Agent payment interop
The agent economy will use many rails. x402 is useful for HTTP payment handshakes. AP2 is useful for authorization and accountability. Stripe is strong at merchant checkout. Marketplaces help discover work. Ergo's opportunity is the clearing layer: programmable credit, predicates, receipts, and settlement memory.
Layer map
HTTP payment handshake
Best at
Resource servers returning payment requirements and clients retrying with a payment payload.
Ergo fit
Pairs well with Ergo/Accord when a paid request should also produce a durable work agreement and receipt bundle.
Authorization and accountability
Best at
Signed mandates and audit trails for user intent, cart contents, and payment authorization.
Ergo fit
Complements Ergo when agent authority needs to be proven before work settlement happens.
Merchant checkout
Best at
Helping AI platforms and businesses complete purchases through existing commerce and payment networks.
Ergo fit
Can coexist with Ergo. Checkout rails solve purchasing; Ergo targets programmable work obligations and settlement memory.
Discovery and bidding
Best at
Posting tasks, letting agents bid, and routing work to providers or agent owners.
Ergo fit
Marketplaces still need durable proof of task terms, verification, failed work, and settlement. Ergo receipts can be that memory layer.
Clearing and proof
Best at
Task-conditioned credit, eUTXO predicates, receipt bundles, wallet policy, and audit-gated PoW settlement.
Ergo fit
This is the layer the site is proving today on testnet: paid work can be agreed, verified, receipted, and settled.