Experience the Dawn of Agentic Commerce at Consensus 2026

A seismic shift is underway in the world of commerce, driven by the convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain payments. AI agents, capable of autonomous perception, decision-making, and action, are beginning to engage in transactions, posing challenges to traditional payment systems. The credit card, bank login, and merchant onboarding flow - all designed with humans in mind - create friction that agents cannot navigate. The upcoming Consensus 2026 event will bring together over 15,000 influential minds from the crypto, AI, and finance sectors to discuss the future of agentic commerce, including the development of regulatory frameworks, business models, and payment rails. According to Christian Catalini, MIT professor and founder of the Cryptoeconomics Lab, true agentic payments will only be achieved when AI is the counterparty, enabling features like atomic settlement against delivery and per-second payment streaming. This is not a distant vision but a near-term engineering problem that Consensus 2026 aims to address. The presence of Google Cloud at the event, with its active investment in blockchain payment rails, underscores the significance of agentic commerce in the technology industry. Rich Widmann, Google Cloud's Global Head of Strategy for Web3, notes that the biggest friction points arise from products designed for humans, not agents. The event will also witness the emergence of two protocols, x402 and MPP, as contenders for the agentic stack, with their founders and representatives making the case for open, interoperable rails. Additionally, CoinDesk University will offer a structured curriculum for attendees to learn about building and deploying agentic payments, from theory to implementation. As the agentic commerce landscape evolves rapidly, the window for participation and influence is open, but it won't remain so forever. Join the conversation at Consensus 2026, May 5-7, in Miami Beach, and be part of shaping the future of machine-to-machine transactions.