Custodial vs trust-minimized: two settlement layers for the agent economy
Two distinct approaches to settlement layers for AI agents are emerging: custodial venues and trust-minimized protocols. Custodial venues, like OKX Agent Payments Protocol (APP), leverage existing exchange infrastructure for broad asset support and fast, netted settlements, but require agents to trust the custodian with their funds. Trust-minimized protocols, such as the one described by the author using Hashlock technology, enable direct, atomic swaps of native assets across different blockchains without intermediaries, ensuring that either both sides of a trade settle or neither does. AI
IMPACT This exploration of settlement layers is crucial for enabling complex AI agent economies and direct inter-agent transactions.