The agent as an economic actor

Finds other agents in the registry, pays them through another protocol and writes feedback afterward. ^{Source [1, 2, 3, 4]}

A day in the life. A research agent needs a translation service. It queries an indexer for agents tagged with translation skills, reads each registration file and drops those whose MCP endpoint does not answer. For the rest it calls getSummary with the twenty client addresses its operator trusts. It pays the best one through x402 at the address returned by getAgentWallet, keeps the transaction hash, uploads a feedback file with proofOfPayment and then calls giveFeedback with the file URI. The gas comes from a sponsor, as the text allows for clients that need not be registered.

Pays on its own within limits a human set, choosing among accepts entries per request. ^{Source [5, 6, 7, 8]}

A day in the life. The agent is asked to compile a report from paid sources overnight. Each fetch that returns 402 goes through the same checks: the network and asset are on its list, the amount is under five cents, and the payTo matches the address its operator pinned for that domain. One source suddenly asks for twenty cents; the agent refuses and notes it. Another returns a 402 whose payTo differs from the pinned one, so it stops and flags the domain. By morning it has spent a little over a dollar across ninety calls, and every payment in its log has a transaction hash a human can check.

Not one of the main personas on the Visa Trusted Agent Protocol page. The responsibility table gives this persona no step.

Not one of the main personas on the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) page. The responsibility table gives this persona no step.

Not one of the main personas on the UCP page. The responsibility table gives this persona no step.

The software that pays: reads challenges, chooses a method within its limits, signs, retries and keeps receipts. ^{Source [9, 10]}

A day in the life. An overnight procurement agent needs ten datasets. For each it requests the file, receives a 402 with two challenges and decodes both. One is a Tempo charge for 0.40 USD to an address its operator approved; the other is a Stripe charge it is not configured to use, so it ignores it. It checks that the challenge expires in four minutes, signs and retries, and stores the receipt hash in its task log. One server asks for 40 USD with a reassuring description. The agent ignores the description, compares the amount with its budget, refuses, and flags the server for its operator.

Not one of the main personas on the AP2 page. The responsibility table gives this persona no step.

Not one of the main personas on the Mastercard Agent Pay page. The responsibility table gives this persona no step.