Central Theme
The talk explores the rapidly growing landscape of agent-to-agent communication protocols, comparing over a dozen emerging standards to the more established Model-Component-Protocol (MCP). The central question is whether the new, more ambitious protocols are necessary, or if extending MCP is a more practical path toward a collaborative agent ecosystem.
Key Points & Arguments
- A Crowded Field: The speaker identifies 14 distinct protocols (most starting with ‘A’, collectively termed “A* protocols”), all aiming to enable agents to discover, communicate, and collaborate. This is a far more fragmented landscape than most realize.
- Two Main Categories: Protocols are broadly divided into two types:
- Context-Oriented (e.g., MCP): Primarily designed to provide an LLM with context or tools to complete a task (synchronous request-response).
- Inter-Agent (e.g., A2A, AConnectP): Designed for more complex, asynchronous, multi-turn communication between agents, including negotiation and debate.
- Minimal Differentiation: Despite ambitious goals, most “A*” protocols are currently very similar to MCP in practice. They are often highly theoretical, lack significant adoption, or are tied to questionable technologies like blockchain.
- MCP’s Key Advantage: Adoption. By focusing on and solving a small, well-defined problem (tool use), MCP has gained significant traction and adoption. This momentum is its greatest asset, positioning it as the de facto standard to build upon, much like React did for web UIs.
- A Standout Idea: The Agora protocol is highlighted as genuinely innovative for its concept of starting with natural language and allowing agents to negotiate and upgrade to a more formal, efficient protocol on the fly.
Conclusions & Takeaways
The speaker concludes that while MCP may not have been initially designed for complex inter-agent communication, it is currently “all we need.” Adding inter-agent features to the widely adopted MCP framework is a more practical and less complex path forward than adopting one of the many competing, less-developed protocols.
However, the entire field, including MCP, has critical gaps that must be addressed to achieve a global, trustworthy agent ecosystem:
- A Universal Registry: A centralized or federated system is needed to discover agents and their capabilities across the web.
- Authorization: A standardized way for agents to negotiate permission and payment for using each other’s resources is essential.
- Reputation: A system to verify and trust agents is critical to prevent abuse and ensure reliability in an open network.
Mentoring Question
The talk highlights that adoption is a key factor in a standard’s success. Considering the three major missing pieces (Registry, Authorization, Reputation), which one do you believe presents the biggest bottleneck to building a truly trusted and autonomous agent ecosystem, and why?
Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kqB_xML1SfA&si=5_fuUIZ7VX0tFZVD
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