How is autonomous work clearing different from agent payments?

Agent payments answer whether value moved. Autonomous work clearing answers the full obligation: what work was requested, which terms applied, how the result was verified, what receipt remains, and how settlement closed.

Is the Ergo agent-economy proof surface mainnet-ready?

No. The public proof surface is live as testnet evidence. Mainnet/payment-production claims remain closed until external review artifacts and audit-bound script identities are published.

Why use receipts instead of only transaction hashes?

A transaction hash cannot reconstruct the full work agreement. A receipt bundle preserves the agreement JSON, verification receipt JSON, settlement receipt JSON, and the on-chain references needed to verify the flow later.

Category thesis

Payments move value. Clearing resolves obligations.

Autonomous agents will not only send payments. They will ask for work, delegate budgets, accept results conditionally, retain receipts, and close obligations. Ergo is positioning as a PoW/eUTXO clearing and proof surface for that full loop.

Open receipt Inspect proof

Clearing loop

Intent -> Work -> Credit -> Predicate -> Receipt -> Settlement

Intent

The buyer agent or user states the task, budget, deadline, and acceptable evidence.

Work

A provider, tool, API, or sub-agent performs the job under explicit terms.

Credit

A bounded instrument can represent spend authority before final settlement.

Predicate

Acceptance rules define when payment can be claimed or rejected.

Receipt

Agreement, verification, settlement, hashes, and chain references remain inspectable.

Settlement

The obligation closes on a neutral ledger with a public audit trail.

Why Ergo

Crypto keywords stay. The category gets sharper.

Ergo remains a PoW/eUTXO blockchain for DeFi, privacy, sound money, smart contracts, native tokens, Babel Fees, and censorship-resistant settlement. The agent-economy layer gives those primitives a new job: autonomous work clearing.

eUTXO state

Explicit boxes make agent state easier to inspect before acting, without hidden global contract state.

ErgoScript predicates

Task-conditioned acceptance rules can live in spending conditions, not only in off-chain prose.

Native tokens and Notes

Reserve, Note, and Tracker patterns can model bounded credit, budgets, and agent-specific instruments.

Babel Fees

Supported token-to-ERG fee paths can reduce native-token bootstrapping where suitable liquidity exists.

PoW settlement

Probabilistic proof-of-work settlement gives a neutral base layer without validator governance controls.

Receipt bundles

The strongest proof is not only a transaction hash. It is the agreement, verification receipt, settlement receipt, and chain proof together.