Infrastructure
Rails Comparison
The four open agent-payment rails of 2026, plus on-chain escrow. Switchboard speaks all of them — same module surface, same wire envelope, same agent identity.
Matrix
Feature Comparison
| Capability | x402 | MPP | AP2 | Circle Nano | AgentEscrow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HTTP 402 paywall | ✓ native | via session | via card | — | — |
| Streaming micropayments | per-call | ✓ native | card auth | ✓ native | — |
| Trustless escrow | — | — | — | — | ✓ native |
| Refund / dispute | off-chain | off-chain | ✓ chargeback | off-chain | ✓ on-chain |
| Chain-agnostic | ✓ | ✓ | n/a (card) | USDC only | ✓ (with #59) |
| PQ-signed | ✓ via switchboard | ✓ via switchboard | — | — | ✓ via switchboard |
| Binary wire (ZAP) | ✓ | ✓ | n/a | n/a | ✓ |