The Trust Fabric: Decentralized Interoperability and Economic Coordination for the Agentic Web

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07901v3
• Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2025 19:28:06 GMT
• Title: The Trust Fabric: Decentralized Interoperability and Economic Coordination for the Agentic Web
• Authors: Sree Bhargavi Balija, Rekha Singal, Ramesh Raskar, Erfan Darzi, Raghu Bala, Thomas Hardjono, Ken Huang,
• Abstract summary: fragmentation of AI agent ecosystems has created urgent demands for interoperability, trust, and economic coordination.<n>We present the Nanda Unified Architecture, a decentralized framework built around three core innovations.<n>System introduces X42/H42 micropayments for economic coordination and MAESTRO, a security framework incorporating Synergetics' patented AgentTalk protocol.
• Score: 7.430263678657935
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: The fragmentation of AI agent ecosystems has created urgent demands for interoperability, trust, and economic coordination that current protocols -- including MCP (Hou et al., 2025), A2A (Habler et al., 2025), ACP (Liu et al., 2025), and Cisco's AGP (Edwards, 2025) -- cannot address at scale. We present the Nanda Unified Architecture, a decentralized framework built around three core innovations: fast DID-based agent discovery through distributed registries, semantic agent cards with verifiable credentials and composability profiles, and a dynamic trust layer that integrates behavioral attestations with policy compliance. The system introduces X42/H42 micropayments for economic coordination and MAESTRO, a security framework incorporating Synergetics' patented AgentTalk protocol (US Patent 12,244,584 B1) and secure containerization. Real-world deployments demonstrate 99.9 percent compliance in healthcare applications and substantial monthly transaction volumes with strong privacy guarantees. By unifying MIT's trust research with production deployments from Cisco and Synergetics, we show how cryptographic proofs and policy-as-code transform agents into trust-anchored participants in a decentralized economy (Lakshmanan, 2025; Sha, 2025). The result enables a globally interoperable Internet of Agents where trust becomes the native currency of collaboration across both enterprise and Web3 ecosystems.

