Circle and Proof to Secure AI Agent Transactions

Proof and Circle Internet Group announced that they will jointly demonstrate at the Money20/20 event how open identity and payment protocols will enable businesses to trust transactions performed by artificial intelligence agents. During the demonstration, an AI agent will present a verified identity via Proof's open identity protocol, x401, and make a payment with the USDC stablecoin from a Circle Agent Wallet via the x402 protocol developed for internet-based payments.

According to the companies' announcements, the x401 protocol uses the web's HTTP 401 "Unauthorized" response, while the x402 protocol uses the HTTP 402 "Payment Required" response. Proof Founder and CEO Pat Kinsel and Circle Vice President of Product Gagan Mac evaluated how identity and payments are linked in the agent economy.

Meanwhile, Proof also announced that the x401 protocol is compatible with Meta's Muse, ChatGPT dots, Grok, Claude, and other assistants supporting the Model Context Protocol.