AI Agents Just Paid Real Invoices. Here's the 5-Protocol Payment Map

Sources: Visa press release · fintechnews.sg coverage · pinkwallet: x402 vs AP2 vs ACP · inriver: payment protocols for agent commerce

Now the honest question. In this pilot, the buyer still approves every invoice before the agent pays it. Would you trust a verified agent with a pre-approved spend policy — or does payment execution stay human-gated for you? And if your agent already touches money somewhere, where is it? I'm genuinely curious what people are shipping here.

Update (Oct 22): A reader (Arun, in the comments below) made the point this map was missing: the axis that matters isn't whether a human approves each payment — it's where the mandate lives. A spend policy stored in the agent's own config is enforced by the very thing you're worried about. UK Commercial VRP shows the other shape: caps and an end date agreed up front, consent held at the bank, revocable in the banking app, so a compromised agent stops dead at the cap. Any revision of this map will score protocols on mandate location, not just human-in-the-loop.