Secure Delegation: How AP2 Solves the “Agentic Wallet” Trust Gap

Closing the Trust Gap

The biggest hurdle in agentic commerce is the “Trust Gap”—allowing an AI to spend money securely. In 2026, the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) has emerged as the standard for this secure delegation.

AP2 bridges this gap through cryptographic proof of user consent. This ensures that every authorization is provable and tied back to the human user’s explicit permission.

Key Strategic Pillars of AP2

• Verifiable Credentials: AP2 uses verifiable credentials as a secured way for agents to communicate with business backends.

• Identity Linking: Using the OAuth 2.0 standard, agents maintain secure, authorized relationships with merchants without ever sharing raw credentials.

• Interoperable Wallets: UCP and AP2 support an open wallet ecosystem, allowing buyers to use their preferred methods (like Google Pay or PayPal) while ensuring the authorization is cryptographically signed.

Key Takeaway: Security is the ultimate conversion tool. By supporting AP2, merchants eliminate the final friction point, allowing AI agents to move from “browsing” to “settlement” with total confidence.