Analysis
Poppy brings 42 design partners including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Visa, and Mastercard. Proof x401 brings cryptographic identity. Both are private ordering — because federal statute isn't.
The shift from blocking to building
Financial institutions are currently caught in a high-stakes standoff with autonomous software. Major firms like Schwab and JPMorgan have responded to the proliferation of AI agents by implementing hard blocks. This defensive posture is driven by acute liability concerns. As Schwab CEO Rick Wurster recently noted, “We don’t want someone just giving their password to Muse, and letting Muse come in and take action on that client’s behalf. We can’t control it, the client can’t control it, something could go wrong and who’s liable?” This binary of total exclusion is becoming unsustainable.
In the absence of federal guidance — as legislative efforts like the Warner AI AGENT Act remain stalled and the DOJ hands-off stance persists — the industry is moving toward a structured authorization layer. As detailed in our recent analysis, the rules of the agentic economy are being written by private actors rather than regulators. This shift is further contextualized by our broader examination of how corporate decisions are filling the current statutory vacuum.
Poppy: The consortium approach
Announced at the Sierra Summit on October 6, 2026, Poppy — the Personal Agent Protocol — is a collaborative effort to standardize agent-business interactions. With 42 design partners, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe, Plaid, and BBVA, the protocol seeks to replace the current “all or nothing” access model. By utilizing OAuth-based session authorization, Poppy allows companies to define a spectrum of access, moving away from the binary choice of blocking an agent or granting it full account control.
The protocol focuses on discovery, sessions, sign-in, and cross-channel task completion, while explicitly keeping payments outside its core scope.
Proof x401: The cryptographic mandate
While Poppy manages sessions, Proof x401, announced on October 15, 2026, addresses the identity gap through a cryptographic lens. It extends the standard HTTP 401 response to request verified identity and signed mandates. The protocol defines a rigorous four-node delegation chain: a human verified at IAL2, a signed mandate, the agent presenting via OpenID4VP, and the merchant performing independent verification. Each node in this chain provides a verifiable artifact, ensuring that the entity behind the agent is known.
Proof x401 is designed for broad compatibility, supporting systems including Meta Muse, ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, MCP, and AP2/Verifiable Intent. It addresses a critical vulnerability: while frameworks like Visa TAP or Stripe ACP define what a credential can do, they often fail to verify who is behind the agent. By answering the question of “who is behind the agent,” Proof x401 complements protocols like the Linux Foundation’s x402, which handles the “how an agent pays” question. Like Poppy, Proof x401 keeps payments outside its core mandate, focusing instead on the foundational identity and authorization layer required for secure agentic commerce.
Private ordering as policy
The emergence of these protocols represents a clear example of private ordering filling the void left by the lack of federal statute. Because the government has not established a framework for agent liability, the financial sector is creating its own. By building these authorization layers, banks and payment processors are effectively setting the standards for agentic commerce, determining the conditions under which an AI can act on behalf of a human.
As these protocols gain adoption, they will likely become the de facto regulatory environment for the agentic economy. For builders and investors, understanding these mechanisms is essential, as they will dictate the boundaries of what agents can achieve in the financial sector long before any formal legislation is passed.
Priya Nair works for Forkast.
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