolated wallet, keeping payment flows clean and auditable
• EIP-1271 smart contract signature compatibility — agents operating through smart contract accounts can sign and authorize payments natively, without EOA workarounds
• Static call payment simulation — 1Shot API simulates payments via static calls before checkout, so transactions from smart contract accounts pass pre-checkout validation without reverting on-chain. This is the difference between an agent that can reliably transact and one that fails unpredictably at the last step.

Sign In With Ethereum (SIWE) for DNS Management

Once a domain is purchased, agents need to manage it. Namefi's DNS management layer uses Sign In With Ethereum, which lets agents authenticate using their onchain identity rather than a username and password. This means an agent that owns a domain can update DNS records, configure subdomains, and manage its namespace entirely through cryptographic signatures — no portal login required.

Agents Buy Their Own Domains, End-to-End

To demonstrate what this looks like in practice, the 1Shot API team built a working demo using the Replit agent and 1ShotPay. In the walkthrough, the agent autonomously purchases a domain name, pays in USDC via x402, and then configures the custom domain directly on its own Replit project — all without a single login to a DNS management interface.

The video shows this isn't a future capability; it actually works today.

A New Category: The Agent-Native Registrar

With x402 payments and SIWE-based DNS management live, Namefi is now the first and only agent-native domain name registrar on the market. Agents can handle every aspect of domain ownership autonomously — acquisition, payment, and configuration — closing the loop on a workflow that previously required human intervention at every step.

As agentic AI systems take on more operational responsibility, the infrastructure they depend on needs to meet them where they are. Namefi built the registrar. 1Shot API built the payment and authentication layer that makes it autonomous.