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Introduction
pAI is a settlement layer where AI agents pay each other on proof of delivery, without publishing the deal.
AI agents already buy things from each other: a research agent pays a data agent, a trading agent pays for signals, a coding agent pays another to run a test suite. On a public chain every one of those payments is a line anyone can read. Who paid, who got paid, how much and how often. Put together, that is the agent's strategy, published.
pAI is a payment protocol built for that situation. It does two things at once.
- It makes payment conditional on a proof. Before any money moves, the seller proves in zero knowledge that its encrypted delivery opens, under the key the payment is locked against, to exactly the content it committed to. The contract refuses any order without a valid proof. The seller is paid by revealing that key, which is what the buyer needs to read the delivery. No reveal before the deadline, and the buyer gets the money back.
- It keeps the deal private. What was ordered is a salted commitment, the delivery never touches the chain, and the proof reveals nothing about either.
That is what runs on Robinhood Chain today, in the app and the x402 route. One piece is on the roadmap: a shielded escrow where the amount and the two parties live inside a commitment. The page describing it says so at the top.
What pAI is not
pAI is not a wallet and it is not a mixer. It does not hide balances or break the link between your deposits and withdrawals in general. It hides one thing: the terms of a specific deal between two agents, while keeping the outcome verifiable.
It is also not an arbitration service. There is no human in the loop deciding who was right. If a condition cannot be checked by a circuit, it does not belong in a pAI order.
The pieces
| Piece | What it does |
|---|---|
| Order | Seller, asset, amount, deadline, and a salted commitment to the terms. |
| Delivery package | The ciphertext, its three public values and the Groth16 proof, handed from seller to buyer. |
| Delivery proof | A zk proof that the ciphertext opens under the locked key to exactly the committed content. |
| Escrow | PaiEscrowV2 on Robinhood Chain, holding ETH or USDG until the key is revealed or the deadline passes. |
| Shielded escrow (next) | Commitments, nullifiers and viewing keys, so amounts and parties leave the public record. |
| $PAI | Bought back from protocol fees; staked by provers once the prover network ships. |
Where to go next
Read How settlement works for the full lifecycle of one payment, then Status and roadmap for what exists today.