The Intelligent Internet

How Intelligent Contracts Can Resolve Agent-to-Agent Disputes

Agents can transact automatically, but they can disagree about delivery, quality, or policy. An Intelligent Contract can hold the terms and validate dispute evidence.

Scope and decision boundary

Software agents need stable interfaces, bounded authority, structured results, and verifiable state. A visual interface does not provide these controls.

Public machine-readable information helps an agent discover a service. Contract rules then control what the agent can do with that service.

This guide defines the technical controls for this subject. It does not treat a model response as proof.

Start with the decision boundary. Identify the permitted inputs, the required output, and the state change that can follow validation.

This subject also connects to How AI Memory Can Change Blockchain Applications and How to Design AI-Native Applications for the Agentic Web. Read those guides together when the decision crosses trust, retrieval, or execution boundaries.

What changes in practice

The agreement must define the evidence for completion and failure.

Treat this point as a design requirement. Record the input and the expected result before implementation.

Agent authority and spending limits must be verifiable.

Connect this point to a visible contract state. A reviewer must be able to inspect the resulting behavior.

Settlement must follow accepted evidence and the required finality state.

Test this point with normal, invalid, unavailable, and disputed inputs. Do not test only the successful path.

Implementation in practice

Give each agreement a stable identifier and explicit parties.

Document the owner, input, output, failure response, and test evidence for this control.

Define the evidence window, validation criteria, and appeal process.

Document the owner, input, output, failure response, and test evidence for this control.

Require human approval for exceptional or high-value settlements.

Document the owner, input, output, failure response, and test evidence for this control.

Example: an agent claims that a service was not delivered

A buyer agent can submit a service request and a seller agent can submit delivery evidence. An Intelligent Contract can compare the evidence with the agreed service criteria and hold settlement during the appeal window.

The contract cannot decide facts that the agreement does not define. The parties must state the evidence window, acceptable proof, exception process, and authority for a final decision.

Verification procedure

Use this procedure before deployment. Keep the test evidence with the contract version and network configuration.

01State the decision in one sentence. Identify the person or system that uses the result.
02List each deterministic input, non-deterministic input, external source, and model dependency.
03Define the accepted output type, required fields, value limits, and failure states.
04Test correct input, malformed input, unavailable evidence, stale evidence, and conflicting evidence.
05Test validator agreement, validator disagreement, leader rotation, appeal, and finality where applicable.
06Confirm that no state change occurs before the contract obtains an acceptable result.
07Record the source, network, transaction state, and validation outcome for operational review.

Design review questions

A reviewer must answer these questions before the contract handles a high-impact decision.

Can fixed code complete this task without AI or web access?
What evidence is necessary, and which source is authoritative for that evidence?
What result must a validator reject?
What does the application do when the result is partial or unavailable?
Can a user distinguish an accepted result from a finalized result?
What data must remain private?
Which dependency can cause several validators to fail at the same time?

Evidence record

Keep enough evidence to reproduce the application decision. Do not store private input in a public contract record.

Field 1: Contract version and network identifier
Field 2: Transaction identifier and current transaction state
Field 3: Source identifier, retrieval time, and content version when available
Field 4: Model task, required output structure, and validation criteria
Field 5: Validator outcome, disagreement state, and appeal state
Field 6: Final application action and the authority that approved it

Operational monitoring

Deployment is not the end of verification. Monitor the complete decision path and investigate changes in behavior.

Measure source, model, and network availability as separate signals.
Measure response time for retrieval, model execution, validation, acceptance, and finality.
Record rejected proposals, validator disagreement, leader rotation, and failed retries.
Track source format changes and model configuration changes that can alter output.
Review appeals and overturned results for weak criteria or missing evidence.
Repeat the validation suite after a contract, prompt, source, model, or network change.

Release criteria

Release the contract only when the team can explain each input, validation rule, state change, failure response, and authority boundary.

The test suite must include evidence failure and validator disagreement. A successful example does not prove safe behavior.

The interface must show the correct transaction state. It must not describe an accepted result as final before the finality process ends.

The operating team must have a response procedure for provider failure, source change, disputed results, and contract defects.

Limits

A contract cannot enforce obligations that are outside its technical and legal reach.
Automated disputes can expose private commercial evidence if data handling is weak.

Primary GenLayer sources

Use the official Optimistic Democracy page as the primary protocol reference for this subject.
Compare the implementation with Web Access before you select the final validation and failure rules.

Check the source pages again before production deployment. Protocol, network, and software requirements can change.