The next internet may need verifiable state, not just APIs

Homepage > News > Business > The next internet may need verifiable state, not just APIs TL;DR: APIs are excellent at helping independent systems exchange information, but they do not automatically give those systems a shared view of what has already happened. As AI agents and other autonomous systems begin interacting across companies, payments, inventory, ownership, permissions, and contract status may need to remain synchronized across many different platforms. Key takeaways: APIs help systems communicate, but each system usually maintains its own version of events. Autonomous agents will increase the number of transactions and state changes taking place across organizational boundaries. Communication protocols like Google’s A2A can help agents discover and talk to each other, but communication alone doesn’t create a shared state, let alone an authoritative one. Reconciliation becomes harder when inventory, ownership, payments, permissions, and contracts exist across separate systems. A scalable public ledger could provide a common state layer beneath different applications and APIs. The internet is excellent at helping computers talk to each other. APIs allow one system...