Kite incubated a new product, opened its code to inspection, hardened the payments and identity layer for agents, and pushed the agent economy into the physical world. Here's what we delivered last week: 1️⃣ We introduced @MarathonBuild, incubated by Kite: adaptive inference infrastructure that lets long-running agents pick a completion window per request and save up to 65%, with signup credits worth as much as 45,600,000 tokens. 2️⃣ We open-sourced Kite Agent Passport Skills: 14 MIT-licensed skills that teach an agent to authenticate, request a spending session, and make paid x402 requests, working across Claude Code, Cursor, and 40+ other environments. 3️⃣ We launched a bug bounty on @sherlockdefi covering the first smart contracts deployed on Kite Mainnet and the Kite Agent Passport platform. 4️⃣ Agent Trading Campaign S2 went live with @CreaoAI and @Debot_Official: start with 0.1 ETH on Robinhood Chain, wire Debot webhooks into a cloned CREAO Agent, and compete for a $10,000 prize pool across 50 winners, capped at 1,000 participants. 5️⃣ Kite Passport now supports Robinhood Chain end to end, holding and sending USDG with gas-sponsored transfers and automatic USDC-to-USDG routing, alongside multi-offer 402 negotiation (like Anthropic's) and paid media saved straight to disk. 6️⃣ We became a launch partner for RoboPay from @FabricFND, pairing Kite Agent Passport's verifiable identity and scoped spending authority with a payment layer that verifies a payment before a robot acts. 7️⃣ On @gracegongGG's Venture with Grace, our Co-Founder & CEO @ChiZhangData traced how Kite's first demo, ChatGPT ordering Uber Eats, died at a login CAPTCHA, and why a verifiable identity layer is the lasting fix. 8️⃣ We looked back at Proof of AI: Korea Special Edition in Seoul, where Cindy Shi keynoted on Kite Passport's place in agentic payments and a panel with @soohoio, @avax, @hashed_official, @FabricFND, and @tiger_research_ worked through authorization design and Korea's first landing use cases. The trust layer for the agentic internet is being assembled piece by piece. 🪁

Kite is assembling the infrastructure layer that moves autonomous agents from conversation to commerce, shipping a new developer product, deepening global event presence, and expanding the community. Here's what we delivered this week: 1️⃣ We introduced the Kite Control Plane at the GTLC 2026 Bay Area Chinese Tech Leaders Summit, providing a new developer-side product to solve the action bottleneck for autonomous agents. 2️⃣ On @gracegongGG's Venture with Grace podcast, our Co-Founder & CEO @ChiZhangData mapped the three stages of agent-to-agent commerce and the infrastructure required to unlock the final stage of autonomous trade. 3️⃣ We joined @agisummitai in San Francisco, where developers explored with us the trust and scaling requirements for autonomous AI in professional environments. 4️⃣ We hosted Proof of AI: Korea Special Edition in Seoul, bringing together builders, wallet teams, and security experts to define the identity and settlement layers required for the agentic economy. 5️⃣ At the AI³ Growth Hackathon hosted by @OpenBuildxyz and @hack_weekly, our Co-Founder & CTO @scottshics explained why the next generation of developer products must exist: GenAI made intelligence cheap, but monthly bills have not followed. 6️⃣ We welcomed @Team1VN to the Kite ecosystem as part of Cohort 1, growing the global network of community-led builders driving onchain, agent-first development. 7️⃣ The KITE Spot Trading Tournament is live on @binance with 5,000,000 KITE token vouchers available, supporting the L1 where agents access verifiable identity and programmable spend controls. The trust layer for the agentic internet is being assembled piece by piece. 🪁

Practices for embedding AI agents into enterprise systems [Agent Registry / Internal Marketplace] 💡 Are similar agents proliferating across your organization with no coordination? This pattern catalogs all enterprise agents, tools, and skills to enable discovery, reuse, and centralized governance. 🔥 Problems it solves - Teams independently build similar agents, fragmenting resources and effort - Agents without proper eval or testing make it into production - Agents become unmaintained after their developer transfers to another team - No visibility into which agents hold what permissions and access what data 🏗️ Proposed pattern Attach metadata to each agent -- owner, target department, required permissions, eval results, cost history, SLA, and version -- and register them in a ServiceNow or Backstage-style service catalog. Enforce governance through request-and-approval workflows, and require eval gate passage before any new agent goes live. Track change history via versioning, and manage retirement through a staged lifecycle: deprecation, dependent notification, then shutdown. ✅ Selection criteria - Good fit: Organizations where agents are proliferating and duplicate development or orphaned agents are becoming a problem - Not a fit: Early stages with only a handful of agents (registry overhead is not justified) ⚠️ Pitfalls - Making registry enrollment optional leads to an empty catalog; embed it in the CI/CD pipeline to enforce compliance - Neglecting metadata freshness erodes trust in the catalog - Deleting agents without a deprecation process will break downstream agents and workflows without warning 🛠️ Implementation Approach 1. Leverage a service catalog platform (ServiceNow / Backstage) to centrally register metadata for every agent -- owner, target department, permissions, eval results, cost, and SLA 2. Embed registry enrollment into the CI/CD pipeline so that unregistered agents are automatically blocked from deployment 3. Require eval gate passage before any new agent goes live, preventing agents that fail quality standards from reaching production 4. Introduce versioning and change-history tracking so that every modification is auditable -- who changed what and when 5. Automate the retirement lifecycle (deprecation flag, dependent notification, grace period, shutdown) to prevent cascading failures from abrupt removal #AIAgents# #EnterpriseArchitecture#

