Zen7 Labs open-sources the world's first decentralized payment intelligent agent (DePA) to build the next-generation AI Agent financial infrastructure

In the current era of the rapid rise of the AI Agent economy, payment has become a key bottleneck restricting the autonomous transactions of agents. Facing industry pain points such as high traditional payment rates, complex cryptocurrency payment operations, and fragmented platform ecosystems.

Recently, Zen7 Labs officially proposed the concept of DePA (Decentralized Payment Agent) and was the first to open - source its core product, Zen7 Payment Agent, on GitHub. Zen7 Labs is an international team focusing on intelligent computing and Agent technology innovation. Its core members come from top - tier technology companies such as Google, Oracle, Alibaba, and JD.com. With profound technical accumulation and a global perspective, the team is collaborating with developers worldwide to build an open ecosystem, injecting new vitality into the trillion - dollar Agent economy.

So, what is DePA? In a nutshell: DePA is a decentralized payment architecture that enables AI agents to initiate payments autonomously like humans and complete cross - platform transactions safely and efficiently.

From AP2 to DePA: Making Payments Smarter, Safer, and More Open

Compared with the currently well - known agent payment protocol AP2 (Agent Payment Protocol) in the industry, Zen7 Payment Agent has achieved significant improvements in three aspects: scalability, security, and user experience:

1. Native multi - chain compatibility: Supports multi - chain deployment across the entire EVM ecosystem, is compatible with mainstream stablecoins and asset types, and enables seamless cross - chain payments.

2. Password - free authorization experience: Adopts the mechanism of "one - time authorization, multiple password - free payments", allowing AI agents to automatically initiate payments within the authorized limit, providing an experience closer to Web2.

3. Zero - custody for enhanced security: Based on the EIP - 712 signature standard, it realizes on - chain verifiable limit and time control without the need to custody assets, fundamentally ensuring the security of funds.

4. Gas payment proxy mechanism: The Settlement Agent pays the Gas fees on behalf of users, eliminating the "technical threshold" of cryptocurrency payments and making every transaction smooth and seamless.

5. Adapted for high - frequency small - value payments: Natively supports AI - to - AI collaboration (A2A) and the Multi - Agent Collaboration Protocol (MCP), perfectly meeting the requirements of high - frequency small - value payment scenarios.

6. Open collaborative ecosystem: This open - source initiative covers the core Agent module, MCP services, and command - line tools, encouraging developers worldwide to jointly build a new - generation payment network.

Shamin Alpha, co - founder and CTO of Zen7 Labs, said:

"AP2 laid the foundation for agent payments, but we hope to further enable AI to truly have 'economic behaviors'. Zen7 Payment Agent is like a wallet + payment hub for AI, allowing each agent to complete transactions autonomously and securely."

Multi - Agent Collaborative Payment Architecture

If large language models (LLMs) enable agents to "think", then Zen7 Payment Agent enables them to "pay".

Imagine the following scenarios:

• Content - creation agents can automatically purchase image materials and pay copyright fees;

• Data - analysis agents can directly subscribe to data sources and complete settlements;

• AI - to - AI (A2A) can automatically split the accounts after collaborating on a project;

• Cross - border AI applications can complete payments instantly without waiting for cumbersome clearing processes.

Behind all this is the Multi - Agent Collaborative Payment Architecture built by Zen7 Payment Agent, which consists of four types of roles: Payer Agent (payer), Payee Agent (payee), Settlement Agent (settler), and Host Agent (coordinator), automatically completing the entire process from payment intention to fund settlement.

Multi - Agent Collaborative Payment Architecture

Reshaping the Payment Landscape and Breaking Traditional Barriers

The launch of Zen7 Payment Agent coincides with the critical juncture of the explosion of the AI Agent economy and the upgrade of cross - border payment needs. According to FXC data, the current global cross - border payment market size has reached $194.6 trillion, with the growth rate of B2C/C2C payments exceeding 30%. The autonomous transaction needs of LLM agents are driving the maturity of automated and seamless payments. Currently, traditional cross - border payments have problems such as a 2% - 3% fee rate and a T + N day clearing delay, while cryptocurrency payments, although low - cost, face challenges such as fluctuating Gas fees and fragmented currency types.

The decentralized architecture of Zen7 Payment Agent effectively combines the advantages of both:

• Centered around stablecoins to ensure payment stability;

• Adopts automatic settlement and multi - chain collaboration mechanisms to significantly reduce delays and costs;

• Supports batch micro - payments by AI agents, meeting the high - frequency transaction needs of A2A.

Introduction and Vision of Zen7

Zen7 Labs is an international enterprise focusing on intelligent computing and Agent technology innovation, with years of in - depth R & D experience in the field of intelligent computing. The core members of the team come from top - tier global technology companies such as Google, Oracle, Alibaba, and JD.com, with rich technical accumulation and industrial implementation experience. With excellent technical strength and a global perspective, Zen7 Labs is opening up channels for ecosystem co - construction to developers and partners worldwide, aiming to inject new vitality into the trillion - dollar Agent economy.

It is reported that Zen7 has planned a clear roadmap with the following goals in the next 12 months:

• Support more mainstream public chains;

• Launch the DePA Chain (Decentralized Payment Chain) network, build a low - latency, highly secure, and governable payment infrastructure, support users to independently deploy nodes, and allow anyone to participate in the network operation and receive Gas fee rewards.

• Managed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), jointly governed by the entire community, providing stable and efficient payment infrastructure support for the AI Agent economy.

Facing the global market, Zen7 Labs is actively expanding ecological cooperation, covering wallet service providers, blockchain projects, AI platform developers, and cross - border e - commerce enterprises, jointly exploring new application scenarios for intelligent payments. The door to open - source has been opened, and a next - generation payment ecosystem driven by AI agents, featuring security, transparency, and collaboration, is rapidly taking shape, providing a brand - new payment experience for global users and enterprises.

This article is from the WeChat official account "AI Large Model Workshop", and is published by 36Kr with authorization.