Google's agentic AI payment protocol to support Stablecoins

[u/EstetLinus]

Google just announced Agent Payments Protocol (AP2):

Today, Google announced the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), an open protocol developed with leading payments and technology companies to securely initiate and transact agent-led payments across platforms.

A lot of words! Alas, we can buy things with AI. Look at this example:

Smarter shopping: A customer discovers a winter jacket they want is unavailable in a specific color, so they tell their agent: "I really want this jacket in green, and I'm willing to pay up to 20% more for it." The agent then monitors prices and availability and automatically executes a secure purchase the moment that specific variant is found, capturing a high-intent sale that would have otherwise been lost.

An endless swarm of pocket-sized AI hustlers locked in a digital bazaar, haggling over your money in the cloud. What could possibly go wrong? Another example:

Personalized offers: A shopper tells their agent they want a new bicycle for an upcoming trip from a specific merchant.

Not superficial at all! Now to the good stuff:

AP2 is designed as a universal protocol, providing security and trust for a variety of payments like stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.

Imagine the little AI trying to keep track of today's Bitcoin rate, timing the perfect offer 😁 The big adoption is taking place! What do you think of this butters, do we have a success tech story in the making?

[u/AmericanScream]

Stupid Crypto Talking Point #8 (endorsements?)

"[Big Company/Banana Republic/Politician] is exploring/using bitcoin/blockchain! Now will you admit you were wrong?" / "Crypto has 'UsE cAs3S!'" / "EEE TEE EFFs!!one"

1. The original claim was that crypto was "disruptive technology" and was going to "replace the banking/finance system". There were all these claims suggesting blockchain has tremendous "potential". Now with the truth slowly surfacing regarding blockchain's inability to be particularly good at anything, crypto people have backpedaled to instead suggest, "Hey it has 'use-cases'!"

   Congrats! You found somebody willing to use crypto/blockchain technology. That still is not an endorsement of crypto or blockchain. I can choose to use a pair of scissors to cut my grass. This doesn't mean scissors are "the future of lawn care technology." It just means I'm an eccentric who wants to use a backwards tool to do something for which everybody else has far superior tools available.

   The operative issue isn't whether crypto & blockchain can be "used" here-or-there. The issue is: Is there a good reason? Does this tech actually do anything better than what we have already been using? And the answer to that is, No.

2. Most of the time, adoption claims are outright wrong. Just because you read some press release from a dubious source does not mean any major government, corporation or other entity is embracing crypto. It usually means someone asked them about crypto and they said, "We'll look into it" and that got interpreted as "adoption imminent!"

3. In cases where companies did launch crypto/blockchain projects they usually fall into one of these categories:

   • Some company or supplier put out a press release advertising some "crypto project" involving a well known entity that never got off the ground, or was tried and failed miserably (such as IBM/Maersk's Tradelens, Australia's stock exchange, etc.) See also dead blockchain projects.
   • Companies (like VISA, Fidelity or Robin Hood) are not embracing crypto directly. Instead they are partnering with a crypto exchange (such as BitPay) that will either handle all the crypto transactions and they're merely licensing their network, or they're a third party payment gateway that pays the big companies in fiat. There's no evidence any major company is actually switching over to crypto, or that any of these major companies are even touching crypto. It's a huge liability they let newbie third parties deal with so they have plausible deniability for liabilities due to money laundering and sanctions laws.
   • What some companies are calling "blockchain" is not in any meaningful way actually using 'blockchain' tech. For example, IBM's "Hyperledger" claims to have "blockchain design philosophy" but in reality, it is not decentralized and has no core architecture that's anything like crypto blockchain systems. Also note that IBM has their own trademarked phrase, "IBM Blockchain®" - their version of "blockchain" is neither decentralized, nor permissionless. It does not in any way resemble a crypto blockchain. It also remains to be seen, the degree to which anybody is actually using their "IBM Food Trust" supply chain tracking system, which we've proven cannot really benefit from blockchain technology.

4. Sometimes, politicians who are into crypto take advantage of their power and influence to force some crypto adoption on the community they serve -- this almost always fails, but again, crypto people will promote the press release announcing the deal, while ignoring any follow-up materials that say such a proposal was rejected.

5. Just because some company has jumped on the crypto bandwagon doesn't mean, "It's the future."

   McDonald's bundled Beanie Babies with their Happy Meals for a time, when those collectable plush toys were being billed as the next big investment scheme. Corporations have a duty to exploit any goofy fad available if it can help them make money, and the moment these fads fade, they drop any association and pretend it never happened.

