What would a record of machine purchases have to hold to be useful?
From MCC-001, an essay: a hypothesis, not a measurement.
The short answer
What was bought, what it cost, what was promised and what happened. The essay argues that a record is useful when a buyer can also see the conditions, how many observations there are and how old, how the result compared with alternatives, who measured it and how uncertain it remains.
As published in the issue
Machine commerce may need a form of economic memory: a record it can query of what was bought, what it cost, what was promised and what happened. The record’s relevance would depend on the conditions, the number and age of observations, how the result compared with alternatives, who measured it and how much uncertainty remained.
The sentence above is quoted from the essay as published and is not re-written here. The essay, its date and the address it was published at are below.
Why it matters
A record that holds outcomes without their conditions invites a buyer to compare things that are not comparable. The context is what turns a list of results into evidence.
What we measured
Nothing here was counted. This page quotes the essay's description of the record it proposes; what our own record publishes about price and payment changes, and about paid delivery, is linked below.
What the evidence shows
- Issue
- Machine Commerce Conditions: MCC-001 — September 2026
- Published
Where our own record speaks to this
These are measured answers, each counted over its own population on its own date. This page links them and quotes nothing from them.
Does paying an endpoint deliver what was bought? · Do x402 endpoints change their price or payment address?
Method and reproduction
The terms
The terms this question uses are defined in the glossary.
Corrections and disputes
Corrections to this issue are on the corrections register, and this answer reads from the record rather than from a copy.