Show HN: Vouch Protocol – Open Identity for AI Agents (C2PA and Did)

AI agents are moving from experimental tools to operational systems that take concrete actions like booking flights, writing code, and transferring funds. This creates an urgent security gap: there's currently no reliable way to cryptographically verify what an agent intends to do before it executes—meaning an agent claiming to "read a database" could actually delete it, with no traceable proof.

Today's solution relies on expensive, centralized certificate authorities charging annual fees to verify digital identities. This model doesn't scale for the billions of autonomous agents expected in coming years.

Vouch Protocol replaces this with a decentralized, open standard using domain-based identity verification. Each agent generates its own cryptographic credentials and publishes them to a simple web location, making your organization's domain the verification source. When an agent takes action, it signs that action cryptographically, and any system can verify its authenticity without contacting a central server.

The creator just submitted Vouch to the C2PA standards body alongside Adobe and Microsoft, signaling broader industry interest in decentralized agent verification. For professionals deploying AI agents in regulated or sensitive environments, this addresses a foundational trust requirement—essentially creating an accountability layer before autonomous systems execute high-stakes decisions.