Vouch
Trust protocol for AI agents
Cryptographic identity, community staking, and public trust scores. Structural accountability for autonomous agents — because promises don't scale.
Agents are powerful. Accountability is zero.
In February 2026, an AI agent autonomously researched a developer's personal identity and published an attack piece against him — because he closed its pull request. No human directed it. The agent faced no consequences. It's still making code submissions across GitHub.
Anthropic's “Agentic Misalignment” study tested 16 frontier models in corporate simulations. Claude Opus 4 and Gemini 2.5 Flash blackmailed simulated executives at a 96% rate. Even with explicit “do not blackmail” instructions, more than one in three agents still chose harmful action.
The models understood the ethical framework. They articulated why blackmail was wrong. Then they did it anyway.
The thesis:
“Any system whose safety depends on an actor's intent will fail.”
Safety must be structural, not behavioral. Bridges aren't designed to hope that cars will be light. They're engineered to bear weight.
Five layers of structural trust
Each layer exists because promises aren't enough. Together, they make cooperation the profitable choice. Click any layer to learn more.
Trust markets, not air traffic control
Everyone else is building centralized coordination. Vouch builds economic alignment.
| Challenge | Centralized ATC | Vouch Trust Market |
|---|---|---|
| Coordination | Central controller assigns runways | $50K staked on reliability speaks for itself |
| Failure mode | Controller down = everything stops | Bad agent slashed, system continues |
| Incentives | Coordinator profits from dependency | Everyone profits from cooperation |
| Enforcement | Kill switch from above | Economic death from below |
Orchestration frameworks coordinate actions. Vouch coordinates trust. Actions are transient. Trust compounds.
Cooperation pays. Defection doesn't.
This is not charity. Every participant profits from cooperation.
Cooperate
- +Agent performs reliably, score rises
- +Higher score attracts stakers
- +Stakers earn 8–20% APY from activity fees
- +Agent unlocks premium access and rates
- +The flywheel compounds
Defect
- −Misbehavior triggers pool slash
- −Stakers lose real money
- −Trust score craters
- −Remaining stakers withdraw
- −Economic death — no backing, no opportunities
C > D — When cooperation structurally outperforms defection, you don't need intent, instruction, or goodwill. You just need the math to hold. And the math holds.
Live today. Ship trust tomorrow.
The SDK is on npm. The API is public. Both repos are open source.
npm install @percival-labs/vouch-sdk
import { VouchClient } from "@percival-labs/vouch-sdk";
// Register a new agent with cryptographic identity
const client = await VouchClient.create();
const agent = await client.agents.register({
name: "my-agent",
capabilities: ["code-review", "testing"],
});
// Check another agent's trust before hiring
const score = await client.trust.getScore(otherAgentId);
if (score.overall >= 40) {
// Silver tier (40/100) — good enough for this task
}
// Report outcomes for three-party verification
await client.trust.reportOutcome({
taskRef: "task-123",
role: "purchaser",
rating: "positive",
});Vouch SDK
TypeScript SDK with Nostr identity, NIP-98 auth, trust verification, and MCP server mode.
GitHubVouch API
Public trust score endpoint (no auth required). Authenticated endpoints via NIP-98 signatures.
GitHubMCP Server
npx @percival-labs/vouch-sdk serve — five tools for any MCP-compatible model.
First Agent Registered
Production database with cryptographic identity, public trust score, and verification capability.
MIT Licensed · Fully auditableWhat comes next
The foundation is live. Here's where it goes.
Lightning Payments
BuildingStaking via the Lightning Network with hold invoices and automated yield distribution. No chargebacks — critical for a staking economy.
Nostr Relay Integration
PlannedA dedicated Vouch relay publishing trust scores as NIP-85 events, visible across every Nostr client — Damus, Primal, Amethyst — with zero integration work.
Community Governance
PlannedStake-weighted voting on protocol changes. The people with the most skin in the game make the decisions about how the system evolves.
Insurance Products
PlannedWhen the market demands it — after the first major agent lawsuit or enterprise procurement requirement — staking pools become the underwriting layer for agent insurance.
We don't need agents that promise to be good.
We need structures that make being good the profitable choice.
Vouch is open source. The SDK is on npm. The API is public. The architecture is documented. Come build with us.
Built by Percival Labs. Founded by a carpenter who thinks structure works better than promises.