Know Your Agent: The trust layer for the agent economy
As AI agents move from chat to action, every platform needs to know who's behind the agent. KYA extends Beltic's trust infrastructure seamlessly into the agentic world, so platforms can verify agents without friction and unlock the next wave of autonomous commerce.
Zero knowledge by default: verify trust without exposing identity.
AI agents are everywhere. Trust isn't.
As AI moves from chat to action, platforms face three existential problems.
You can't tell who's behind the agent
Today's AI agents act with no verifiable identity. Platforms can't distinguish a verified business user from a fraudster with stolen credentials.
Trust systems weren't built for agents
KYC, KYB, fraud checks: all designed for humans clicking buttons. None work when autonomous agents handle thousands of transactions per second.
Every platform reinvents verification
Building trust infrastructure is expensive and slow. Most platforms either block agents entirely or accept unacceptable risk.
Verify any agent in one API call
Beltic issues cryptographic credentials that tie each agent to a verified human or business, without exposing who.
Agent controller requests verification
The user or business behind the agent completes identity verification through Beltic. They prove who they are once.
Beltic verifies and issues credential
We verify the business or individual identity and issue a portable, cryptographic credential bound to the agent.
Platforms verify in milliseconds
When the agent reaches a platform, one API call confirms the credential. Verified agents get access. Unverified get restricted.
One integration. Instant trust decisions.
Verify an agent's credential with a single API call. Know if the agent is backed by a verified business or individual, without seeing their underlying identity.
Built on W3C Verifiable Credentials and DIDs. Portable across platforms and ecosystems.
Read KYA documentation →// npm install @belticlabs/kya
import {
verifyHttpSignature,
fetchAgentCredential
} from '@belticlabs/kya';
// Verify incoming signed request
const result = await verifyHttpSignature({
method: req.method,
url: `https://${req.hostname}${req.path}`,
headers: req.headers,
body: req.body
});
if (result.valid) {
const { credential } = await fetchAgentCredential(
result.signatureAgentUrl
);
// credential.agentName → "Aurora Refund Guide"
// credential.verificationLevel → "beltic_verified"
// credential.overallSafetyRating → "low_risk"
}Built for the platforms powering the agent economy
API Providers
Turn blocked agent traffic into verified revenue. Grant tiered access based on trust level, without building identity infrastructure yourself.
Marketplaces
Let verified agents transact, list, and buy on behalf of businesses. Know who's behind every autonomous action.
Financial Services
Meet compliance requirements when agents initiate payments, transfers, or trading. Verifiable audit trails for every agent action.
SaaS Platforms
Enable agents to use your platform on behalf of customers. Differentiate verified agent traffic from potential abuse.
Why KYA
Privacy-Preserving
Platforms verify trust level without seeing the underlying identity. Zero-knowledge by design.
Millisecond Verification
One API call. Sub-100ms response. Built for the speed agents operate at.
W3C Standards
Built on Verifiable Credentials and DIDs. Portable across platforms, no vendor lock-in.
Composable
Works with Beltic's full trust stack: entity verification, document intelligence, and more.
Fraud Resistant
Cryptographically bound credentials can't be forged, shared, or replayed.
Global Coverage
Verify agents backed by businesses or individuals from 200+ countries.
Frequently asked questions about Know Your Agent
Know Your Agent (KYA) is an identity verification standard for AI agents, built by Beltic. It works like KYC (Know Your Customer) but for autonomous software — verifying the person or business behind an AI agent and issuing a cryptographic credential that platforms can check in milliseconds. This allows platforms to grant tiered access to verified agents without exposing the underlying identity of the principal.
The process has three steps. First, the person or business controlling the agent completes identity verification through Beltic (using existing KYC/KYB infrastructure). Second, Beltic issues a cryptographic credential — built on W3C Verifiable Credentials and DIDs — that is bound to the agent. Third, when the agent interacts with a platform, the platform verifies the credential in a single API call. The entire verification takes less than 100 milliseconds.
KYC (Know Your Customer) verifies human identity through document checks, selfies, and database lookups. It requires direct human interaction and doesn’t work for autonomous agents. KYA (Know Your Agent) verifies the principal behind an AI agent — the person or business that deployed it — and binds that verification to a portable credential the agent carries. KYA is designed for the speed and scale of agent-to-agent interactions, verifying trust in milliseconds rather than minutes.
AI agents are increasingly acting autonomously — making purchases, executing API calls, managing workflows, and transacting on behalf of businesses. Without identity verification, platforms can’t distinguish a legitimate agent from a malicious one. This forces platforms to either block all agent traffic (losing revenue) or accept unverified agents (accepting risk). Know Your Agent solves this by providing a trust layer that lets platforms make informed access decisions.
Yes. KYA is built on Beltic’s existing compliance infrastructure, which covers KYC, KYB, sanctions screening, and adverse media checks across 200+ jurisdictions. The underlying identity verification meets regulatory requirements for financial services, data protection (GDPR), and anti-money laundering (AML). Because KYA uses zero-knowledge proofs, it can verify trust without exposing personal data — a privacy-by-design approach that aligns with global data protection frameworks.
Ready to trust agents at scale?
Join the platforms building the agent economy with verifiable trust. Get started with KYA in minutes.