RISKApplying Asparouhova’s framework

AI Agent Protocol Risk Dashboard

Evaluating 15 agent protocols through Nadia Asparouhova’s Dangerous Protocols lens and Kafka Index. How much control does each protocol exert? How visible is that control? How costly is exit?

1Critical Risk
1High Risk
8Medium Risk
5Low Risk
|Sort:|
ProtocolKafka IndexArchetypeStageOverall Risk
ElizaOSAgent Runtime (Web3)
Eliza Labs (ai16z)
KAFKA INDEX
Kafka
Social Rules
Stage 2
Critical
UCPCommerce
Google + Shopify
KAFKA INDEX
Bartleby
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
High
A2AAgent ↔ Agent
Google Cloud
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Medium
A2UIAgent ↔ User (UI)
Google
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Medium
AGENTS.mdAgent Conventions
OpenAI → AAIF
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Social Rules
Stage 2
Medium
AITPAgent ↔ Agent (Cross-trust)
NEAR Foundation
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Medium
ANPAgent ↔ Agent (Decentralized)
Community
KAFKA INDEX
Bartleby
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Medium
AP2Payments
Google
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Medium
OASFDiscovery & Registry
AGNTCY (Cisco/LangChain)
KAFKA INDEX
Bartleby
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Medium
x402Payments
Coinbase + Cloudflare
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Medium
ACPAgent ↔ Agent (Lightweight)
IBM BeeAI → Linux Foundation
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Low
AG-UIAgent ↔ User
CopilotKit
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Low
Agent GatewaySecurity & Governance
Solo.io → Linux Foundation
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Low
GooseAgent Runtime
Block → AAIF
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Low
MCPContext & Tools
Anthropic
KAFKA INDEX
Whitehead
Explicit Rules
Stage 1
Low
KEY FINDING

The payment, commerce, and token layers are the most dangerous. Infrastructure protocols (MCP, Goose, ACP, Agent Gateway) score well — they’re explicit, debuggable, and preserve human agency. But x402, AP2, UCP, and especially ElizaOS follow the pattern Asparouhova identifies: protocols designed to be invisible control you most completely. ElizaOS is the most Kafkaesque: token economics fuse financial identity with social belonging, making exit prohibitively expensive.

“Protocols are dangerous precisely because they control us so well. Though it may seem contradictory, the more powerful a protocol is, the harder it is to understand or explain it to others.” — Nadia Asparouhova, Dangerous Protocols

15 protocols · Last updated 2025-02-19Framework by Nadia Asparouhova ↗