Application Scaling: Botkits

Key Insights

• Botkits are code-based tools for users to build autonomous interactions with applications. Examples include Flashbots and Yearn in DeFi and Story Protocol and Friend Mex in the consumer sector.
• By expanding functionality at the UX -layer for applications, botkits can serve as growth accelerants for the underlying applications and/or platforms they support.
• That said, the botkit layer tends to become a hyper-competitive space focused on UX iteration with little to no moats.
• Exceptions include instances where botkits can manufacture network effects or create user stickiness despite competing kits being at feature parity.

Botkits are code-based tools for users to build autonomous interactions with applications. These toolkits have historically shifted the UX paradigm from user-dominated to bot-dominated, paving the way for efficiency and scale across a number of sectors. For example, MEV botkits like Flashbots have popularized instantaneous bot-driven DEX swaps to the point where the majority of transactions on Uniswap are now bots.