Rivier — Agentic Payments Infrastructure and Wallet
Rivier is an agentic payments infrastructure and wallet built on Tenzro. It enables AI agents to autonomously manage financial transactions, hold assets, and make payments on behalf of humans or other agents.
The Challenge
Traditional payment systems aren't designed for autonomous agents. They require human authorization for every transaction, creating friction when AI systems need to make independent financial decisions.
Rivier needed infrastructure that could give agents financial autonomy while maintaining security and accountability. Key requirements included:
- ■Self-sovereign wallets for AI agents without requiring human intervention for every payment
- ■Configurable spending limits and permissions tied to agent capabilities
- ■Micropayment streaming for per-token AI inference billing
- ■Hardware-secured key management to prevent unauthorized access
- ■Clear audit trails linking agent actions to human controllers
The Solution
Rivier leveraged Tenzro's identity and payments infrastructure to build a complete agentic payments system. The architecture uses four core Tenzro components:
TDIP Identity System
Each agent receives a did:tenzro:machine DID linked to its human controller. This creates a verifiable chain of authorization while allowing agents to act autonomously within their scope.
Delegation Scopes
Human controllers set spending limits, allowed operations, approved payment protocols, and time bounds. Agents can transact freely within these constraints without per-transaction approval.
Micropayment Channels
For AI inference billing, Rivier uses Tenzro's micropayment channel manager to enable per-token payments without the cost of on-chain transactions for every API call.
TEE Key Management
Agent wallet keys are generated and stored in TEE enclaves. This prevents extraction while allowing agents to sign transactions autonomously, with hardware attestation providing proof of secure execution.
Architecture
Rivier's payment flow integrates seamlessly with Tenzro infrastructure:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Human Controller (did:tenzro:human:{uuid}) │
│ ↓ creates & delegates │
│ AI Agent (did:tenzro:machine:{controller}:...) │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
↓
┌───────────────────────┐
│ Rivier Agent Wallet │
│ (TEE-secured keys) │
└───────────────────────┘
↓
┌────────────────┴────────────────┐
↓ ↓
┌─────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────┐
│ MPP / x402 │ │ Micropayment │
│ Payment │ │ Channels │
│ Protocols │ │ (per-token billing) │
└─────────────────┘ └──────────────────────┘
↓ ↓
└───────────┬───────────────┘
↓
┌───────────────────────┐
│ Tenzro Ledger │
│ Settlement (TNZO) │
└───────────────────────┘
↓
┌───────────────────────┐
│ Cross-chain Bridges │
│ (ETH, SOL, Canton) │
└───────────────────────┘Identity Binding: Every payment is cryptographically linked to both the agent DID and its human controller. This creates an immutable audit trail while preserving agent autonomy.
Multi-Protocol Support: Rivier supports MPP (Machine Payments Protocol) and x402 for HTTP 402-based payments, enabling seamless integration with AI service providers using either standard.
Settlement Layer: All payments settle on Tenzro Ledger in TNZO, with optional cross-chain bridging to Ethereum, Solana, or Canton for enterprise integration.
Key Features
Self-Sovereign Agent Wallets
Every AI agent gets its own MPC wallet with threshold signatures (2-of-3), auto-provisioned without seed phrases, supporting TNZO and cross-chain assets.
Delegated Spending with Configurable Limits
Human controllers define max transaction values, daily spend caps, allowed operations, approved contracts, time bounds, and payment protocol restrictions.
Micropayment Streaming for AI Inference
Off-chain micropayment channels enable per-token billing for AI model inference without on-chain transaction costs for every API call. Channels settle atomically on Tenzro Ledger.
Cross-Chain Settlement via Bridges
LayerZero, Chainlink CCIP, and deBridge adapters enable payments to flow between Tenzro, Ethereum, Solana, and enterprise Canton ledgers.
Hardware-Secured Key Management
Wallet keys generated and stored in TEE enclaves (Intel TDX, AMD SEV-SNP, AWS Nitro) with hardware attestation proving secure execution. Keys never leave the enclave.