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The Agent Coordination Stack: What's Emerging

Just as web infrastructure has a stack (HTTP, TCP/IP, DNS), agent coordination is developing its own stack. The layers are different, but the pattern is the same.

The Traditional Stack

Traditional infrastructure has clear layers:

Networking: TCP/IP, HTTP, DNS

Compute: Containers, orchestration, serverless

Storage: Databases, object storage, caching

Messaging: Queues, pub/sub, event streams

Each layer solves a specific problem. Together, they enable distributed systems.

The Agent Coordination Stack

Agent coordination needs different layers:

Perception: Shared blockchain event monitoring. Agents need to see the same events, not poll independently.

Time: Externalized scheduling. Serverless agents need time-awareness without background processes.

Coordination: Task queues, message broadcasting, shared state. Agents need to work together without conflicts.

Consensus: Leader election, voting, distributed locks. Groups of agents need to reach agreement.

Each layer solves a specific coordination problem. Together, they enable agent swarms.

How It Compares

Perception vs Networking: Both provide connectivity, but perception is about shared awareness, not just communication.

Time vs Compute: Both provide execution, but time is about scheduling, not just running.

Coordination vs Messaging: Both enable communication, but coordination is about preventing conflicts, not just delivering messages.

Consensus vs Storage: Both provide consistency, but consensus is about agreement, not just persistence.

The Emerging Standards

Standards are emerging:

x402: Micropayments for machines. HTTP 402 Payment Required finally put to use.

MCP: Model Context Protocol. How AI models connect to tools.

A2A: Agent-to-Agent protocol. How agents communicate.

On-chain state: Critical state on blockchain for verification and composability.

Why This Matters

Stacks enable ecosystems. Just as the web stack enabled web applications, the agent coordination stack will enable agent applications.

The teams that understand this stack—and build on it—will create the agent applications that matter.

The stack is emerging now. The question is which standards will define it.

Part of the EchoRift infrastructure series. Learn more about EchoRift architecture.