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Where should I start?

AI agents pay for things with card money or with digital dollars called stablecoins. With cards, the agent gets its own card number, often a virtual card with a spending cap. With stablecoins, the agent pays from a wallet its owner controls, for example in USDC on the Base network through x402. Either way, the owner sets the limits: a spending cap, a signed permission called a mandate, or a person’s yes before the payment.

Start right here. Learn is the plain-language half of this site: four short explainers written to be read in order, plus a glossary and an FAQ for looking things up. Every page stands on its own, so you can also jump straight to what you need.

1. What is agentic commerce? start here

   The flagship answer: what it is, what is genuinely new, and how honest today’s numbers are. Start here.

2. How an agent buys series 1 of 3

   The whole journey, step by step: instruction, mandate, discovery, offer, payment, delivery, receipt.

3. How agents pay series 2 of 3

   The money mechanics: stablecoin rails vs card rails, wallets, budgets, and the finality-vs-chargeback tradeoff.

4. How trust works series 3 of 3

   The contractor analogy: how estimates, invoices, and receipts map onto agent purchases — and where the analogy breaks.

5. What is WebMCP? explainer

   A draft web standard that lets a page hand an agent a list of actions instead of a page to scrape — status, browsers, and who has switched it on for checkout.

6. What is agentic trading? explainer

   An agent placing orders on your account: who allows it today, what agents actually pay for, and the honest answer on whether it makes money — what can be checked and what cannot.

7. Glossary reference

   Every term this site uses, defined in plain language — each entry with a stable link.

8. FAQ reference

   Twenty-three honest answers to the questions newcomers actually ask — including the skeptical ones.

When you’re ready to judge real sellers → Trust & Safety.