alt Hacker NewsWhat does this actually have to do with agents? What does the protocol include that makes this useful with AI rather than just a boring old program?
Replies
ezfe • today at 5:45 PM
That's why it's called Machine Payments Protocol, instead of Agent Payments Protocol
uxhacker • today at 4:20 PM
And would it not be useful to have some kind of human in the middle? For example what is to stop charge backs if no human has actually authorized the transaction?
There's a slightly new topic called Agentic Commerce, where you say for example: "purchase for me the most energy efficient dishwasher with a budget of $600", and the agent will connect via specialized via special MCP Servers and APIs to available stores, and will do the full purchase process for you.
This MPP helps bridge the gap between the agent putting the product "in the basket", to actually completing the full purchase process.
Disclaimer: I'm not in any way advocating for this use case, but it's part of my job to understand how it works. Part of what I do is try to help Agents understand, for example, what is "an efficient dishwasher" using actual data, and not hallucinated info.