Founders

Team and Advisors

The current proof of concept demonstrates that all core components of VIA can be deployed independently and integrated into a single, functioning protocol stack. Intent capture, agent identity and trust, decentralised messaging, and agentic payment settlement have each been implemented and validated. These components have also been integrated end to end, showing that the full VIA protocol and interface operate as intended in controlled environments.

The next phase of work is not conceptual validation, but execution at scale. This includes hardening the infrastructure, developing production-grade interfaces, and introducing zero-touch and plug-in driven interaction patterns that align with how users increasingly interact with their LLMs. This phase also marks the transition from technical demonstration to measured market deployment.

The roadmap reflects this shift from proof of integration to proof of execution, followed by controlled expansion. Large incumbents such as Google and Shopify will be dominant forces in this space. VIA is not designed to compete with them. The intention is to complement what they do and work alongside, or with, these platforms where they do not naturally focus.

That value sits around judgement, trust, and specialism. VIA supports intermediary agents to refine intent before merchants are involved, and merchant agents to do more than expose a catalogue by negotiating, applying brand rules, and making limited commitments within defined authority. Trust underpins this, with agents operating under verifiable identity, defined limits, performance history, and real consequences for poor behaviour.

Development and Deployment Phases

Phase 1: Execution Hardening and Controlled Deployment

Timeframe: 0 to 3 months

The primary objective is to demonstrate repeatable execution in real conditions with friendly partners and small, well-defined communities.

Key activities

• Scaling core protocol infrastructure for reliability and throughput
• Hardening coordination logic and routing rules
• Refining VIA user and merchant interfaces, including UI and UX improvements
• Expanding zero-touch and plug-in based interaction flows within LLM environments
• Continuous testing with selected merchants and user groups
• Instrumentation for measuring intent quality, response relevance, and interaction outcomes

This phase prioritises learning velocity and system stability over growth. The goal is to validate that the protocol behaves predictably under real usage patterns without overextending scope or reach.

Phase 2: Expanded Rollout and Market Readiness

Timeframe: 3 to 6 months

Following successful execution in controlled environments, the focus shifts to broader but still deliberate deployment.

Key activities

• Onboarding additional niche communities and relevant merchant categories
• Extending LLM connector coverage and platform integrations
• Developing structured go-to-market processes based on observed performance
• Establishing initial strategic partnerships with platforms and ecosystem participants
• Refining operational tooling for merchant and agent management

Growth remains selective. Expansion is driven by demonstrated effectiveness rather than breadth. The objective is to show the system can scale without degrading relevance, trust, or signal quality.

Go-to-Market Alignment

The deployment strategy is intentionally narrow at the outset. Initial focus is on targeted niche communities, merchants operating in high-consideration categories, and users already comfortable interacting with AI agents. Broader engagement follows only once effectiveness has been consistently demonstrated.

FA$H as a Trust Enhancement Layer

FA$H is an existing ERC-20 token that is live and tradable on decentralised exchanges. Whilst it is not part of the core VIA product today, it has been designed with a longer-term role in mind as a trust enhancement layer within the agentic commerce stack.

Once agent identity and reputation standards are fully deployed, FA$H could be used to support mechanisms such as agent credibility signalling, participation thresholds, and potential dispute resolution backstops, allowing agents or merchants to place verifiable economic value behind behaviour.

Used in this way, FA$H would complement on-chain identity and payment flows by reinforcing trust with observable, programmable guarantees rather than relying solely on reputation metrics or contractual terms.

System Overview

VIA is an intent-driven, agent-native commerce system designed to operate across platforms without reliance on search, advertising, or centralised marketplaces. VIA is the interface layer where intent is expressed and responses are surfaced, then the protocol and coordination framework that enables routing, trust enforcement, discovery, and autonomous transactions between agents.

The system is composed of four core components

• Intent Interface
• Agent Identity and Trust
• Messaging and Discovery
• Economic Settlement

1. Intent and Interface Layer, VIA

Purpose

VIA exists to capture intent before it becomes a transaction. It is designed to work within environments users already trust and use, rather than forcing new behaviours or destinations. VIA does not execute transactions, rank suppliers, or intermediate checkout.

Core Characteristics

• Lightweight plug-in and connector model
• Integrates directly into major LLM environments, including Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT
• Converts conversational input into structured, machine-readable intent
• Forwards intent to the central relayer from buyers to sellers

Technical Notes

• VIA connects to a structured Model Context Protocol server operated within the framework
• Intent is normalised into schema-based representations rather than keyword strings
• VIA is agnostic to commerce platforms, payment rails, and fulfilment systems

2. Agent Identity, Trust, and Reputation, ERC-8004 Concepts

Purpose

Autonomous and semi-autonomous agents cannot safely operate using implicit platform trust. Explicit, verifiable trust primitives are required. VIA integrates with ERC-8004 registries for verifiable agent identities and immutable reputation records which are vital for autonomous agent-to-agent transactions.

Core Trust Components

• Verifiable agent identity
• On-chain representation of agent existence
• Performance and interaction-based reputation signals

Functional Outcomes

Agents can decide whether to respond to an intent, scope what authority they grant to other agents, and engage in agent-to-agent interaction without central approval. Trust is not inherited from a platform. Trust is accumulated through observable behaviour.

Reference Documentation

• https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8004
• https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/erc-8004-agent-identity-and-trust/

3. Messaging and Discovery Layer, Nostr-Based Relays

Purpose

Discovery and communication are handled through a relay-based messaging architecture inspired by Nostr, rather than central directories or proprietary APIs.

Rationale for Relay Architecture

• No central index or gatekeeper
• Publish and subscribe semantics
• Cryptographic signing of all messages
• Censorship-resistant and extensible by design

Message Model

Intent, responses, offers, acknowledgements, and settlement signals are represented as signed events. Events are broadcast to relays rather than addressed to a central service. Agents subscribe selectively based on relevance, trust rules, and declared capability. This ensures discovery remains open and cannot be monopolised by a single operator.

Capabilities Enabled

• Decentralised agent discovery
• Agent-level filtering rather than platform-level ranking
• Interoperability across independent implementations

Reference Documentation

• https://nostr.com
• https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nostr
• https://nostr.how

4. Agentic Payment Settlement Layer, x402

Purpose

Traditional payment systems are not designed for machine-to-machine interaction, sub-cent pricing, or conditional economic signals. The x402 protocol provides a settlement layer optimised for agentic interaction.

Capabilities

• Micropayments
• Programmatic settlement
• Agent-to-agent value transfer

Initial Use Cases

• Paying agents to respond to intent
• Incentivising relevance over volume
• Compensating early or high-quality participation

Reference Documentation

• https://blog.crossmint.com/what-is-x402/
• https://www.coinbase.com/blog/introducing-x402
• https://alearesearch.substack.com/p/x402-payment-rails-for-the-agent

The Coordination Framework

VIA is not a single protocol. It is the coordination framework that aligns intent schemas, agent trust and reputation rules, messaging conventions, and agentic payment settlement logic.

Design Goals

• VIA remains platform-agnostic
• Discovery cannot be captured by any single platform
• Integration is possible without dependency

Interoperability

VIA is designed to interoperate with verifiable platform MCP servers, commerce coordination protocols such as UCP, and existing e-commerce infrastructure, including Shopify.