Toronto Hackathon: What Was Put to the Test
GoBTC Pay is a Bitcoin payment protocol from mining company GoMining. The protocol was a Diamond Sponsor of Agnic.AI’s Agentic Commerce Pioneers Edition II hackathon. It ran a dedicated track where developers built AI agents to pay for goods and services in Bitcoin.
The “The Shopping Agent Challenge” hackathon included:
- a remote build sprint from September 10 to 20;
- a hybrid Demo Day in Toronto on September 21;
- a challenge to create an AI agent capable of buying goods from almost any merchant.
Teams in the GoBTC Pay track worked on a case provided by the company. They had to present functional prototypes built on the protocol, not presentations. This format tests whether the payment flow works.
Evaluation criterion: the prototype must make a payment, not describe one.
Payments between agents for services
The GoBTC Pay track focused on settlements between agents for services rendered. These payments can be:
- small;
- frequent;
- cross-border.
Teams presented working prototypes that let AI agents pay merchants and one another in Bitcoin.
Roman Yermoshin is GoBTC Pay’s general manager and a member of the hackathon jury. He said that AI agents will select products and pay for orders on behalf of people. They will also settle with one another for services in Bitcoin.
According to him, GoBTC Pay processes these payments “instantly and at minimal cost.” There are no banks or intermediaries between the parties. The practical criterion: the track tests an agent’s payment logic, not just its ability to select products.
Settlement architecture and fee distribution
GoBTC Pay settles transactions directly on the Bitcoin base layer. By default, the protocol does not convert funds into fiat currency. This defines its payment model.
| Element | How it works |
|---|---|
| Settlement layer | Bitcoin base layer, with no fiat conversion by default |
| Payer fee | None |
| Merchant fee | 0.2%, split between the wallet provider and the miners processing the settlement |
| Security | 2-of-3 multi-signature between the user, GoMining, and a regulated third-party custodian |
| Keys | The payer retains one key throughout the transaction |
| Mempool | GoMining private mempool on Stratum V2, with priority in GoMining’s own pool |
Direct settlement in Bitcoin is the foundation of this setup. The practical criterion: if you need payments without intermediary banks and without mandatory fiat conversion, the architecture meets that requirement.
Launch, SDK, and access for participants
The GoBTC Pay protocol launched in May 2026. In June, it opened to third-party participants. They have access to the Gen1 SDK and API.
The Gen1 SDK and API let merchants, wallet providers, and ecosystem partners integrate the protocol. The practical criterion: the availability of an SDK and API determines whether a third-party product can connect to the settlement layer.
