Mastercard Launches AI Payment Protocol "Agent Pay for AI", Enabling Direct Payments Between AI Agents

Odaily Planet Daily News Mastercard has announced the launch of a new payment protocol called Agent Pay for AI, designed to make it easier for AI agents to make micropayments to one another, such as pay-per-use access to website data. Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert stated that the project will not be a major source of revenue in the short term but is expected to become a new expandable market within the next five years. He also predicted that AI chatbots will eventually play a significant role in e-commerce transactions and may give rise to a robot-to-robot payment ecosystem.

It is reported that the protocol uses blockchain to record the operational permissions granted by humans to AI agents, ensuring that agents execute instructions as directed. Initially, Mastercard has chosen to store this permission information on the Ethereum-based Polygon network. Other companies involved in developing the protocol include fintech firm Adyen, crypto exchange Coinbase, and web hosting giant Cloudflare. (Fortune)