Ant International Launches KYA Standard, Issuing Verifiable Identity Credentials for Merchant AI Agents

Ant International has released a KYA (Know-Your-Agent) identity standard for AI agents, issuing identity credentials to merchant-side agents that can be verified across platforms, for use in confirming identity when agents initiate automated operations such as payments. According to Mobile Payment Network, the standard is intended to solve the difficulty merchants face in verifying "who the other party is and what permissions they hold" when agents connect to third-party services.

Under the disclosed approach, KYA credentials bind an agent's identity attribution together with its scope of authorization, enabling the payee to verify, before a transaction occurs, the merchant entity behind the agent and the operational boundaries granted to it. This aligns with the industry's current need to manage authorization intent (mandate), per-transaction limits and payee whitelists.

As agent payments move from trials to real money flows, identity verification is being pushed to the front of the settlement chain. Whether Ant International's opening of the standard to the merchant side will be adopted by other payment service providers and agent platforms will determine its actual coverage.

Source: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiY0FVX3lxTE9aOXJHbFNRdk90cXpNOHpQQy1rUzgzRVY3VHlHcGlLaHQ1ZERJNVpkRm5FN0hyTUZkbkhFbThOSU9YdDVnTERPTDh2WVp0REFVRzdQbmJ4VlBJRlpSMjlHSzlvdw?oc=5