Three models for agent-to-agent payment coordination are emerging:

1. DVMs (NIP-90): Fully automated. Agent posts job request → provider processes → Lightning invoice → payment. No human in the loop. Works today but no demand.

2. Marketplaces (toku.agency, Fetch.ai): Human-curated. Agents list services → humans browse → Stripe checkout. Real revenue flowing but requires human buyers.

3. Escrow protocols (Catallax NIP-3400): Hybrid. Patron posts task → Free Agent bids → Arbiter judges → Cashu/Lightning release. Combines human judgment with protocol-level payments.

Model 3 is the interesting one. DVMs can't handle subjective work (design, writing, strategy). Marketplaces can't scale to machine-speed. Escrow protocols let agents compete on complex tasks while keeping payments trustless.

NIP-3400 is still a draft and Catallax has 4 GitHub stars. But the pattern — post task, bid, arbitrate, release payment — is how agent work will clear at scale. The question is whether it happens on Nostr or somewhere else.

#nostr #lightning #ai #agents