Circle and OpenMind collaborate on USDC payment standards. The goal is to enable autonomous AI systems to conduct high-frequency, machine-to-machine transactions.
Circle’s decision to partner with OpenMind marks a crucial step. This is for the company in the construction of a USDC-based machine-to-machine payment standard. Its main concern is to provide a micropayment protocol. This serves the purpose of facilitating automated transactions between AI agents and applications. They operate, furthermore, without human intervention.
Circle Gateway to Facilitate High-Throughput Micropayments
Circle and OpenMind announced that they are in a big one. They plan to build basic standards and infrastructure. These are for Machine-to-Machine payments. They are going to use the USDC stablecoin. For that reason, this initiative is aimed at enabling autonomous AI systems. It will allow them to make high-frequency, low-cost transactions efficiently.
The leading goal is the creation of new protocols and standards. These will enable AI agents to pay for services on their own. This includes accessing information or data. It also includes using compute resources or running API calls. The effort is a connection between the Circle Gateway. This gives chain-abstracted USDC. It relates this to the x402 open payment protocol.
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One of the main areas of focus is the limitations of traditional blockchain transactions. This includes high gas fees. They will use off-chain transaction batching. Thus, this makes thousands of micropayments per second practical for AI systems.
Circle proposed a new plan to expand their Gateway infrastructure. This will facilitate x402 based micropayments. It is to build a high-throughput system. This system is capable of handling automation. These will take place across EVM and non-EVM blockchains.
The model for design is based on a deferred-settlement model. This model still provides the users with instantaneous finality. A proximity to existing x402 interfaces is maintained. This ensures that it is easy to adopt. It also includes an optional deferred scheme for more explicit settlement logic.
AI Agent Demand Spurs Need for New Payment Infrastructure
The initiative is spurred by Circle’s explicit expectation. Agent-driven payments will be greatly increased. This is especially since AI systems start to carry out research work. They will also access data and buy content in real-time.
These use cases require transaction volumes. They have higher capacity than the existing blockchains. Current networks cannot process the millions of transfers per second that such systems require. Therefore, Circle is planning to overcome this limitation. It will utilize batching support in Gateway. This is its non-custodial unified balance solution.
By creating alignment between Gateway and the x402 facilitator role, Circle wants to provide sellers with key benefits. These include high throughput, low fees, and efficient cross-chain settlement. Architecturally, the system will incorporate Gateway. It is a transparent facilitator in the existing x402 protocol flow.
Circle aims to have compatibility with the current EIP-3009 exact payment scheme. It will also accept existing signatures used in x402 transactions. The Gateway, by nature, allows for rapid fund movements between chains. This offers key cross-chain functionality.
The Gateway facilitator is dependent on an off-chain batching layer. This is part of the Gateway API. This structure will serve to validate the payments immediately. It provides for adequate balances. As a result, it puts money instantly in the hands of the sellers.
This big step is responding to the new need for new infrastructure. It is especially made for agentic AI. This requires payments to be lightweight, programmable, and frictionless. This collaboration takes the industry toward a true machine economy.
