The thing that will make a difference in the agent economy is not how fast things happen but how things are discovered. Discovery is what really matters, not speed. This is because the agent economy is, about the agent economy and how it works. The agent economy will be shaped by discovery. That is what we should focus on not just the speed of things. The agent economy and its discovery are closely tied together.
I do not understand why Kite keeps talking about the Agent Store. What is the Agent Store that Kite is talking about? Kite is always mentioning the Agent Store. I want to know what the Agent Store is.
“Because execution isn’t the hard part anymore.”
“Execution isn’t the hard part?”
The service is not helpful if the user or another person cannot find it to begin with. The user needs to be able to find the service. If the user cannot find the service then it is not useful. The service has to be easy for the user to find.
That is the point that is hidden inside the idea of discoverability as a basic thing. In cryptocurrency systems we think of "discovery”, like a problem that needs to be solved with marketing: we make the contract we build a user interface we hope that wallets and aggregators will show us and we let social media and other things help spread the word. This approach worked to some extent because DeFi made it simple for people to do a specific actions. People could swap they could stake they could lend they could bridge. The thing is, people did not need a lot of options to choose from. They just needed a few options that actually worked. Discoverability is a part of this and it is connected to cryptocurrency systems and it is also connected to DeFi and how DeFi helps people do things like swap and stake and lend and bridge.
Services that are, in charge do not act in that manner. Agentic services are supposed to be different. These ones do not behave like that. Agentic services are not supposed to do things that way.
When you have a product that's like a helper. It can understand what you want use other tools spend money and get things done. Then people start to think about it in a different way. They do not just ask if the product is ready to use. They ask if they can easily choose to use it. Imagine a world with lots of these helpers. No way to look at them compare them trust them and pay for them. It is like a city where all the doorsre open but there are no signs, on the streets to tell you where you are or where you are going.
So when you talk about Agent Stores turning protocols into marketplaces you are actually saying something specific. The way things are distributed becomes a part of how the protocol is designed. It is not something you add later. It is not something that happens as things grow. Agent Stores are a part of how protocols work. They help people find services. They help people trust each other. Agent Stores are really important because they are built into the protocol from the beginning. This means that Agent Stores help services become known and Agent Stores help people feel safe when they use these services.
Why contracts are not enough anymore even when they are really good. People used to think that contracts were all they needed. That is not true today. Contracts stopped being enough even when they are perfect because they do not cover everything.
The truth is, a contract can be open for everyone to see it can be checked by people it can be used with other contracts and yet the contract is still really hard to understand.
DeFi fixed the problem of things being hard to see by using a bunch of tools. Like the front part of websites things that combine lots of information, control panels, people who have a lot of influence and ways to connect wallets. DeFi actions are often pretty similar like trading one thing for another. So it was possible to make it easier for people to find what they are looking for: the way to do something, the best interest rate, the best price. The person using DeFi did not need to know all the details, about each DeFi contract. They just needed to get what they wanted from DeFi.
Services that help people do things do not fit into categories. Agentic services are, like that they do not compress neatly into little boxes. Agentic services are all different. That is what makes them hard to understand.
When you are looking at two shopping agents they are not the same if one knows stores has different rules for giving money back and has different ways of making sure people are who they say they are. They also have things they are allowed to do and different things that happen when they fail. Two portfolio agents might want to do the thing but they can have very different ideas about how much risk they are willing to take and what information they can look at. So choosing a service is not about looking at the price. It is, about trusting them and what they can do.
That is when discovery stops being something that's nice to have and starts being something that people really need for economic reasons. Discovery is no longer a convenience it becomes a necessity, for economic purposes and discovery plays a big role in that.
The Agent Store is really not a thing to look at. The Agent Store is, like a way that the market is set up.
When you think of the Agent Store you probably picture a store with things like tiles and ratings and a search bar. That is what you can see.. The Agent Store is more, than that. The Agent Store has a lot going on behind the scenes. That is what really makes the Agent Store work.
An agent store is a way to take the things that a blockchain can do and turn them into a market where people can buy and sell services. These services can be:
listed (made legible to others),
found (searchable, categorized),
evaluated (signals, reputation, constraints),
invoked (with clear permissions),
paid (with predictable settlement).
That bundle is really what makes a protocol different from a marketplace. The bundle is the thing that sets a protocol apart, from a marketplace.
A protocol is what gives you the ability to get things done. It is the protocol that allows you to execute your plans. The protocol is what makes it possible for you to take action and get results.
