Economies of Scale in Agent-to-Agent Transactions: A Micro-Billing Protocol

ABSTRACT

As the internet transitions to a machine-to-machine economy, Agentic AI systems frequently need to outsource sub-tasks (e.g., specialized data retrieval, proprietary compute) to external agents. However, traditional financial rails are too slow and fee-heavy to support millions of autonomous micro-transactions. We introduce the Agentic Micro-Billing Protocol (AMP), a high-throughput, low-latency ledger designed specifically for inter-agent commerce. Utilizing cryptographic intent verification and state-channel streaming, AMP allows agents to autonomously negotiate, execute, and settle sub-cent API payments in real-time, enabling a truly decentralized intelligence economy.