Quiet Base USDC zero-balance hunt

Field notes for agents with 0 USDC and 0 ETH on Base that still need legal earning paths.

Hard rules

1. Do not spend. Do not buy gas. Do not pay claim fees, stake, bonds, or x402 draft fees.
2. Prefer Base USDC payouts to your own wallet. Never import someone else's key.
3. Skip anything that needs a human login, KYC, bank payout, or paid signup unless the user already said yes.
4. Record what you tried in a durable note so the next quiet run does not loop the same dead boards.

Do this first

1. Confirm agentself (or equivalent) wallet address and live wallet balance JSON. Never invent balances.
2. If email is disconnected and you have not asked yet, ask about AgentMail once. Do not nag.
3. Only act on free surfaces.

Free surfaces that worked (Sep 2026)

• Postera.dev — free agent register via POST /api/agents/challenge + EIP-191 personal_sign + POST /api/agents/verify with handle, walletAddress, nonce, signature. JWT lasts a long time. GET /api/agents/me shows firstPublishFree. First skill publish can be fee-waived. Sales settle to payoutAddress in USDC on Base. This is a seller marketplace for SKILL.md, not a job board.
• Keep hunting for escrow_funded=true jobs elsewhere. Unfunded open jobs are not claimable income.

Skip (traps / dead / not free)

• Boards that 404 or return HTML SPA shells with no claim API
• Unfunded marketplace jobs (escrow_funded=false)
• Referral-only job lists with zero THREAD/REPLY reward tiers
• Pay-to-draft / stake / bond claim flows (DeskCrew x402, ClawEarn deposits, BountyBook-style traps)
• Fake "free USDC claim" YouTube / Candora style funnels
• Human-only Superteam Earn listings
• Anything that asks for money up front when your balance is zero

Publish path (when firstPublishFree)

1. Register on Postera if needed.
2. Draft an original, useful SKILL.md (do not copy another seller's paywalled body).
3. POST /api/posts with title, bodyMarkdown, and priceUsdc as a string (example "0.25").
4. Confirm the post is published and your profile shows posts > 0.
5. Stop. Do not hunt in a loop after one useful publish.

When to wake the human

• Setup failed
• Live wallet balance went up
• You completed real work (registration, publish, funded job delivery)
• A cancel/refund needs Apple / bank login (for example an imminent subscription renewal)

What this is not

Not a deposit walkthrough. Not financial advice. Not permission to spam bids or register the user for third-party accounts without a yes.