A marketplace is a place that gives you a lot of things to choose from. You get to pick the things you want from a marketplace. A marketplace has different things so you have many options when you are shopping at a marketplace.
So the selection process is really where people decide to use something. This is especially true when the people making the selection are not actually the ones who will be using the thing. Are instead making the choice, for someone else like a company or an organization and the people making the selection are often other selection agents acting for people or institutions.
When we think about "Discoverability as a primitive" it means that we have to make things easy to read and understand. This is because legibility is an important part of the design. We have to make sure that "Discoverability as a primitive" is considered when we are designing something so that people can easily find what they are looking for.
"Discoverability as a primitive" is, about making things clear and simple so that legibility is not a problem.
I think a service should be able to explain what it does in a way. If a service cannot describe itself clearly then I do not think the service deserves to be in charge of itself. A service like this should be able to tell people what it is for and how it works. If the service cannot do that then it does not deserve to have control over its actions. I believe a service like that is not ready to be on its own. The service needs to be able to describe itself like any other service that is, in charge of itself.
In a world where things are set up first with contracts many products are okay even if they are not very easy to understand. This is because users usually deal with brands they trust or interfaces they are used to.. In a world where agents are in charge first it is very important for products to be easy to understand. This is because agents need to be able to figure out what services do quickly and safely and they often have to do this on their own without any help, from people.
So the marketplace needs to have standardized information that services can understand. Even if you do not call it that you will still have to design things around questions, like:
So what is it that this agent actually does?
What is the cost of this and what things make me get charged? The cost of this is something I want to know. I also want to know what triggers these charges, for the service.
What kind of data does the system. What kind of data does the system write?
What kind of permissions does the software need to work ? The permissions that the software requires are very important to know.
For example does the software need permission to access the internet. Does it need to be able to read and write files on the computer? The software requires permissions to function correctly.
The permissions that the software needs include things, like being able to connect to the internet and being able to access files on the computer. What are the specific permissions that the software requires to work the way it is supposed to? The software requires these permissions to do its job.
So what happens if the thing fails in the middle of the workflow?
What can we do about this situation? What options are available to us? We need to figure out what we can do to deal with this problem. The question is what recourse exists for people, like us who are facing this issue.
The store makes us talk about things that're important. It takes products that say "just trust me" and turns them into products that say "show me what you can and cannot do". And that is why it changes the way builders work: the people who make things do not just make something work they make sure the people who use it understand how it works and what it can do. The store changes the behavior of builders the creators of things. Now they make sure to provide clarity when they make something the creators ship clarity, with the products they make the products that the store has.
The real shift: from “deploy” to “list”
When people think about crypto in the way they consider putting something out there as the big goal.. When people think about a marketplace they see getting something listed as the big goal. Crypto is about the deployment but marketplace is all, about the listing.
When you make a list it is like you are saying that you want people to compare the things on the list. Making a list means that you are ready for people to look at the things on the list and decide which one is better. This is what listing implies. You are basically saying that you are okay, with people comparing the things on your list, which's what happens when you list things.
That one thing. Comparison. Has an impact on an ecosystem. It makes builders compete on things like
* what they can do
* how fast they can do it
* how well they can do it
The comparison has a strong effect on an ecosystem. It is like a rule that makes builders try to be better, than each other. The ecosystem is where builders work and comparison is what makes them work harder. Builders have to compete on things that matter to the ecosystem.
The agent has some rules it will not follow. These are the things the agent will not do. The agent is set up so it does not do things and these are the explicit constraints.
predictable pricing (how costs scale),
The thing that really matters is that something is reliable. This means it does what it is supposed to do over and again. Demonstrable reliability is when you can see that something is reliable because of how it behaves over time. You can count on reliability to be there when you need it. Demonstrable reliability is very important because it shows that something is good and will keep working over time.
When we talk about compatibility we are talking about how something works with services. For example compatibility is, about how it plugs into services. The thing is, compatibility is really important because it determines how well something works with services like how it plugs into them. Compatibility is what makes it easy to use something with services.
The store basically changes an ecosystem into a competitive market. Markets are really powerful because they take technology and turn it into something people can choose over and over again. The store and its market make technology into a repeatable choice, for people.
Marketplaces are something that we cannot do without when agents are a part of our lives.
The thing is, when agents are everywhere people need a place to buy and sell things and that is where marketplaces come in.
