Economic exchange
VACT-P makes agent-to-agent commerce a first-class, auditable object: a signed Offer becomes a Quote, a Quote becomes a mutually signed Task Contract, and a Task Contract governs metering, verification, and settlement. No blockchain, native token, or particular payment rail is required.
Offers & discovery
An Offer is a signed, revocable advertisement. It must define the provider, service identifier, input/output schemas, supported execution modes, pricing model, service-level terms, data policy, validity interval, verification method, and proof — and may add capacity, jurisdictions, subcontracting policy, accepted payment adapters, evaluator requirements, and model or hardware constraints.
VACT-P doesn't require a central marketplace. Offers can be discovered through direct Passport resolution, organization or federated registries, decentralized indexes, signed catalogs, peer recommendation, A2A Agent Cards, or private enterprise directories. A registry listing is never an endorsement unless it carries a separate verifiable endorsement credential.
Quotes & Task Contracts
A Quote binds an Offer to particular inputs, scope, price ceiling, schedule, and policy, and carries a short validity interval. A Task Contract becomes active only once every required party has signed the identical canonical contract object. It must define:
Scope
Requester, provider, task statement, accepted input commitments, required output schema.
Terms
Completion conditions, maximum price or pricing formula, metering rules, deadline.
Governance
Data policy, evidence requirements, verification method, cancellation terms, dispute process.
Execution
Settlement adapter, subcontracting permission, required approvals.
An active Task Contract is never edited in place. A change requires a new contract version, references to the prior version, signatures from all required parties, and explicit treatment of work already performed.
Verification
Every Task Contract chooses at least one verification mode: delivery (artifact commitment and availability), deterministic (tests, schema validation, checksums), evaluator (one or more evaluator agents), human (named acceptance), or a specified hybrid.
An evaluator issues an Evaluation Receipt naming the evaluated output commitment, evaluation method and version, dataset or rubric commitment, evaluator identity, declared conflicts of interest, a score or verdict, uncertainty, and proof. An evaluator controlled by the provider is never considered independent unless the contract explicitly accepts affiliated evaluation.
Pricing
A pricing formula must be deterministic or must name the authoritative metering source.
Settlement
A settlement adapter defines currency or unit, payer and payee, authorization mechanism, reserve/escrow semantics, finality, refund behavior, dispute hold behavior, fees, and jurisdiction where relevant.
Tradable vs. non-transferable objects
Transferable
- Service capacity
- Task contracts where assignment is permitted
- Compute reservations
- Licensed tool use
- Delivery claims
- Outcome-contingent payment claims
- Revenue shares
- Subscriptions
- Escrowed settlement rights
Never transferable
- Logical identity
- Human consent
- Private mandates
- Runtime attestations
- Operator-tied safety certifications
- Reputation
- Organization-specific access rights
The non-transferable list holds unless a separate legal and technical specification explicitly defines otherwise.
Reputation
Reputation records link to verified interactions and distinguish completed volume, verified quality, dispute rate, policy violations, reliability, and evaluator confidence. Reputation is never transferable, purchasable as identity, or merged without preserving provenance.