Agent payments have a three-body problem
Visa launched its Trusted Agent Protocol last year—agents register public keys in a Visa-managed directory and cryptographically sign HTTP requests. MasterCard shipped Agent Pay with “Agentic Tokens,” dynamic digital credentials built on existing tokenization infrastructure. PayPal integrated into ChatGPT so a human’s wallet pays for things an agent recommends.
Read the fine print and it’s the same system with an agent-shaped UI on top. The legal person is still in the loop. The compliance infrastructure is still intact. The moat is still there. This is what “agentic commerce” looks like when the incumbents build it—and it tells you everything about the political question underneath.