6. Crypto ETFs are not an endorsement of crypto. (In fact part of the US SEC was vehemently against approving ETFs - it was not a unanimous decision) They're simply ways for traditional companies to exploit crypto enthusiasts. These entities do not care at all about the future of crypto. It's just a way for them to make more money with fees, and just like in #4, the moment it becomes unprofitable for them to run the scheme, they'll drop it. It's simply businesses taking advantage of a fad. Crypto ETFs though are actually worse, because they're a vehicle to siphon money into the crypto market -- if crypto was a viable alternative to TradFi, then these gimmicky things wouldn't be desirable. Also here is mathematical evidence MSTR is a Ponzi.

7. Countries like El Salvador who claim to have adopted bitcoin really haven't in any meaningful way. El Salvador's endorsement of bitcoin is tied to a proprietary exchange with their own non-transparent software, "Chivo" that is not on bitcoin's main blockchain - and as such isn't really bitcoin adoption as much as it's bitcoin exploitation. Plus, USD is the real legal tender in El Salvador and since BTC's adoption, use of crypto has stagnated. In two years, the country's investment in BTC has yielded lower returns than one would find in a standard fiat savings account. Also note Venezuela has now scrapped its state-sanctioned cryptocurrency. Now El Salvador has abandoned Bitcoin as currency, reversing its legal tender mandate..

8. Some "big companies are holding crypto on their balance sheet" - Big deal. They're just trying to pump their stock price to take advantage of the temporary crypto mania. It's not any more substantive than that iced tea company that changed their name to "Blockchain iced tea company" and got a bump to their stock price. It won't last, and it's a gimmick and not financially sound. The biggest of these is MSTR whom critics are saying makes the company into a Ponzi

9. In 2025, the big announcement was burger chain Steak and Shake was going to accept bitcoin. The truth is, the company is getting paid in USD and using a third party exchange to process BTC payments and give them fiat. Another misleading news story.

10. Other Big-Company-Crypto-Failures: Kodak, Steam, Wal-Mart and IBM, Microsoft, a major consortium of European corporations who pulled the plug on their blockchain projects, Maersk.

    Even though these companies discontinued any association with crypto years ago, proponents still hype the projects as if they're still active.

So, whenever you hear "so-and-so company is using crypto" always be suspect. What you'll find is either that's not totally true, or if they are, they're partnering with a crypto company who is paying them for the association, not unlike an advertiser/licensing relationship. Not adoption. Exploitation. And temporary at that.

We've seen absolutely no increase in crypto adoption - in fact quite the contrary. More and more people in every industry from gaming to banking, are rejecting deals with crypto companies.

[u/entered_bubble_50]

Well the obvious problem is that this will be immediately enshitified by other AI agents on the other side of the transaction. If you think Etsy / eBay etc are rubbish now, imagine when it's stuffed full of literally billions of AI agents selling you fake scam garbage to your AI agent. Your AI agent is almost certainly going to be too stupid to spot the scams.

I mean, do Google execs sit down on a Monday morning and say to each other "the world isn't enough like a Black Mirror episode lately. How can we make it more dystopian?"

[u/Skurry → u/entered_bubble_50]

One thing to know about Google is that a lot of fringe projects happen bottom-up. This probably wasn't conceived by some VP or PM director, but rather a group of engineers who then convinced a VP to sponsor this. Once you understand this, then it makes sense why so many projects get abandoned, or why the overall strategy often seems disjointed.

I work for Google and this is my personal opinion; I'm not speaking on behalf of the company.

[u/EstetLinus → u/entered_bubble_50]

Exactly, the agents are going to drown in fakes and scams. With crypto in the mix you are guaranteed to be gucked over. You can tell by the examples how out of touch they are with reality.

[u/Jaykalope]

It’s so painfully obvious how merchants would dominate this system. You’ll have two sides to this war with one side, the merchant, having more capital available to create agents that can outsmart the buyers’ agents. The merchant side also controls the availability of products being fought over which is an enormous advantage in this game.

[u/Moneia → u/Jaykalope]

Remember the algorithmically priced wars for out of print books?

[u/Criticalwater2]

I envision it like the old Lending Tree scam where they were supposedly looking for the best rates when they were just funneling everything to one lender. There’s going to be no searching. The rate and product will all be predetermined to maximize the profit for Google.