BUILD ON IT / ELPIS

Payments standards

ERC-8183 agentic commerce, where Elpis takes the evaluator seat, and x402 HTTP-native payments.

ERC-8183 — Agentic Commerce

A Job holds an escrowed budget and moves Open → Funded → Submitted → Terminal. The client creates and funds it, the provider submits work, and a single evaluator — set at creation — is the only role that may release (complete) or refund (reject). Both carry an optional attestation reason.

Circle’s reference implementation makes the evaluator’s check a model’s self-reported confidence:

what we do not do

const isValid = answer.valid && answer.confidence === "HIGH";

A string deciding whether money moves is the anti-pattern the product exists to remove. Elpis takes the evaluator seat and makes the decision pure and deterministic.

The evaluator, wired

Decision	Meaning	On chain
`complete`	Commitment met and evidence proves it.	Escrow released to the provider.
`reject`	Deliverable mismatched, or the deadline passed.	Refunded to the client.
`hold`	Evidence incomplete, or a person has not decided.	No transaction at all.

POST /api/v1/acp/evaluate

{
  "jobId": "42",
  "policy": { "humanApprovalThreshold": "5000.00" },
  "evidence": {
    "deliverableHash": "0x…",
    "expectedDeliverableHash": "0x…",
    "controlsPassed": true,
    "humanApproved": null,
    "counterpartySigned": false
  }
}

Note what the evidence has no field for: a model’s opinion. Completion is a function of a deliverable hash, whether treasury controls passed, a required counter-signature, and a human decision where one is required.

The endpoint is ops-guarded and enabled by configuration on the deployment; unconfigured, it says so rather than pretending to have evaluated anything.

x402 — HTTP-native payments

x402 makes a request payable: a server answers 402 Payment Required with the terms, the client pays, and the request is retried with proof. It is a natural fit for agents paying per call.

Concern	Elpis’s position
Who pays	The treasury, as one action — ceilings, allowlist and limits still apply.
Recoverability	The payment is classified like any other; small and escrowed where possible.
Verification	A 402 flow still ends in a chain read-back, not a claim.

The point of the mapping is the same in both standards: an agent may initiate, but the release condition is a fact, not an opinion.