Snaplii — North America's first real-world AI payment.
What Stripe Is Saying
In April 2026, Stripe held its Sessions conference in San Francisco. Patrick Collison addressed 9,000 attendees:
"AI is the biggest platform shift for the economy since the internet. And in the not-too-distant future, agents will account for most transactions online."— Patrick Collison, Stripe Sessions 2026
Stripe followed with the launch of Link Agent Wallet, Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), and UCP — a protocol built in partnership with Google. Visa launched Intelligent Commerce. Mastercard launched Agent Pay.
These are meaningful infrastructure investments. Stripe's path is to build a new generation of protocol layers that gradually bring global merchants into an AI-native payments ecosystem — a sound long-term direction.
Snaplii chose a different path: available today.
A simple question: can an AI agent help a real user order a cup of coffee on DoorDash — right now?
Why Existing Approaches Take Time to Reach Consumers
Agent payments have two prevailing approaches today. Each has a different starting point and covers different scenarios.
Path 1: Crypto-native approach
Agent-to-agent transfers work well on-chain. The challenge is that most consumers don't hold crypto, and most merchants don't accept it. For everyday real-world commerce, this path isn't yet viable at scale.
Path 2: Card network approach (Stripe Link and similar)
Stripe Link's core mechanism is the Tokenized Card — authorizing card credentials to an agent via token. This is a reasonable path built on existing card infrastructure.
Two challenges emerge: first, card network infrastructure was originally designed for human operation, and adapting it to agent-driven scenarios requires time; second, this path depends on merchants integrating the protocol stack — for large retailers with mature, in-house payment infrastructure, that onboarding process takes longer.
In its current form, Stripe Link requires user confirmation for every transaction — making it well-suited for use cases where human oversight is part of the design.
Stripe is laying the foundation for the future of AI payments. Snaplii is completing real transactions on existing foundations — today. Both need to happen.
Snaplii's Approach: A Two-Layer Architecture
We divided agent payments into two distinct layers, each solving a different problem.
Layer 1: Asset Security and Isolation
Users' bank cards and credit cards remain within a human-operated wallet. When an agent needs to execute a purchase, the system instantly generates a one-time, transaction-scoped payment instrument — built on gift cards and the Prepaid Payment Network.
- Real card credentials are never exposed to the agent
- The agent operates only within the user's pre-approved spending limits and permissions
- Every transaction has an independent, single-use payment credential
This is what makes gift cards and the Prepaid Network uniquely suited: natively isolated, pre-funded, and abuse-resistant.
Layer 2: Merchant Acceptance — Already Solved
We chose a payment method merchants have accepted for years: gift cards and the Prepaid Payment Network.
DoorDash accepts it. Starbucks accepts it. Amazon accepts it. Walmart accepts it. Tim Hortons accepts it. Gas stations, restaurants, and retailers accept it — online and in store.
- No new protocol integration required from merchants
- No API changes needed
- 100% payment success rate — built on the merchant's native gift card network, no 3DS verification, no fraud interception
- Returns and post-purchase flows are identical to the standard consumer experience — no added friction
These are precisely the scenarios where tokenized card approaches face the most friction: large-format retail, offline commerce, and enterprise merchants who will not deeply integrate a third-party payment protocol.
What's Available Today
Coverage
- ~300 brands in Canada
- ~200 brands in the United States
- Offline supported: gas stations, restaurants, coffee, retail
Three Core Use Cases
- Retail spending
- Bill payment (tuition, income tax, property tax, utilities, insurance, home insurance)
- Snaplii Cash (user balance layer, connectable to bank card or bank account)
How Agents Use It
Users authorize the agent's spending limits, permitted payment methods, and scope. The system issues an API Key to the agent. The agent then executes real transactions autonomously. MCP-native — callable directly from Claude, OpenClaw, and other leading AI clients.
One-Sentence Demo
"Use Snaplii to top up my DoorDash account $200, then order 10 Starbucks lattes delivered to the venue."The agent handled the top-up, earned cashback, placed the order, and arranged delivery. One instruction. The entire transaction chain — completed automatically.
Two Paths: Side by Side
| Dimension | Stripe Link Agent Wallet | Snaplii A2M |
|---|---|---|
| Payment method | Tokenized card | Gift card + Prepaid Network |
| Per-transaction user confirmation | Required — every transaction needs manual user approval | Not required — pre-funded & pre-authorized, agent fully autonomous |
| Merchant protocol integration | Required — merchants must integrate Stripe's protocol stack | Not required — merchants already accept gift cards |
| Large retailer coverage | Primarily small-to-mid merchants; large retailers take time to onboard | Covered — Amazon, Walmart, The Home Depot natively supported |
| Offline / in-store support | Limited | Supported — gas stations, restaurants, retail, coffee, Uber Eats |
| North America brand coverage | Stripe ecosystem merchants; expanding over time | Canada 300+, US 500+, available today |
| Overspend risk | Exists — token can be reused | None — pre-funded hard cap, stops when balance depletes |
| Cashback rewards | None | 5–12% cashback on every transaction, credited automatically |
| Available today | Partially (protocol coverage still expanding) | Fully — open-source MCP server, live today |
Build your first agent payment in minutes: github.com/Snaplii-Inc/agent-to-merchant-payments
