Cloudflare has partnered with Visa, Mastercard and American Express to shape the future of digital payments by laying the foundation for secure “agentic commerce”. This collaboration aims to develop authentication systems that enable trusted software agents to make purchases and payments autonomously, while protecting merchants against fraudulent bots.
In brief
- Cloudflare partners with leading payment networks to secure the next generation of autonomous digital transactions.
- The Web Bot Auth protocol allows trusted AI agents to verify their identity before making an online payment.
- Visa, Mastercard and AmEx are integrating Cloudflare's Trusted Agent Protocol into their payment ecosystems.
- The objective: to strengthen trust, prevent fraud and ensure transparency in new agentic commerce systems.
Cloudflare positions itself at the heart of autonomous commerce
In a statement Tuesday, Cloudflare announced that several companies will adopt Web Bot Auth, a protocol that allows autonomous agents to verify their identity before completing a transaction. Visa is co-developing the Trusted Agent Protocol to integrate Web Bot Auth into its Visa Intelligent Commerce platform. For its part, Mastercard plans to integrate it with Mastercard Agent Pay, while American Express intends to apply it to its own agent commerce systems.
According to Cloudflare, agents created with its SDK Agents will rely on these authentication layers to make independent payments. The system helps merchants distinguish verified agents from malicious bots, while supporting multiple payment methods: credit cards, debit cards and cryptocurrencies.
Stephanie Cohen, chief strategy officer at Cloudflare, said the company is positioning itself at the center of the transition to secure autonomous transactions:
The future of commerce is agentic, and Cloudflare is building the necessary foundation of trust. We enable developers, merchants and payment companies to innovate by building security by design, rather than as an add-on.
Stephanie Cohen
Leveraging its global network, Cloudflare wants to establish trusted protocols that enable AI agents to transact securely, paving the way for a new era of decentralized and trusted digital commerce.
Visa and Mastercard advance a trust framework for agent commerce
Visa described the collaboration as a strategic move to build trust in the emerging ecosystem of autonomous transactions. THE Trusted Agent Protocol must ensure safe and transparent operation of AI-driven commerce, allowing merchants to identify verified agents and block fraudulent bots.
The goal: to strengthen fraud prevention without disrupting the experience of legitimate customers. By integrating these authentication standards into Visa Smart CommerceVisa wants to balance security and a smooth user experience in the growing ecosystem of agent-based payments.
Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, highlighted that agent identity verification will be crucial to the success of agentic commerce. Autonomous agents can, he says, make online shopping simpler and faster, but their widespread adoption will depend on whether merchants trust them.
He adds that the collaboration between Mastercard, Cloudflare and other partners aims to establish a unified, secure and scalable framework to make these payments viable on a global scale.
Cloudflare builds industry consensus around secure agent-merchant transactions
American Express has also emphasized the central role of trust as agent commerce grows. Luke Gebb, executive vice president and head of global innovation, said American Express will integrate Cloudflare's Web Bot Auth protocol to help merchants identify legitimate agents and ensure secure and transparent transactions.
Gebb said the initiative is part of a broader commitment by American Express to build trust and accountability in new digital payment systems.
Cloudflare added that partners such as Adyen, Checkout.com, Circle, Fiserv, Microsoft, Nuvei, Shopify, Webflow and Worldpay already provide feedback on Web Bot Auth. The company also mentions several related projects, including Agent Payments Protocol, Cloudflare NET Dollar and the x402 Foundation with Coinbase, as part of an overall effort to accelerate secure transactions between agents and merchants.
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