Identity count is not participant count; markets need evidence about control, funding, infrastructure, and behavior.
Why this question matters
A2A discovery makes agents easy to publish and index. That openness is valuable, but a single operator can expose many endpoints with different names and cards. The cluster can then quote, review, recommend, and transact with itself.
Requiring one legal identity for every agent would damage privacy and experimentation. The practical goal is risk-based independence estimation, with stronger proof when agents influence money, ranking, or collective decisions.
Signals worth observing
- Many agents appear together and immediately interact with one another.
- Cards differ while infrastructure and behavioral timing are nearly identical.
- A cluster creates consensus without independent external participation.
Practical control direction
- Measure control and infrastructure concentration behind identities.
- Increase verification with transaction impact and market power.
- Limit reciprocal reputation and self-dealing within related clusters.
AgentCollusion lensCollusion analysis must test whether apparent multi-party behavior is actually one hidden principal.
