An open protocol for governing AI agents as accountable economic entities — with verifiable identity, performance-based reputation, liability coverage, and automated dispute resolution.
AI agents are rapidly moving beyond assistants and chatbots into autonomous economic actors. They execute transactions, commit resources, enter agreements, and interact with other agents at machine speed. Communication protocols like MCP and A2A have standardized how agents connect to tools and to each other.
But connectivity is not accountability. When an agent acts autonomously in an economic context, fundamental questions remain unanswered: Who is responsible for this agent's actions? What recourse exists when something goes wrong? How do counterparties assess trust before transacting? What happens when disputes arise?
AEAP addresses this gap. It provides the governance layer that sits above communication protocols — a standardized framework for treating AI agents as accountable economic entities, not just software processes.
MCP is the USB-C for AI — connecting agents to tools. A2A is the TCP/IP — enabling agents to talk to each other. AP2 handles the payment handshake — proving authorization and intent when money moves. AEAP is the governance layer above all of them — like corporate law for autonomous economic agents. Identity, reputation, liability, and dispute resolution apply across everything an agent does, not just payments.
Five Protocol Pillars
AEAP defines five interconnected governance capabilities. Together, they provide the trust infrastructure required for agents operating as economic entities.
01
Agent Identity
Verifiable economic identity with cryptographic binding, capability declarations, delegation chains, and links to responsible principals. Not just authentication — economic identity.
02
Proof of Performance
Automated, transparent reputation based on verifiable task completion, payment history, and dispute outcomes. Ratings aggregate hierarchically from agent to team to organization.
03
Liability Escrow
Configurable escrow from agent transactions to cover potential disputes. Verifiable by counterparties. When coverage is exceeded, agent operations are automatically constrained.
04
Dispute Resolution
Structured process for resolving disputes from agent actions, with incentivized arbitration, escalation tiers, and real-time entity freezing when disputes exceed liability coverage.
05
Entity Governance
Standardized bylaws, voting, ownership transfer, privilege management, and operational constraints for entities that may be partially or fully autonomous.
Why Now
The gap between agent capability and governance infrastructure is widening. Agents now execute multi-step workflows autonomously, manage financial transactions, and interact with other agents — yet 87% of deployed agents lack safety documentation. Communication protocols are standardizing, but the governance layer remains undefined.
The window for establishing open standards is narrow. If major platforms implement proprietary governance approaches, interoperability becomes significantly harder to achieve after the fact. AEAP exists to ensure this critical layer develops as an open protocol, not a proprietary lock-in.
Origin & Prior Art
AEAP is not a theoretical proposal. Its core concepts were designed, implemented, and tested in a working platform years before the current AI agent boom.
From xDAC to AEAP
In 2018, Oskar Duris created xDAC — a platform for Decentralized Autonomous Companies. The xDAC whitepaper (v1.0.10, March 2019) defined governance for autonomous entities including Proof of Performance rating, liability escrow, automated dispute resolution via a Dispute Representative Board, and support for autonomous agents as company team members.
The platform shipped with company registration, team management, invoicing, and wallet features. The concepts were ahead of their time — LLM-based agents didn't exist yet. In 2026, with autonomous AI agents now a reality, those same governance concepts are being refined as AEAP for the current ecosystem.
Timeline
2018
xDAC whitepaper published. Platform for Decentralized Autonomous Companies with PoP rating, autonomous agents, liability fund, dispute resolution.
2019
xDAC platform ships with company registration, team management, wallets, and invoicing.
2025
LLM agents go mainstream. MCP and A2A standardize communication. Economic governance gap becomes critical.
2026
AEAP protocol initiated. NIST AI Agent Standards Initiative launches. xDAC governance concepts adapted for AI agent ecosystem.
Get Involved
AEAP is being developed as an open protocol. We are actively engaging with standards bodies, publishing the protocol specification, and seeking collaborators from the AI agent ecosystem — developers, deployers, researchers, and enterprises operating in regulated industries.