ACTOR TRUST RECEIPT
Illustrative- Actor
- AI Agent
- Agent identity
- Verified
- Principal
- Verified organisation
- Authority
- Verified
- Requested action
- Inside delegated scope
- Human approval
- Not required by mandate
- Mandate status
- Valid
In short
Agentic commerce is commerce in which AI agents search, compare, negotiate and purchase on behalf of a human or organisation. Proof of Actor is designed to verify which principal stands behind a shopping or procurement agent and whether a requested purchase falls within its delegated, revocable mandate.
The question
Which human or organisation stands behind this agent, and is this purchase within what it was authorised to do?
Context
The trust gap in agent-led checkout
Agents are becoming customers. Payment networks, platforms and AI companies are building protocols for how agents discover products, hold payment credentials and complete checkout. Those efforts address how an agent pays. Merchants and platforms still need to know who the agent represents and whether this specific order is something the principal actually authorised.
Without that layer, the safest responses are bad ones: block agents and lose legitimate sales, or accept them and carry the disputes, chargebacks and fraud when an agent exceeds its instructions or was never authorised at all.
Proof of Authority is designed to be the complementary trust layer: agent identity, principal binding, mandate scope, per-action checks, explicit intent for consequential purchases, and revocation, packaged as an attestation a merchant can rely on.
Questions merchants and platforms cannot yet answer
- Which agent is placing this order, and who operates it?
- Which human or organisation is the principal?
- Is this purchase inside the agent's spending limit and scope?
- Did the human approve this specific purchase, if required?
- Is the mandate still valid, or has it been revoked?
- Who is accountable if the order is disputed?
What Proof of Actor is designed to establish
Trust layers this context needs
Each context asks for a different slice of the trust stack. These are the layers that matter here.
Delegation
The agent is bound to an identified principal.
Scope of authority
Amount, merchant and category limits are checked per order.
Intent
Explicit human approval for purchases the mandate reserves.
Accountability
A record of who stands behind the transaction.
Policy
Typical merchant policy
Proof of Actor supplies the evidence. Your organisation sets and discloses the policy.
// Proposed API - illustrative only
policy.allow({
actor: ["human", "authorized_agent"],
agentAuthority: {
required: true
}
});
const authority = await ProofOfActor.verifyAuthority({
agent,
action: { type: "purchase", amount: 420, currency: "USD" }
});FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is agentic commerce?
Agentic commerce is commerce in which AI agents act for people or organisations to discover, compare, negotiate and buy products and services, often completing checkout without a human clicking through each step.
Why does agentic commerce need a trust layer?
Because a valid payment credential does not tell a merchant who authorised the agent or whether this purchase is inside its limits. A trust layer is designed to answer principal, scope, intent and accountability before the merchant relies on the order.
Does Proof of Actor compete with agent payment protocols?
No. Agent payment and checkout protocols address how agents transact and pay. Proof of Actor is designed to be complementary, providing evidence about the actor and its authority that can travel alongside any of them.
How should merchants treat AI shopping agents?
Not with a blanket block. Proof of Actor's model is that legitimate, authorised agents should be able to identify themselves openly, and merchants should be able to set policy based on verified authority rather than guesswork.
More use cases
Other contexts
Hiring
Know whether the candidate actually completed the assessment.
Financial services
Require verified human control or explicit intent before consequential transactions.
Marketplaces
Distinguish genuine users, AI-assisted users and autonomous agents.
Dating
Evidence that the person behind a profile and conversation is human.
What interaction do you struggle to trust?
Design partners help define the evidence that would change their decisions. Tell us about yours.