Why would a platform keep its purchase evidence private?
From MCC-001, an essay: a hypothesis, not a measurement.
The short answer
Because inside the platform it can be both richer and cheaper to keep. The essay argues that a provider or procurement network may know the product version, the buyer's requirements and how a dispute was resolved — context an export may drop — and has little reason to make its records intelligible elsewhere.
As published in the issue
An AI provider or an enterprise procurement network could maintain superior private evidence. A platform may know which product version was used, what the buyer required and how a dispute was resolved. An exported record may omit context the platform uses internally. If purchases stay inside that environment, keeping evidence there may be efficient. Agents could learn from outcomes without a universal standard. The platform would have little reason to incur the cost of making its records intelligible elsewhere.
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
Private evidence is not necessarily hoarding; it can simply be efficient. That is what makes the switching problem hard to see from inside.
What we measured
Nothing here was counted. This page quotes the essay's account of private evidence; the essay's tests for its argument have not run.
What the evidence shows
- Issue
- Machine Commerce Conditions: MCC-001 — September 2026
- Published
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.