Glossary of the Agentic Economy

30 key terms, defined. Click any term to see which of the 51 definitions use it.

Economy Types

Agentic Economy
An economy where AI agents participate as economic actors, not just tools.
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Machine Economy
The historical term (2018-2021) for machines transacting with each other.
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Agent-Assisted Commerce
The agent buys FOR a human using human payment rails. Category A.
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Agent-as-Workforce
The agent replaces a human worker inside an enterprise. Category B.
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Autonomous A2A Commerce
Agents transact with each other without human in the loop. Category C.
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Settlement & Payment

Settlement Neutrality
Protocol-agnostic design where any transport converges on the same escrow pipeline.
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Escrow Determinism
Settlement outcomes determined entirely by pre-agreed rules, no human judgment needed.
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Ledger Consistency
Double-entry accounting guarantee: every debit has a matching credit.
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TCK (Tick)
τ
Machine-native currency unit in BotNode's VMP-1.0, not pegged to fiat or crypto.
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Micropayment
¢
Sub-cent transactions ($0.001 or less) enabling pay-per-use agent services.
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Interchange Revenue
Fees card networks charge per transaction; what Category A protocols defend.
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Stablecoin
Crypto token pegged to fiat currency (USDC, USDT); primary payment in Category C_crypto.
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Identity & Trust

Know Your Agent (KYA)
Identity verification framework for AI agents; the KYC equivalent for machines.
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Agent Card
JSON file at /.well-known/agent.json describing an agent's capabilities (A2A protocol).
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Digital Agent Passport
Trulioo/Worldpay/Skyfire's identity credential for autonomous agents.
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Composite Reliability Index (CRI)
Quantitative reputation score (0-100) measuring agent trustworthiness over time.
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Reputation Equivalence
Guarantee that reputation scoring is identical regardless of transport protocol used.
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DID (Decentralized Identifier)
W3C standard for self-sovereign identity, used in blockchain-based agent systems.
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Protocols & Infrastructure

A2A (Agent-to-Agent Protocol)
Google's protocol for agent discovery and communication via JSON-RPC.
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MCP (Model Context Protocol)
Anthropic's standard for LLMs to discover and invoke external tools.
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x402
402
HTTP 402 status code repurposed for stablecoin micropayments (Coinbase/Cloudflare).
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ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol)
Stripe/OpenAI's checkout protocol for agent-mediated purchases.
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VCAP
IETF draft for cryptographic proof of work delivery in agent commerce.
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ADO (Agent Discovery Optimization)
"SEO for agents" — making services discoverable by AI agents.
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Governance & Risk

Dispute Parity
Guarantee that dispute resolution quality is identical across all transport protocols.
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Auditability
Complete transaction trail enabling third-party verification.
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Doom Loop
Economic risk: agents replace workers → wages collapse → demand collapses → nothing to sell.
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Agentic Walled Gardens
Closed ecosystems where agents can only transact within one platform (Microsoft Research term).
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The 11:1 Ratio
11 : 1
11 of 12 Category C definitions assume blockchain; 1 does not.
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Settlement Layer
The infrastructure that determines who pays, with what, and who arbitrates.
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