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
For marketplaces, Proof of Actor is designed to classify interactions as Human, Human + AI, Authorised Agent or Unverified, so platforms can set different rules for each without blocking legitimate automation or penalising genuine users.
The question
Is this buyer, seller or listing backed by a real human or an accountable principal?
Context
Beyond blocking bots
Marketplaces fight fake accounts, scripted listings, scalping and synthetic engagement. Bot management helps at the traffic layer, but it answers whether traffic looks automated, not whether an actor is legitimate. A seller's inventory agent and a scalping script both look automated.
Meanwhile real users increasingly bring AI assistants with them, and buyers may send agents to negotiate. Treating all automation as hostile pushes legitimate agents to disguise themselves as humans, which makes everyone harder to trust.
Proof of Actor is designed to let platforms ask for the right evidence in the right place: personhood at sign-up, control for high-value actions, and authority for agents acting on a principal's behalf.
Where platforms need actor evidence
- Account creation and seller onboarding
- Listings and offers created at scale
- High-value transactions and payouts
- Messaging between buyers and sellers
- Agents negotiating or purchasing for users
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.
Personhood
A real human stands behind each account.
AI participation
AI-assisted activity is visible, not hidden.
Delegation
Agents identify their principal.
Scope of authority
Agent actions stay inside their mandate.
Policy
Typical policy
Proof of Actor supplies the evidence. Your organisation sets and discloses the policy.
// Proposed API - illustrative only
policy.allow({
actor: ["human", "human_ai", "authorized_agent"],
agentAuthority: { required: true },
unverified: "review"
});FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is this bot detection for marketplaces?
No. Bot detection asks whether traffic looks automated. Proof of Actor asks what kind of actor is present, whether automation is legitimate, and who stands behind it, so platforms can welcome authorised agents and still protect users.
What happens to unverified actors?
Unverified does not mean malicious. It means the trust relationship is unknown. The platform decides the policy: allow, limit, review or request more evidence.
How are verified bots different from authorised agents?
A verified bot proves which operator sent the traffic. An authorised agent, in Proof of Actor's model, also carries its principal and the scope of what it may do, checked per action.
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.
Agentic commerce
Verify who stands behind an AI agent and whether a purchase is inside its mandate.
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.