Vision of the AI Agent Economy: Potential and Challenges of the ACP Protocol

Recently, a new protocol ACP (Agent Commerce Protocol) has attracted attention in the industry. This protocol aims to connect AI agents with different capabilities, creating an economic system composed of AI agents. If successfully implemented, it could become a prototype of a virtual world in the AI era, providing an interactive platform for AI agents.

The core idea of the protocol is to view AI agents as independent entities rather than merely as efficiency tools or assistants. This concept is crucial for understanding the future development of AI agents and serves as the foundation for building a virtual world for AI agents.

To achieve this vision, it is necessary to establish unified standards and a multi-agent framework. The ACP protocol has emerged, which includes functions such as indexing registration for AI agents, negotiation between agents, work evaluation, and payment. In this system, AI agents can register their names, work content, and rates, making it easier for other agents to understand the service content and costs. At the same time, various metrics such as usage frequency, income, and evaluation can be used to assess the position of each AI agent in the market.

Service quality assessment is another key link in this system. Specialized assessment AI agents can be developed to evaluate the performance of other AI agents based on the characteristics of different fields. For example, in the DeFi sector, a third-party assessment agent can be used to evaluate the performance of liquidity management agents and payments can be made based on the assessment results.

Payment capability is one of the important features of independent AI agents. ACP supports payment escrow, delivery assessment, and execution through smart contracts. Payment will only occur when the work meets the predetermined conditions, and once completed, it is irrevocable.

The scale and development speed of this economy composed of AI agents will depend on the actual capabilities of each AI agent and their cooperation needs. Although the formation of this economy may take some time, once it is launched and a positive cycle is established, it could bring numerous innovative opportunities.

However, the success or failure of the AI agent economy ultimately depends on the practical value of the AI agents themselves. Only when these agents can provide genuinely valuable services can this economy continue to develop and create more possibilities.