Agent Payments

There’s a pattern showing up across crypto infrastructure right now for anyone building wallets, MEV (maximal extractable value) pipelines, or agent payment systems: Vitalik frames TEEs as a pragmatic near-term privacy layer (especially around RPC / read-path privacy), Coinbase uses enclave-backed architecture for programmable wallets, policy-controlled signing, and agent-ready payment workflows, Flashbots uses SGX for confidential block building in the MEV pipeline. Different use cases, same design instinct: use hardware-backed isolation to reduce trust now, while more advanced cryptographic systems mature in the background. ...

It’s been a while since I felt giddy reading a specification. The release of Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) brought back memories of my payments days—waiting eagerly for Visa and Mastercard to publish updates on network tokenization, or when Android introduced Host Card Emulation. Here’s what stood out. What Is AP2? The Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) is Google’s ambitious attempt to create a cryptographic foundation for AI agent–initiated commerce. Released on September 16, 2025 with backing from 60+ organizations, it tackles the central trust problem: ...