Verified obligations for digital commerce
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obligationdetermination in · settlement instructions out

Before value moves, Mink determines what is actually owed.

Payments move money. Mink establishes what is owed — what was promised, what happened, whether it can be proven, and what is therefore due.

Research stage

Illustrative record

obligationOBL-7F3A-0192
proposed12:00:01.204 · dataset transformationagreed12:00:01.377 · same version, both sidescommitted12:00:01.402 · £0.05 reservedexecuted12:00:04.918 · deliverable inevidence3 items · 2 independentverifiedpolicy P-2 · deterministic + modeldetermined£0.05 duesettlementinstructed · rail pluggable

Illustrative record

agreed12:00:01.377 · same version, both sidesverifiedpolicy P-2 · deterministic + modeldetermined · £0.05 due

The lifecycle

The lifecycle · rails, currencies and models change;
Obligation and verification do not.

Obligation01
Execution02
Evidence03
Verification04
Determination05
Settlement06

Mink is aware of each stage of the lifecycle.
Verification and determination are decided on the record.
The parties generally perform the agreed-upon work.
Settlement is an instruction to a pluggable rail.

A payment protocol can move five cents between two agents in milliseconds. It cannot tell you whether the five cents is owed.

Illustrative record

obligationOBL-7F3A-0192
proposed12:00:01.204 · dataset transformationagreed12:00:01.377 · same version, both sidescommitted12:00:01.402 · £0.05 reservedexecuted12:00:04.918 · deliverable inevidence3 items · 2 independentverifiedpolicy P-2 · deterministic + modeldetermined£0.05 duesettlementinstructed · rail pluggable

Illustrative record

agreed12:00:01.377 · same version, both sidesverifiedpolicy P-2 · deterministic + modeldetermined · £0.05 due

Five questions

What was promised?

What actually happened?

Can it be proven?

Was the obligation fulfilled?

What is therefore owed?

Mink is called at each stage, keeps the record, and makes the determination programmable.

Obligations machines can verify. Evidence treated as an economic object. A determination both sides can inspect, with verification proportionate to the value at risk — and an explicit unresolved state where automation cannot finish the job.

Value at risk

Value at risk · illustrative

5¢

A five-cent machine transaction should not consume five pounds of verification. Deterministic checks, a standing agreement, done.

Value at risk · illustrative

$100k

A six-figure obligation should not be released because one model says it is 99% confident. Independent receipts, specialist verifiers, a human only where it is worth one.

Open proposal · draft v0.1 · not yet published

Open Agent Contracts

proposed by Siris Technologies
reference implementation: Mink

An open agreement layer that lets independently operated agents establish commercial obligations, agree how they will be verified, and administer their completion — built on A2A, MCP and existing commerce and payment protocols rather than replacing them.

Request the draft →
Status

Mink is at the research stage.