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NEAR Protocol Clarifies Distinction Between Agent Economy and Agentic Payments

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NEAR Protocol has issued a terminology clarification to better define the scope of its AI infrastructure, distinguishing between the broad concept of an “agent economy” and the narrower function of “agentic payments.”https://twitter.com/NEARProtocol/status/2079235069818945745

The protocol’s core message, shared via official social channels, suggests that the “agent economy” represents a shift in market structure that is significantly larger in scale than the mere transactional layer of automated payments.

According to NEAR, while agentic payments focus on the ability of AI to send and receive value, the agent economy refers to the total orchestration of commercial relationships by autonomous software. The protocol argues that most modern commercial interactions are essentially “transactions waiting for an agent” to manage them.

The clarification identifies three primary pillars that define this emerging category:

  • Machine-negotiated services: Autonomous software units determining the terms of service delivery without direct human intervention.
  • Agent-to-agent contracting: The creation of digital agreements where AI agents hire and pay other agents to fulfill specific tasks within a value chain.
  • Continuous micro-settlement: The high-frequency exchange of value in increments too small or frequent for traditional financial systems to process efficiently.

Infrastructure for AI Agents

The distinction comes as NEAR positions its sharded blockchain architecture, known as Nightshade, as a foundation for “user-owned AI.” By integrating features like the NEAR Agent Market, the protocol aims to provide an environment where AI agents can operate with cryptographic identity and verifiable authority.

Under this framework, blockchain provides the “financial guardrails” necessary for agents to transact safely. This includes establishing reputation systems where agents can build portable transaction histories, which other software counterparts use to evaluate risk or refuse interactions.

NEAR suggests that this model will compress existing value chains by removing human-centric delays. Rather than merely making current payment volumes cheaper, the protocol anticipates that the shift toward machine commerce will lead to a transaction volume that dwarfs existing consumer systems, driven by agents consuming both compute and settlement resources simultaneously.

The post NEAR Protocol Clarifies Distinction Between Agent Economy and Agentic Payments appeared first on The Cryptocurrency Post.

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Noos sets September 5 mainnet launch as it moves AI agent infrastructure on-chain

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Noos said its mainnet will go live at 00:00 UTC on September 5, 2026, marking the project’s shift from testnet operation to an on-chain environment for AI agent execution, collaboration, verification and value settlement.

The announcement was published on Noos’ official blog, which described the launch as a step toward the AI agent economy rather than a simple network transition. The post said the project has spent 159 days building on testnet ahead of mainnet.

In a separate post on Noos’ official X account, the team said the move will bring those functions fully on-chain once mainnet opens. The same materials say Noos has been working across ecosystem partners, nodes, users and communities ahead of launch.

Testnet phase set the backdrop for launch

Noos said its testnet began on March 20, 2026 and continued for 159 days. During that period, the project said it completed phased testing of core infrastructure that includes AI Agents, AI Skills, Genesis AIDs and the IVN validation network.

The project also said its testnet phase involved more than 50 ecosystem partners, 700+ global KOLs, 3,500+ globally distributed computing nodes and 5,000 on-chain Genesis AIDs. Those figures were presented by Noos as part of the foundation for the mainnet rollout.

According to the announcement, mainnet is expected to move the network beyond infrastructure validation and into “real usage, execution, collaboration, and value.”

Noos frames the launch around the AI agent economy, a concept it says requires computing power, agent skills, verification, payments, data, smart hardware and vertical applications to work together. The company’s message indicates the mainnet is intended to connect those pieces in a live on-chain environment, though the announcement does not add further operational details beyond the launch timing and broader network goals.

The post Noos sets September 5 mainnet launch as it moves AI agent infrastructure on-chain appeared first on The Cryptocurrency Post.

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Algorand launches AC2 to let AI agents request user approvals without exposing private keys

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Algorand Foundation has launched AC2, an open protocol designed to make AI agent approvals more secure by keeping private keys under the user’s control. In the foundation’s public announcement, AC2 is described as a standard for direct, encrypted communication between users and AI agents that lets agents request signing actions without handing over wallet access.

The launch centers on a familiar problem in AI-driven workflows: agents may need to sign payments, code commits or other digital actions on a user’s behalf, but the surrounding messaging tools do not provide cryptographic verification or scoped approval. Algorand says AC2 is meant to close that gap by allowing the user to review and approve each requested action through their own wallet interface.

How AC2 is described to work

According to the foundation, AC2 establishes an end-to-end encrypted WebRTC connection between a user’s wallet or app and an AI agent. When the agent needs authorization for an action such as a payment, git commit or API request, it sends a signing request through AC2. The user then approves the action directly, while the private key remains with the user.

The announcement also says the protocol is blockchain-agnostic and open source, with both the specification and a reference implementation now available. Algorand framed AC2 as a way to support broader “agentic” workflows without requiring users to surrender full control of their accounts.

The foundation said the protocol can be extended for different message types and signing formats, which it says would make it usable in settings where agents need limited, user-approved authority rather than unrestricted access.

For now, the launch is best understood as a security and communications layer for AI agents rather than evidence that AI payments or agent-driven commerce are already widespread. The key change is narrower but concrete: users are meant to approve exactly what an agent can sign, instead of relying on chat-based instructions that can be easier to spoof or misread.

The post Algorand launches AC2 to let AI agents request user approvals without exposing private keys appeared first on The Cryptocurrency Post.

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Token Terminal data shows AI agents driving 73 million stablecoin transfers in 180 days

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Token Terminal’s agentic payments explorer shows AI agents initiating 73.0 million stablecoin transfers over the past 180 days, with USDC accounting for virtually all of the activity.

The explorer data also points to a concentration of transfers on a small number of networks. Base led with 38.7 million transfers, while Polygon followed with 26.1 million, according to Token Terminal.

The figures describe transfer activity initiated by AI agents, not a broader measure of stablecoin adoption across the market. The available data also does not by itself explain who the agents were, what applications they were using or whether the transfers reflect sustained operational usage beyond the measured period.

Still, the numbers offer a concrete snapshot of how agent-driven payments are appearing in onchain data. In this case, the activity is largely tied to USDC and concentrated on Base and Polygon, which makes the breakdown more specific than a generic claim about AI and crypto payments.

The post Token Terminal data shows AI agents driving 73 million stablecoin transfers in 180 days appeared first on The Cryptocurrency Post.

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