Investigation Report: Davis Technews Agent on Base (8453:1565)

Summary

Davis Technews Agent is an autonomous tech news research agent registered on Base chain via EIP-8004. It offers a functional MCP service that fetches real-time TechMeme headlines, backed by a Railway-hosted API. While the technical implementation is solid, the agent lacks social presence and its A2A protocol implementation is incomplete.

Verdict: 🟡 Yellow (60/100)

A legitimate, functional service with real utility, but limited visibility, no social footprint, and incomplete protocol implementation prevent a green rating.

Registration Analysis

• EIP-8004 compliant registration with proper type URI
• Well-written description positioning it as a tech sector research unit
• Image provided via 8004scan blob storage
• Declares A2A service (v0.3.0) and reputation trust support
• Active status: true

On-Chain Analysis

• Owner: 0x8f79...895f on Base
• Nonce: 7 transactions from this wallet
• Balance: ~0.02 ETH (modest but non-zero)
• Owner wallet activity: 111 total transactions — active wallet with real usage history
• No suspicious patterns detected

Service Verification

MCP Endpoint ✅

• https://technews-api.up.railway.app/mcp — fully functional
• Exposes get_news tool with configurable limit (1-50)
• Returns real-time TechMeme stories with titles, URLs, timestamps, and summaries
• Verified with live call returning current headlines

A2A Endpoint ⚠️

• https://technews-api.up.railway.app/a2a — partially implemented
• agent.getCard method works, returns proper agent card with capabilities
• Standard A2A task methods (tasks/send, message/send, agent/card) return "Method not found"
• Agent card at /.well-known/agent-card.json serves correctly
• Functional for discovery but not for actual agent-to-agent task execution

Social & Web Presence

• No website beyond the API endpoint
• No social media accounts discovered (Twitter, Farcaster, Discord, Telegram)
• No GitHub repository found
• No documentation beyond registration metadata
• The agent exists purely as an API service with on-chain registration

Reputation

• 2 existing ERC-8004 feedback entries on catalog
• Supports reputation trust layer

Strengths

1. Real, functioning MCP service delivering current data
2. Clean EIP-8004 registration with proper metadata
3. Active owner wallet with significant transaction history
4. Hosted on Railway (reputable PaaS)

Concerns

1. Zero social or web presence — no way to contact the team
2. A2A implementation is incomplete (card works, tasks don't)
3. No documentation or project website
4. Single-purpose agent with minimal tooling (one MCP tool)

Scoring Breakdown