The protocols are open. A2A is an open standard. MCP is open-source. Verifiable Credentials are a W3C spec. DIDs are a W3C spec. The infrastructure layer of the agent economy is, by design, not ownable.
The layers above the protocols consolidate fast. And the consolidation is already happening, quietly, in the specific service layers that agents need and protocols do not provide.
Where the monopolies form.
Identity verification. An agent needs to verify that a counterparty is who they claim to be. The protocol says “use DIDs.” The practical question is: who resolves the DID and attests to the binding between the DID and the legal entity? This is a trust anchor problem. A small number of qualified trust service providers under eIDAS — and potentially one or two dominant commercial DID resolution services — will become the identity layer that every agent queries. First-mover advantage compounds because trust anchor reputation compounds.
Attestation registries. Agents need to discover and verify attestations. The protocol says “attestations are signed JSON.” The practical question is: where do you find them? An attestation is only useful if you can discover it. A registry that indexes attestations across domains, maintains revocation lists, and provides fast lookup becomes essential infrastructure. The more attestations it indexes, the more useful it is, the more attestors submit to it. Classic network effects. One or two registries will dominate.
Dispute resolution. When an agent transaction goes wrong, who arbitrates? The protocol has no opinion. Someone needs to build the arbitration layer — rules, processes, escalation paths, enforcement mechanisms. Online dispute resolution is a small, specialized field. The firm or protocol that establishes the default arbitration framework for agent disputes captures a chokepoint that is extremely difficult to displace once established.
Receipt infrastructure. Every agent transaction needs a receipt — a verifiable record that the transaction occurred, what was exchanged, and what was paid. The protocol says “sign a receipt.” The practical question is: who provides the timestamping, the archival storage, the tax-compliant formatting? Receipt infrastructure is boring and essential. The company that provides the default agent receipt service — compliant with EU invoicing requirements, integrated with major accounting software, reliable enough that agents trust it — has a defensible business with recurring revenue from every transaction.
The protocol-product gap.
The pattern is consistent: the protocol defines the what but not the who or the where. The businesses that fill the gap between protocol specification and practical operation become the niche monopolies of the agent economy.
These are not platform businesses in the traditional sense. They do not aggregate supply and demand. They provide the specific services that agents need to operate the protocol in practice. Identity resolution. Attestation discovery. Dispute arbitration. Receipt generation. Each is a narrow, deep service with strong network effects and high switching costs.
The analogy might be the early web: HTTP was open, but the DNS registrars, the SSL certificate authorities, and the payment processors that operated on top of it became extremely profitable businesses. Not because they owned the protocol. Because they were the practical implementation that the protocol required but did not provide.
Implications for builders.
If you are building in the agent economy, the protocol layer is a commodity. Competing on protocol implementation is a losing strategy — the protocols are open, and the reference implementations are free. The defensible positions are the niche monopolies one layer up: the specific services that agents need, that protocols do not specify, and that benefit from network effects or trust accumulation.
The race is quiet. The companies building these layers are not the ones getting conference keynotes about “the future of agents.” They are the ones building attestation registries, dispute resolution frameworks, and receipt infrastructure. The boring infrastructure that agents cannot operate without.
Boring infrastructure usually wins. Seems like it will again.