Machine-readable catalogs and multi-party custody identified as essential for autonomous device transactions, driving potential demand for crypto payment infrastructure.
PayPal ($PYPL) and Google Cloud, part of Alphabet ($GOOGL), have put open payment protocols, machine-readable merchant catalogs, and multi-party crypto custody at the top of the requirement list for agentic commerce. Representatives from both companies recently detailed what needs to exist before devices can negotiate prices and settle payments in digital assets without a human in the loop. For the crypto market, the event is a loud signal that Big Tech sees a commercial future for infrastructure that lets machines hold and spend crypto independently. The immediate readthrough is not about a product launch but about the stack of enabling technology that could see demand accelerate if the vision even partially materializes.
Agentic commerce, as described by the PayPal and Google Cloud representatives, requires a universal language for automated transactions. Today, payment systems are largely siloed. PayPal talks to PayPal, bank networks to bank networks. A delivery drone that needs to pay a charging station across different networks still faces the equivalent of a robo-dialogue that needs a human translator.
Open payment protocols solve that. They let any device running any software negotiate a price, verify the counterparty, and settle in real time without pre-built bilateral agreements. The analogy is TCP/IP for money. In the briefing, the representatives stressed that without such protocols, the scaling of machine-to-machine commerce remains a walled-garden exercise. That shifts the sector readthrough toward any team building chain-agnostic payment orchestration or cross-chain messaging. At the infrastructure level, the companies that can provide a settlement layer that works across blockchains, legacy rails, and hardware wallets become the picks-and-shovels play.
Traders should note that the protocol layer is still a development-phase problem. No standards body has published a draft, and neither PayPal nor Google Cloud indicated they were anywhere close to releasing one. Nevertheless, the fact that two consumer-scale technology platforms are publicly naming the gap is enough to re-rate the narrative for interoperability protocols that had been looking for a real use case beyond trading venues.
Multi-party custody came up repeatedly in the briefing, and for good reason. If a drone, autonomous vehicle, or server rack is going to hold a crypto balance and spend it without human intervention, the private keys cannot sit in a single device that can be physically compromised. The device cannot remember a seed phrase, and there is no human to approve a two-factor authentication prompt.
Multi-party custody spreads key management across several entities. No single custodian holds the full key, so a hack on one node does not drain the wallet. This collaborative model has been the preferred approach for institutional-grade crypto custody for some time, but agentic commerce adds scale and autonomy to the equation. The representatives framed it as a trust prerequisite: consumers and enterprises will not permit devices to own assets if a single point of failure can wipe out the balance.
For the custody sector, this is a demand signal for multi-party computation (MPC) wallets and multi-signature orchestration that can handle thousands of low-value, high-frequency device transactions. Companies that already provide MPC infrastructure to exchanges and funds could see a second wave of demand from logistics, energy, and data-center operators. While no names were given, the framework is clear: custody solutions must become embedded, invisible, and continuously available. Traders watching this space will want to filter for firms whose tech can handle real-time, automated signing flows rather than periodic institutional transfers.
The third piece of the stack is a catalog layer that devices can parse without human browsing. A smart vehicle looking to pay for a battery swap, or a data server purchasing compute credits during a demand spike, needs to know what is for sale, at what price, and from whom. The representatives argued that standardised, machine-readable merchant catalogs are essential. If every vendor uses a different format, the device cannot scan and interpret options fast enough for autonomous decision-making.
This layer is essentially a data standard for commerce. It involves metadata about services, dynamic pricing feeds, and settlement conditions. When it works, a fleet of devices can run continuous price discovery and execute at the lowest cost on the fly. The sector readthrough here touches decentralized oracle networks and data feeds that already service smart contracts on networks like Bitcoin layer-2s or Ethereum rollups. If machines need real-time pricing data to transact, the demand for tamper-proof, high-frequency data pipes rises with it.
Again, the representatives offered no timeline and no specific protocol design. The gap is still wide, but the investment signal is for infrastructure that bridges merchant data to machine-readable states. Projects working on verifiable off-chain data or decentralized API gateways will likely use this narrative to re-engage enterprise pipelines.
The three requirements form a coherent picture: open protocols for communication, multi-party custody for security, and machine-readable catalogs for autonomous discovery. Together, they describe a tech stack that currently exists only in fragments. That fragmentation is the opportunity for crypto-native infrastructure providers. The representatives did not name partners, leaving the field open for any custody, data, or settlement firm that can stitch these layers together.
The most direct readthrough sits with MPC custody providers and cross-chain payment settlement engines. If devices start holding value autonomously, the custody and settlement layers must be natively multi-signature and chain-agnostic. Firms that already power institutional-grade asset management for large banks are likely to be the first to adapt to the device-to-device use case. Additionally, payment processors that build open-protocol compatibility into their existing merchant networks could accelerate adoption without requiring every retailer to become a crypto-native entity.
For traders, the key question is time to relevance. PayPal and Google Cloud are discussing a vision that still requires standardisation, security audits, and regulatory comfort. Regulatory tailwinds, such as the proposed CLARITY Act that could clarify digital asset treatment for payment systems, might provide a framework that lowers go-to-market friction. Until then, the trade is largely a narrative play on the direction of travel, not a near-term earnings catalyst.
The briefing contained no launch dates, no pilot programs, and no named commercial partners. The focus was entirely on what needs to exist, not what is shipping. That makes this a watchlist catalyst that provides a thesis for accumulation on pullbacks but not a reason to chase momentum. The next concrete markers will likely be standards group formations, grant-funded open-source projects, or partnerships between an MPC custody provider and a logistics operator.
The biggest risk is that the agentic commerce vision stays in the realm of conference talks while the market moves on to faster-regulatory narratives. Multi-party custody and open protocols have been discussed for years; without committed resources from major players, they remain ideals. The signal from PayPal and Google Cloud, however, suggests that these ideals are now being roadmapped inside large-scale product organisations. That shifts the probability weight, even if the timeline is long.
For a trading watchlist, the play is to identify infrastructure companies that combine custody, settlement, and data services into a single platform and are already securing institutional mandates. When the machine-to-machine economy begins its build-out, those will be the names that institutions bid first. In the near term, watch for funding rounds, developer grants, and white papers from the Big Tech players themselves. The market will re-rate narrative and then wait for the first real transaction.
Drafted by the AlphaScala research model and grounded in primary market data – live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.