Cardano Network Empowers Agents with Secure Wallet Support

The Cardano network has taken a significant step forward with the announcement of support for the Open Wallet Standard (OWS), which enables software agents to securely hold and manage digital wallets on their own.

This major shift in wallet security allows for automated trading and on-chain activity without constant human input, opening up new possibilities for decentralized systems. The OWS relies on CAIP identifiers to keep wallet addresses readable across multiple networks and provides a secure way to store private keys, which stay encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM.

The Cardano Foundation has also joined the x402 Foundation as an Associate Member in July, supporting the payment standard for software. The x402 protocol brings back the old HTTP 402 'Payment Required' status code, enabling one program to pay another for data or API access without a stored account or checkout page.