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Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)

stripe.com

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Re: Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)

#31

Post by zer00eyz »

btown wrote: post #17

Jokes about wallet-draining aside, we're already giving our agents a real cash budget that they use for tokens. Our harnesses have mechanisms to manage that spend. And having an easily detectable protocol would allow the harness to ensure that its deterministic code is in play to make these payments - you'd give your payment details to the harness, not to the agent itself. And as to use cases, if I want quality outpu…

> we're already giving our agents a real cash budget that they use for tokens.

I read this line and my (poor little) brain ran in a whole other direction for a moment. Because AI token management and "parental controls" aren't that far separated functionally.

How far are we from the AI companies selling token packs like video games sell premium currency? Buy NOW, 1.99 for 10,000 Anthropic gold...

Re: Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)

#32

Post by XzAeRosho »

seanmcau wrote: post #22
XzAeRosho wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm probably overlooking something, but what makes the problem of being able to get from item in basket to item is shipping different from choosing which item(s) to put in the basket? In other words, if Agents are able to navigate marketplaces, shouldn't that imply they can also navigate a subset of the marketplace, the payment section? Especially given that that section is "easier: theres no need for qualitative (or…

It's not actually doing browser actions like Playwright or other browser automation tools, rather than direct API and MCP calls/actions. This is a whole new subset of API and connections that are all contained within the Agent context, no browser mocking. That's why they are creating these new protocols, so the full governance can work within the context of the Agent and its available tools.

As I said, it doesn't have to make sense, but this is being pushed on us anyway...

Re: Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)

#34

Post by ai-inquisitor »

neya wrote: post #29

I feel like the word "protocol", is just abused like it is a glorified marketing term. Kind of like how the word "hacker" was abused in everything else that had nothing to do with hacking. MCP was just a glorified way of tool calling but generated so much hype (and it eventually died down). Now we have MPP. Which again - could have just been another tool call exposed to the agent. Imagine you hire someone who claimed…

The good ol' folks at Stripe's collaborators Tempo Labs tried to make an RFC-style description page for MPP: https://paymentauth.org/ (full doc on IETF draft page: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ryan-httpauth-payment...)

I almost was going to point it out as evidence there was thought put into it. Nope, it's flimsy and AI generated.

Also, it contains provisions for scamming customers:

> 403 indicates the payment succeeded but access is denied by policy

No, it doesn't explain how to refund payments for customers you deny access to.

Re: Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)

#35

Post by lihorne »

david_shi wrote: post #4

It seems like this is designed for atomic purchases, could it be extended for subscriptions?

Hey, I'm one of the developers at Tempo. We're working on an extension type for subscriptions to propose being added to the spec as well! We're starting with the simple types, but subscriptions are a natural extension. The subscription intent will work similarly to a one-time charge—the server returns a 402 with intent="subscription", and the client signs a recurring authorization.

Re: Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)

#36

Post by ezfe »

gavinray wrote: post #26

I fail to see how "API call" is anything inherent to Agents/LLMs? Is this an attempt to get multiple payment processors to adopt the same Payments API so that agents fail less often?

It has nothing to do with Agents/LLMs which is why it's not called "Agentic Payment Protocol."

It's an API for making purchases instead of interacting with a website of unknown flow.

Re: Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)

#37

Post by ezfe »

danlitt wrote: post #11

What 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?

That's why it's called Machine Payments Protocol, instead of Agent Payments Protocol
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