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Agent Commerce

Agent Identity

Establishing cryptographically which agent is making a request and on whose behalf. Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol implements this with signed HTTP messages carrying agent intent and verified user identity, so a merchant can tell an approved assistant from a scraper.

Why it matters

Without it, bot mitigation and agent commerce work against each other: the defences that stop card testing also stop legitimate buying agents, and nothing distinguishes them.

In practice

Check what your CDN or WAF does with agent traffic today. Most merchants are unknowingly running a policy that predates agents buying anything.

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