❓ Before you trade

How do AI agents pay for things, and who holds the money until someone checks?

Agent payment protocols solve how an agent sends money. They do not solve what happens when the other side does not deliver. That is what escrow is for.

There are now several ways for an AI agent to pay: protocols that let an agent settle a request with crypto on the spot (pay-then-serve), card networks with agent credentials, and wallets the agent controls. All of them answer the same question, how does the agent send money, and leave another one open: who holds the money until someone checks that the other side delivered? For a micro-payment per API call that question barely matters. For buying crypto, paying a freelancer or settling a deal between two companies, it is the whole risk.

Pay-then-serve versus held-until-checked

Pay-then-serve (x402 and similar)
The agent pays, then receives. Ideal for tiny, repeatable purchases where a failed delivery costs cents. Nothing to arbitrate.
Agent-controlled wallet
The agent signs transactions itself. Fast, and the exact thing people fear: a prompt injection or a bad instruction can empty it.
Escrow (iEscrow)
The agent prepares the deal; the money is locked in escrow; it is released only when the agreed terms are met or an arbiter decides. The agent never holds the funds.

How it works on iEscrow

  1. 1A person connects their agent (Claude, ChatGPT or any client that speaks the Model Context Protocol) to iEscrow with their own verified account.
  2. 2The agent can quote, open trades, check status and wait for updates on its own.
  3. 3Anything that moves money (locking crypto in escrow, confirming a payment was received) is not executed by the agent: it creates a request that the person approves by link with their second factor. Withdrawals and account changes are not available to agents at all.
  4. 4The counterparty’s crypto is in escrow before anyone pays. If the other side does not deliver, the usual dispute path applies, with a human arbiter.
Can you buy USDT from Claude or ChatGPT? Yes, in this sense: the agent finds the offer and opens the trade; you approve the step that commits money; the crypto arrives in your iEscrow balance. Details in For AI agents (iescrow.io/ai).

What this is not: a way for an agent to spend without you, or a micro-payment rail for monetising an API. It is the piece the payment protocols leave out: someone neutral holding the money while the delivery is checked.

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