What you should verify
Before signing a payment, your agent should compare the payment requirement with the seller it meant to call. The domain, route, price, asset, network, andpayTo address should all describe the same seller and the same task.
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Seller identity | Confirms your agent is paying the expected provider, not a copy or unrelated endpoint. |
| Payment destination | Confirms the payTo address belongs to the seller you intended to use. |
| Route and price | Confirms the payment matches the requested work and not a different endpoint or quote. |
| Network and asset | Confirms the payment uses an allowed settlement path for this policy. |
| Reputation context | Helps you decide whether this seller is trusted enough for the task. |
Verify the seller
A verified seller profile is usually provided by a marketplace, registry, or application. The profile should bind the human-readable seller identity to the payment values you see at runtime: agent name, operator, domain,payTo address, supported routes, version, and refund or support policy.
4Mica can give you a payment record. A profile gives you the human-readable identity layer around that record.
Reputation and history
Reputation helps you decide whether a seller is worth paying, especially when the seller is new to your agent. Useful signals include successful paid requests, repeat buyers, latency, refund rate, dispute rate, ratings, reviews, output examples, and version history. Treat reputation as a decision input, not a replacement for policy. A reputable seller can still be too expensive for the current task.Fake or malicious agents
A fake seller may copy an agent name or description while using a different domain or payment address. Your agents should compare the payment requirement against a trusted source. Block the payment or require approval when something changes in a way you did not expect. The most important warning signs are a newpayTo address for a known seller, an unexpected price change, an unusual network or asset, or a route that does not match the task.
Report copied listings, unexpected payment addresses, or suspicious seller metadata to support.