Related papers

• AESP: A Human-Sovereign Economic Protocol for AI Agents with Privacy-Preserving Settlement [1.7429038786735553]
  We present the Agent Economic Sovereignty Protocol (AESP), a layered protocol in which agents transact autonomously at machine speed on crypto-native infrastructure.<n>AESP enforces the invariant that agents are economically capable but never economically sovereign through five mechanisms.<n>We formalize two testable hypotheses on security coverage and latency overhead, and specify a complete evaluation methodology.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-02-27T21:20:09Z)
• Towards a Science of Scaling Agent Systems [79.64446272302287]
  We formalize a definition for agent evaluation and characterize scaling laws as the interplay between agent quantity, coordination structure, modelic, and task properties.<n>We derive a predictive model using coordination metrics, that cross-validated R2=0, enabling prediction on unseen task domains.<n>We identify three effects: (1) a tool-coordination trade-off: under fixed computational budgets, tool-heavy tasks suffer disproportionately from multi-agent overhead, and (2) a capability saturation: coordination yields diminishing or negative returns once single-agent baselines exceed 45%.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-12-09T06:52:21Z)
• Inter-Agent Trust Models: A Comparative Study of Brief, Claim, Proof, Stake, Reputation and Constraint in Agentic Web Protocol Design-A2A, AP2, ERC-8004, and Beyond [1.5755923640031846]
  We study trust models in inter-agent protocol design.<n>We analyze assumptions, attack surfaces, and design trade-offs.<n>We distill actionable design guidelines for safer, interoperable, and scalable agent economies.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-11-05T12:50:06Z)
• Using the NANDA Index Architecture in Practice: An Enterprise Perspective [9.707223291705601]
  The proliferation of autonomous AI agents represents a paradigmatic shift from traditional web architectures toward collaborative intelligent systems.<n>This paper presents a comprehensive framework addressing the fundamental infrastructure requirements for secure, trustworthy, and interoperable AI agent ecosystems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-08-05T05:27:27Z)
• Evolution of AI Agent Registry Solutions: Centralized, Enterprise, and Distributed Approaches [13.123809945481405]
  AI agents operate across cloud, enterprise, and decentralized domains, creating demand for registry infrastructures that enable discovery, capability negotiation, and identity assurance.<n>We analyze five prominent approaches: (1) MCP Registry (centralized publication of mcp.), (2) A2A Agent Cards (decentralized self-describing capability manifests), (3) AGNTCY Agent Directory Service (IPFS Kademlia content routing extended for semantic taxonomy-based content discovery, OCI artifact storage, and Sigstore-backed integrity), (4) Microsoft Entra Agent ID (crypt, privacy-preserving fact model with credentialed assertions), and (5) NANDA Index AgentFacts
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-08-05T05:17:18Z)
• Web3 x AI Agents: Landscape, Integrations, and Foundational Challenges [49.69200207497795]
  The convergence of Web3 technologies and AI agents represents a rapidly evolving frontier poised to reshape decentralized ecosystems.<n>This paper presents the first and most comprehensive analysis of the intersection between Web3 and AI agents, examining five critical dimensions: landscape, economics, governance, security, and trust mechanisms.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-08-04T15:44:58Z)
• Agentic Web: Weaving the Next Web with AI Agents [109.13815627467514]
  The emergence of AI agents powered by large language models (LLMs) marks a pivotal shift toward the Agentic Web.<n>In this paradigm, agents interact directly with one another to plan, coordinate, and execute complex tasks on behalf of users.<n>We present a structured framework for understanding and building the Agentic Web.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-07-28T17:58:12Z)
• From Cloud-Native to Trust-Native: A Protocol for Verifiable Multi-Agent Systems [7.002091295810318]
  We introduce TrustTrack, a protocol that embeds structural guarantees directly into agent infrastructure.<n>TrustTrack reframes how intelligent agents operate across organizations and jurisdictions.<n>We argue that the Cloud -> AI -> Agent -> Trust transition represents the next architectural layer for autonomous systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-07-25T04:38:38Z)
• SAMEP: A Secure Protocol for Persistent Context Sharing Across AI Agents [0.0]
  SAMEP (Secure Agent Memory Exchange Protocol) is a novel framework that enables persistent, secure, and semantically searchable memory sharing among AI agents.<n>Our protocol addresses three critical challenges: (1) persistent context preservation across agent sessions, (2) secure multi-agent collaboration with fine-grained access control, and (3) efficient semantic discovery of relevant historical context.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-07-05T02:20:09Z)
• Agent Capability Negotiation and Binding Protocol (ACNBP) [0.0]
  This paper presents the Agent Capability Negotiation and Binding Protocol (ACNBP)<n>ACNBP is a framework designed to facilitate secure, efficient, and verifiable interactions between agents in heterogeneous multi-agent systems.<n>We show ACNBP's effectiveness through a comprehensive security analysis using the MAESTRO threat modeling framework.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-06-16T15:18:24Z)
• LLM Agents Should Employ Security Principles [60.03651084139836]
  This paper argues that the well-established design principles in information security should be employed when deploying Large Language Model (LLM) agents at scale.<n>We introduce AgentSandbox, a conceptual framework embedding these security principles to provide safeguards throughout an agent's life-cycle.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-05-29T21:39:08Z)
• Zero-Trust Foundation Models: A New Paradigm for Secure and Collaborative Artificial Intelligence for Internet of Things [61.43014629640404]
  Zero-Trust Foundation Models (ZTFMs) embed zero-trust security principles into the lifecycle of foundation models (FMs) for Internet of Things (IoT) systems.<n>ZTFMs can enable secure, privacy-preserving AI across distributed, heterogeneous, and potentially adversarial IoT environments.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-05-26T06:44:31Z)
• A Novel Zero-Trust Identity Framework for Agentic AI: Decentralized Authentication and Fine-Grained Access Control [7.228060525494563]
  This paper posits the imperative for a novel Agentic AI IAM framework.<n>We propose a comprehensive framework built upon rich, verifiable Agent Identities (IDs)<n>We also explore how Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) enable privacy-preserving attribute disclosure and verifiable policy compliance.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-05-25T20:21:55Z)
• Collaborative Agentic AI Needs Interoperability Across Ecosystems [11.54191443859979]
  Collaborative agentic AI is projected to transform entire industries by enabling AI-powered agents to autonomously perceive, plan, and act within digital environments.<n>Current solutions in this field are all built in isolation, and we are heading toward a landscape of fragmented, incompatible ecosystems.<n>We argue that interoperability, achieved by the adoption of minimal standards, is essential to ensure open, secure, web-scale, and widely-adopted agentic ecosystems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-05-25T14:25:08Z)
• From Glue-Code to Protocols: A Critical Analysis of A2A and MCP Integration for Scalable Agent Systems [0.8909482883800253]
  Two open standards, Google's Agent to Agent (A2A) protocol for inter-agent communication and Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP) for standardized tool access, promise to overcome the limitations of fragmented, custom integration approaches.<n>This paper argues that effectively integrating A2A and MCP presents unique, emergent challenges at their intersection.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-05-06T16:40:39Z)
• ACRIC: Securing Legacy Communication Networks via Authenticated Cyclic Redundancy Integrity Check [98.34702864029796]
  Recent security incidents in safety-critical industries exposed how the lack of proper message authentication enables attackers to inject malicious commands or alter system behavior.<n>These shortcomings have prompted new regulations that emphasize the pressing need to strengthen cybersecurity.<n>We introduce ACRIC, a message authentication solution to secure legacy industrial communications.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-11-21T18:26:05Z)
• Internet of Agents: Weaving a Web of Heterogeneous Agents for Collaborative Intelligence [79.5316642687565]
  Existing multi-agent frameworks often struggle with integrating diverse capable third-party agents. We propose the Internet of Agents (IoA), a novel framework that addresses these limitations. IoA introduces an agent integration protocol, an instant-messaging-like architecture design, and dynamic mechanisms for agent teaming and conversation flow control.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-07-09T17:33:24Z)
• A Survey and Comparative Analysis of Security Properties of CAN Authentication Protocols [92.81385447582882]
  The Controller Area Network (CAN) bus leaves in-vehicle communications inherently non-secure. This paper reviews and compares the 15 most prominent authentication protocols for the CAN bus. We evaluate protocols based on essential operational criteria that contribute to ease of implementation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-01-19T14:52:04Z)
• Regulation conform DLT-operable payment adapter based on trustless - justified trust combined generalized state channels [77.34726150561087]
  Economy of Things (EoT) will be based on software agents running on peer-to-peer trustless networks. We give an overview of current solutions that differ in their fundamental values and technological possibilities. We propose to combine the strengths of the crypto based, decentralized trustless elements with established and well regulated means of payment.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-07-03T10:45:55Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.