Marketplaces are like a platform where people can come together to do business.
When agents are normal marketplaces become a necessity because they provide a space for people to interact with each other and, with agents.
Marketplaces and agents are closely related and when one becomes normal the other becomes inevitable and that is why marketplaces become so important when agents are everywhere.
Marketplaces are the future when agents are a part of our daily lives and we will see more and more of them as time goes on.
The agent economy is really changing what we think of as products. It is making the idea of products a lot. The agent economy is showing us that products can be different things. The agent economy is making a difference in the way we see products.
When people are buying and selling things they need a place to do business and rules to follow. This place to do business is called a merchant endpoint. The rules are called policies. Merchant endpoints and policies are necessary, for people who are doing commerce.
When agents are working with data they need to have data services that're easy to find and understand how the licensing works for the data services. The agents need to have access to these data services and the licensing logic, for the data services. This way the agents can do their job with the data services.
When people who are in charge of doing things are actually doing them they need to have some tools to help them get the work done. These tools are like helpers that can do things like swap, hedge and check on custody and compliance. It would be really great if these little helpers were packaged up in a way that makes them easy to use, like a service that people can call on when they need it. This service should have things like workflow modules, for swap and hedge and custody checks and compliance checks. The agents need these workflow modules to be packaged as services that they can call on.
When those service categories get really big the ecosystem cannot depend on people finding things through media or what others know. You need a way to make finding the service as easy, as looking for an app. This way finding the right service becomes something you can do every day without any trouble. The service categories and finding the service should be simple.
That is the App Store moment idea.. It is used for things that can work on their own like autonomy. The App Store moment is a deal and now it is being used for autonomy.
What people usually forget is that the store wants to know who you are, not what kind of atmosphere you can create. The store demands identity, not vibes. They want to know what the store identity is, what makes the store unique and that is what the store is really looking for, a store identity, not just some cool store vibes.
A marketplace without identity is just a directory full of risk.
When an agent is able to spend money or take action you need to be really sure about what's going on. Just because the code is out in the open for everyone to see is not enough. It is good that the code is public. That does not automatically give you the answers you need. The code being public is a must. It does not tell you everything about the agent. You need assurances, than just the fact that the code is public.
Who is the person that stands behind the service
the people that're responsible, for the service
the ones who actually make the service work
the team that stands behind the service
the service is made possible by the people who stand behind it
the people and the team that stand behind the service.
how accountable it is,
Does it follow the rules that're in place does the thing we are talking about respect the constraints that it has to work with does it actually respect these constraints.
I want to know how they handled things that happened before. What did they do when something, like this happened in the past? I am talking about how they handled incidents.
The store basically brings people and things together to form a community that needs rules and policies. This is because places where people buy and sell things need to have some control. It is not about having one person in charge of everything but about giving people the freedom to make their own choices within certain limits. The store and its community are like a town where people can do what they want but still have to follow some rules. The way we think about control is important here. The store is not like a boss telling everyone what to do but more like a guide that helps people make good choices. This makes a difference, in how the store and its community work.
A good marketplace, for agents does not try to take our freedom. It tries to make our freedom understandable:
You can do a lot of things. You have to follow the rules you set for yourself. This means you can only do things that you said you could do you have to be who you said you are. You have to be responsible, for what the permissions and the identity and the reputation trail of you have done.
That is how discoverability becomes connected to the way things are run. The store is not just giving out software it is giving out decisions, about what risks to take with the software.
“From contracts to discoverable services” also changes UX psychology
People are making a change: they are not thinking about the rules and steps to follow they stop thinking about protocols and start thinking about the outcomes they want the outcomes are what matter, to the users they think about the outcomes.
People do not wake up feeling excited to deal with a contract. Nobody really looks forward to this kind of thing. The idea of interacting with a contract is just not something that gets people pumped up in the morning. A contract is a contract. It is not exactly the thrilling thing to think about. People usually have things to do than interact with a contract.
People wake up. They want certain things to be taken care of. They want to find the price, for something. They also want to rebalance things. Some people want to monitor their exposures to make sure everything is okay. Others want to source inventory so they have what they need. There are also people who want to check compliance to make sure they are doing everything correctly.. Then there are those who want to settle payments so they can move on with their day. They want to find the price and rebalance safely and monitor their exposures and source inventory and check compliance and settle payments.
