HashKey CaaS announced the official launch of HSP (HashKey Settlement Protocol) settlement protocol. As the core first step in HashKey CaaS's comprehensive empowerment of the AI intelligent economy ecosystem, the HSP protocol is developed based on Google's AP2 (Agent Payment Protocol) technical specifications, aiming to provide a set of efficient, low-cost, and natively adaptive compliance payment and settlement standards for global AI agents, cross-border e-commerce, and physical enterprises.

In the process of evolution from "large models" to "agents (AI Agent)," AI is no longer just a conversational tool but an "economic entity" capable of autonomous decision-making, task execution, and value exchange. However, this evolution faces bottlenecks in traditional financial infrastructure: machines cannot open bank accounts and cannot process high-frequency, low-value cross-border settlements. This means that the real implementation of the AI agent economy depends not only on algorithms and computing power but also on a comprehensive set of financial infrastructure that can be invoked by machines.

Around this goal, HashKey is building a complete on-chain financial network that serves AI Agent operations, creating an on-chain financial foundation for the AI intelligent agent economy: enabling machines to have recognizable identities and, with authorization, hold assets, execute autonomous transactions, and complete value exchange within a compliance framework:

• Digital Identity: Providing each AI Agent with a unique identity based on blockchain.
• Independent Accounts (Digital Wallet): Through a digital wallet system, allowing machines to have independent on-chain accounts, freeing them from traditional bank account restrictions.
• Settlement Layer (HSP + Multi-type Tokens): Building value exchange agreements between AI and AI, AI and humans.

HSP Protocol - The "Payment Language" Connecting AI and the Financial World

In this system, payment is the entry point. Therefore, the launch of HSP is the key first step for HashKey to empower the AI intelligent economy. If stablecoins are the "money" of the AI era, then HSP is the "payment language" of the AI economy. Based on Google's AP2 technical specifications, the HSP protocol upgrades payment capability from "manual operation" to "programmatic invocation," with core advantages including:

• Native HTTP Interaction: Instructions are directly embedded in the protocol layer, supporting AI Agents to achieve 7×24 hour automatic settlement without manual intervention, catering to the high-frequency interaction needs of agents.
• A2A (Agent-to-Agent) Autonomous Payment: Supporting direct dialogue between agents to complete ordering and payment, promoting the real formation of the "agent economy."
• Micro Cross-Border Settlement Solutions: Relying on stablecoin infrastructure, HSP supports ultra-micro payments far below 1 cent and achieves near real-time cross-border settlement, significantly reducing the friction costs of traditional cross-border finance.
• Compliance and Security Engine: The protocol natively integrates licensed institution verification nodes and on-chain AML (Anti-Money Laundering) mechanisms to ensure that every machine transaction can be audited and verified, compliant and secure; it supports privacy transaction features to protect the privacy of institutional-level on-chain transactions while ensuring transparency and auditability for regulators.

The HSP Protocol has achieved preliminary applications in cross-border energy facilities and embodied intelligence:

• Energy Infrastructure Scenario: eCandle Community Energy Project. This project provides shared power services in areas with weak electricity infrastructure by deploying off-grid solar devices. Users can complete small payments using stablecoins while charging devices such as phones, and the HSP protocol provides real-time cost settlement capabilities for the devices, enabling automatic on-chain settlement for every instance of electricity usage. Meanwhile, global investors can participate in equipment construction, and local residents can pay electricity fees as needed, thereby forming a blockchain-based energy sharing network. This means energy devices become network nodes, and DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) is reconstructing the construction and operation model of real-world infrastructure in a more cost-effective and efficient manner.
• Embodied Intelligence Scenario: Lingchu Intelligent Robot. Through the HSP protocol, Lingchu Intelligent's robots gain controlled payment permissions, enabling them to autonomously invoke data interfaces or subscribe to services as "independent economic entities," and record the income obtained from task execution as auditable on-chain credentials, promoting the evolution of AI from functional tools to economic entities capable of participating in value exchange independently. Moreover, the HSP protocol supports Lingchu Intelligent in acquiring model training data in regions such as Africa and Latin America. Due to the extremely low unit price of each piece of data but very high transaction frequency, traditional financial systems struggle to support such low-value high-frequency payment scenarios. Through the HSP protocol, data collection tasks can be broken down into machine-executable micro-transaction units, with payments and settlements completed automatically by AI Agents.

In the future, everyone may have dozens of AI Agents. When billions of agents autonomously execute tasks and complete settlements in real-time, the question of whether this system can truly operate will not only depend on the capabilities of the underlying models but also whether the underlying financial infrastructure is sufficiently complete. Payment protocols, digital identity, digital account systems, compliance verification, and on-chain execution capabilities must form a cohesive whole that can collaborate with each other for the AI intelligent agent economy to move from concept to scalable application.

Li Chen, the CEO of HashKey's on-chain business group, stated: “The launch of HSP is not only the release of a single product but also an important step for HashKey to build its on-chain financial infrastructure. In the future, HashKey will further connect on-chain identity, on-chain accounts, asset issuance, and on-chain execution capabilities to promote digital civilization into a new era of the agent economy.”