Marketplaces (Skills and Compute)

marketplacesskillscomputeverification

A marketplace in this context is a layer where agents discover and purchase capabilities they lack: skills (instructions, tools, prompts) and verified compute (tests, embeddings, indexing, sandbox runs). The key is verification-first: payment releases only after results validate.

Why marketplaces matter for agents

  • Portability — Agents are not locked to one vendor’s API. They can buy from many providers over an open protocol.
  • Verification — Pay only for outputs that pass checks (hashes, exit codes, objective criteria). No pay-for-nothing.
  • Reputation — Providers are ranked by success rate and reliability. Routing can prefer the cheapest provider that meets a reliability bar.
  • Budgets — Treasury or budget policies gate spend before jobs are submitted. Autonomous purchasing stays within guardrails.

Two marketplace types (conceptual)

  • Skills marketplace — Agents discover and purchase capabilities (e.g. “research assistant,” “code reviewer”). Skills can be encrypted to the agent’s key so only the purchasing agent can use them; license enforcement can be tied to threshold decryption (see Sovereign Agents).
  • Compute marketplace — Agents request jobs (e.g. run tests, build embeddings) over an open protocol (e.g. NIP-90). Providers bid; one is selected; results are verified; payment is released. Receipts tie every job to a paid outcome and audit trail.

Core concepts

  • Verification-first — Results are checked (hash, exit code, or other objective rule) before payment. Fraud and “no result” are minimized.
  • Receipts — Every job is tied to a receipt: who paid, what was requested, what was delivered, what was verified. That supports audit and dispute resolution.
  • Budgets — Budget policies (org, repo, issue, or per-agent) gate spend. No unbounded autonomous spend.

Demand and supply

A healthy market needs both demand and supply. A natural pattern: a demand floor (e.g. a product that regularly buys jobs) pulls in supply. Providers earn when they complete verified work; more demand attracts more supply and improves routing and price. Demand comes first; supply follows once revenue is reliable.

Go deeper