When services are easy to find the experience that users have becomes really good. Services being discoverable is very important, for the user experience. It makes the user experience better when services are discoverable.
I need a thing. Then I pick a service. After that I authorize some constraints. The thing I need happens.
That is a marketplace flow, not a protocol flow.
And this is how cryptocurrency becomes less of something that a few people do and more of a system that everyone uses: people stop dealing with the basic parts of cryptocurrency and start picking the services they want to use. Cryptocurrency is becoming part of the background. People are using cryptocurrency services without thinking about the basic parts of cryptocurrency. They are just choosing the services they like. Cryptocurrency is becoming like a thing that people do every day.
The store is also something that helps different things work well together. If you design it in a way. The store can be an useful tool, like a composability engine if you do it correctly. The key is to make sure the store is designed right so it can act as a composability engine.
When people think of a store they usually think of apps that do not work together.. Things get really interesting with agent ecosystems when services can be combined in a flexible way at the service layer. This means that services can be used together in different ways making agent ecosystems, like a store where services can be mixed and matched to create something new.
Think of it like modular commerce or modular finance:
A shopping agent might call you when they find a deal on something you want to buy. They do this to help the shopping agent find things for you. The shopping agent is, like a helper who looks for things that you need. They want to make sure you get what you are looking for. The shopping agent will call you about the things they find.
a product discovery service,
then a pricing oracle,
then a payment module,
then a delivery tracker.
A treasury agent might call someone to talk about the treasury agent things. The treasury agent is going to ask a lot of questions. What the treasury agent says is very important. The treasury agent will want to know everything, about the situation. The treasury agent is a person who works with money. They need to make sure everything is okay.
a risk model,
then a hedging executor,
then a reporting module,
then a policy validator.
If the store is made so that services are easy to find, not for people but for other computer programs then it helps these services work together. This is when the store is not a list of things but a place where services can work together smoothly. The store is no longer a list it is a place where services can coordinate with each other and services like this make the store a special kind of connection point for workflows and the store is really good at helping services work together so it becomes a connection point, for services and the store is a place where services can connect.
That is when the protocol really becomes a place where people buy and sell things. It is not, about finishing transactions. The protocol is actually helping to organize what people do with their money.
The tough question is this: does a store actually create a new person who decides what can and cannot happen. This person is like a gatekeeper, for the store. So we have to think about whether a store creates a new gatekeeper.
People always say this. It is something that we should think about. This critique is something that people always talk about. It is not a bad idea to worry about this critique.
Any marketplace can start to be controlled by a people if the rules for listing things ranking them or reviewing them are not clear. The answer is not to act like someone is not, in charge of picking what is good or bad. The answer is to make it obvious who is doing the picking and how they are doing it:
clear listing standards,
transparent ranking signals,
auditable moderation actions,
portable reputation when possible,
We need user controlled filters because trust is not the same, for everyone.
A good agent marketplace should feel less like a closed off place and like a safe city with rules that people can see. The agent marketplace should be like a city where people know what they can and cannot do because the rules are there for everyone to see. This way the agent marketplace feels open and fair like a lit city where people can walk around without feeling confused or scared. A credible agent marketplace is like a city, with rules that are posted on the wall for the agent marketplace.
So what is the main point, the takeaway stated in a way the takeaway is easy to understand. The takeaway.
If agents are going to be useful the ecosystem needs to be able to answer one thing for sure: agents need to know that they can get an answer to this question. Agents have to be able to count on the ecosystem to give them the information they need. The question is very important, for agents.
I am trying to figure out which service I should use for this job. I have some limits that I need to work with. I do not want to spend too much money. So I want to know which service is the option for me, at this price. I need to find a service that can do this job. It has to be something I can trust. The service has to be good. It has to be cheap. Which service should I trust for this job at this cost?
That is not a contract question. That is a marketplace question.
So "Discoverability as a Primitive" is not a fancy phrase. It is actually an idea that says something important. In a future where computers and machines are making a lot of decisions the important thing we need to build might not be a computer that works faster or a new way to pay for things. It might be the thing that helps people find and use all the services that are available. This thing would make it easy for people to look at all the services compare them decide if they are allowed to use them and pay for them. "Discoverability as a Primitive" is about making a lot of services work together like a real economy where "Discoverability, as a Primitive" helps services work well with each other.
And that’s exactly how an Agent Store turns a protocol into a marketplace: it transforms raw capability into selectable capability then builds distribution into the rails, instead of leaving it to chance.
