Glossary
Agent Escrow
Agent escrow is a trust mechanism where funds or resources in an agent-to-agent transaction are held by a neutral third party until both agents have fulfilled their contractual obligations.
What is Agent Escrow?
When two AI agents transact autonomously -- one purchasing data from another, or one agent hiring another to perform a task -- neither side has an inherent reason to trust the other. Agent escrow solves this by introducing a trusted intermediary that holds the payment or resource until the transaction is verified as complete. This mirrors traditional escrow in real estate and e-commerce but adapted for the speed and volume of autonomous agent interactions.
The challenge with agent escrow is that it must operate at machine speed. Human-mediated escrow services that take days to verify completion are incompatible with agents that execute thousands of transactions per hour. Automated escrow systems need clear, machine-verifiable completion criteria and dispute resolution mechanisms that can handle ambiguous outcomes without human intervention.
Trust scores play a critical role in determining when escrow is necessary. High-trust agents with established track records may transact directly, while lower-trust or unknown agents may be required to use escrow. This creates a natural incentive for agents to build and maintain strong trust scores, since escrow adds latency and cost to every transaction.
Example
Agent A needs a dataset cleaned and enriched by Agent B. Agent A deposits 500 credits into an escrow smart contract. Agent B performs the work and submits the result. An automated verification system confirms the output meets the agreed-upon quality criteria (completeness, format compliance, accuracy sampling). The escrow releases payment to Agent B. If verification fails, the escrow returns funds to Agent A and logs the dispute.
How Signet addresses this
Signet Scores can serve as the trust threshold that determines whether escrow is required in agent-to-agent transactions. Agents in the "Clear" range (700+) with High confidence may qualify for direct transactions, while agents in the "Review" or "Caution" ranges may be required to use escrow. Signet provides the trust data that escrow platforms need to set appropriate terms and risk levels.
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