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April 25, 2025

The Missing Trust Layer for MCP & A2A Enabling trusted AI deployment in the age of autonomous agents Trust isn’t optional when it comes to AI. It’s the foundation everything else stands on. As AI agents gain more autonomy and power through standardised interfaces like Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Google’s Agent-to-Agent (A2A) framework, a critical question emerges: how do we keep these systems secure, private, and trustworthy? This isn’t a theoretical problem for tomorrow – it’s today’s challenge. By 2028, Gartner predicts a third of enterprise applications will incorporate agentic AI. But without a trust framework integrated with this intelligence, organisations are building on quicksand.

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The new AI ecosystem: MCP meets A2A

Think of MCP as the vertical integration component – the standardised interface that connects AI agents to tools, knowledge bases, and external services. Like REST APIs did for web services, MCP creates a common language for AI to access the resources it needs. A2A brings horizontal coordination to the picture. Google’s framework standardizes how agents discover, communicate with, and delegate tasks to each other across platforms. Together, they form a powerful combination – but one with security gaps. The problem is that neither protocol was built with comprehensive security, identity, or consent as core features. That’s where Nuggets comes in.

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Why your AI deployment needs a trust framework

Deploying AI agents in enterprise environments creates unique challenges that go beyond what MCP and A2A address:
  • How do you verify the identity of every agent, user, and service in the system?
  • Who controls access to sensitive data and tools?
  • How do you manage consent across automated interactions?
  • What prevents malicious actors from spoofing or hijacking legitimate agents?
  • How do you enable secure payments without risking financial misuse?
These aren’t edge cases – they’re fundamental requirements for any serious enterprise deployment.

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The Nuggets solution: Five building blocks for trusted AI

Nuggets provides the missing trust foundation for both MCP and A2A with five essential capabilities:
  1. Sovereign Identity Every agent, employee, user, and service gets a verifiable, decentralized identity. This prevents prompt injection, spoofing, and unauthorized impersonation. Only authenticated entities can trigger workflows or access sensitive resources.
  2. Private Data Control Users maintain complete control over their data. When agents collaborate or pull information, Nuggets ensures explicit permissions and zero-trust data exchange. No more worrying about agents leaking data via compromised tools.
  3. Authentication & Authorisation Granular access controls and policy enforcement prevent privilege escalation. An agent or tool can’t do more than it’s authorized to do – even if it wants to.
  4. Secure Payments When AI needs to initiate or execute financial transactions, Nuggets ensures they happen only with proper verification and approval. Critical for e-commerce, subscriptions, and B2B workflows.
  5. Confidential Computing Sensitive operations execute inside encrypted memory environments, protecting data from everything – including the system itself. This guards against memory scraping, side-channel attacks, and persistent threats.

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The three-tier approach to enterprise AI

This creates a clean, three-layered architecture for enterprise-grade AI:
  • A2A handles agent coordination and task delegation
  • MCP provides tool and data access
  • Nuggets wraps it all in identity, security, and consent management
The result? AI deployments that are regulation-ready, secure for data-reliant industries, and both interoperable and protected.

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Building on our KYA framework

This integration builds directly on our recently released Know Your Agent (KYA) framework, which transforms AI assistants into trusted digital colleagues with comprehensive identity and authentication. By extending KYA to cover agent-to-agent interactions, we ensure all coordination happens within a secure, verified ecosystem.

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The business case for Nuggets + MCP + A2A

Adding Nuggets to your AI deployment delivers tangible benefits:
  • Accelerated deployment – Implement secure AI using existing infrastructure
  • Reduced compliance risk – Maintain regulatory alignment with robust controls
  • Enhanced collaboration – Enable secure agent coordination across boundaries
  • Operational efficiency – Centrally manage AI identities and permissions
  • Future-proof architecture – Scale with confidence as your AI ecosystem grows

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The fastest path to trusted enterprise AI

In a landscape where AI capabilities are advancing daily, trust can’t be an afterthought. Nuggets offers the fastest, most secure way to deploy Models and AI agents that can access tools via MCP and collaborate via A2A – all within a secure ecosystem that works with your existing systems. The true power of AI isn’t just in what it can do, but in what it can be trusted to do. Nuggets provides that trust. Want to learn how Nuggets can secure your organisation’s AI deployment? Contact us today to schedule a demo.
Built on W3C standards and OIDC. Multi-cloud deployment. AI-ready infrastructure. Nuggets Trust Layer provides purpose-built identity infrastructure for AI agents, humans and businesses. Built on established open standards with bank-grade security, it integrates seamlessly with existing systems and AI protocols. Available globally across 150+ countries. ISO 27001 certified and enterprise-ready. We’d love to hear from you if you’re working to build secure, trusted AI systems for your organisation. You can learn more about our AI Agent Identity solution here or get in touch with us here.