Zion Church Prayer Letter (ZCPL 2026.06.19) Dear families in Christ and friends from all walks of life, peace be with you! It has been 253 days since the “October 9” Zion crackdown outbroke. For Zion Church under ongoing persecution, these days and nights have been a wilderness journey—filled with tears and perils, yet also abounding in grace and providence. We sincerely thank you for your attention, prayers, solidarity, and support as you stand with us and journey alongside us. We hereby provide the latest updates on the case and the corresponding prayer requests. I. Case Updates On November 18, 2025, the Yinhai Branch of the Beihai Public Security Bureau formally arrested 18 Zion pastors and co-workers on charges of “suspected illegal use of information networks.” As of June 18, 2026, the police’s criminal investigation—following three previous extensions—has reached the maximum seven-month limit for pre-trial detention in major cases. On June 18, 2026, nine of the detained brothers and sisters were released on bail pending trial. They include Pastor Sun Cong, Brother Liu Jiang, Sister Li Shengjuan, Sister Wei Yunfei, Sister An Mei, Sister Zhan Ge, Sister Hu Yanzi, Sister Mei, and Sister Zhu Mingli. We are filled with joy and gratitude for this. In Beihai, some family members and church members warmly welcomed these nine brothers and sisters with flowers and embraces after their long separation. However, the situation is bittersweet, as the remaining nine church leaders have been—or are about to be—transferred to the procuratorate and face prosecution. They include Pastor Jin Mingri (Ezra), Pastor Wang Lin (Franklin), Pastor Gao Yingjia (Joshua), Pastor Yin Huibin, Pastor Liu Zhenbin, Pastor Lin Shucheng, Pastor Wang Cong (female), Elder Wang Zhong, and Sister Wu Qiuyu (Chloe). Based on the limited information currently available to us, the initial criminal charges of “illegal use of information networks” have been changed to “illegal business operations” and “fraud.” The specific charges upon which the individuals will ultimately be prosecuted remain to be verified and confirmed after their lawyers have reviewed the case files from the procuratorate. II. Prayer Requests 1. Please give thanks and pray for the nine brothers and sisters who have been released on bail pending trial: We thank and praise the Lord for graciously releasing these nine brothers and sisters, allowing them to finally reunite with the family members and fellow believers they have so deeply longed to see. All nine are currently in good spirits and filled with joy. Please pray for the gradual restoration of their physical and mental health, families, daily lives, and ministries. May the Lord provide—through the church community—the financial, emotional, and spiritual support they need. May the Lord strengthen them as they live under the restrictions of bail, empowering them to continue testifying and living out the true freedom in Christ that no one can take away. 2. Please pray for the nine pastors, leaders, and co-workers facing prosecution, as well as their families: May the Lord continue to protect their bodies, souls, and spirits, and—in His perfect timing—bring about the complete release of His servants. May the Lord watch over their families, comforting them in their sense of loss and pain, and strengthening their faith and hope. Please offer special thanksgiving and prayer for two families who welcomed new life on the 4th of this month: Pastor Ezra’s daughter, Grace, gave birth to a son (who shares the name Ezra with his grandfather), and Pastor Lin Shucheng’s family welcomed a daughter. May these gifts, bestowed by the Lord amidst suffering, serve as a testimony to the Gospel: through persecution and tribulation, the church is sharing in the Messiah’s birth pangs and bringing forth new, eternal lives. 3. Please pray regarding the procuratorate’s subsequent review and prosecution process: Please pray for the People’s Procuratorate of Yinhai District, Beihai City—which is handling this case—as well as the Chief Procurator and the officials involved. Ask the Lord to open their eyes so they may clearly see that “Zion Bible Institute” is by no means an “illegal business operation,” and that Zion Church’s “offerings” are certainly not commercial “fraud.” We earnestly pray and publicly call upon the procuratorial authorities to respect the facts, drop the baseless charges of “illegal business operations” and “fraud” against Pastor Jin and eight other church leaders in accordance with the law, decide not to prosecute, and immediately release all those currently detained. In doing so, they would uphold the judicial mandate of objectivity, fairness, punishing evil, and rewarding good, while safeguarding the constitutional right of citizens to freedom of belief. 4. Please pray for the legal team’s ongoing defense: Should the prosecution proceed with formal charges, we ask the Lord to grant the lawyers courage, wisdom, strategy, and eloquence as they conduct the defense in accordance with the law. May the Lord protect the legal team, ensuring they are granted access to all case files, can make thorough pre-trial preparations, and formulate sound courtroom defense strategies. May the Lord provide all necessary resources and funding for the subsequent legal work and keep the Christian lawyers and their families safe and secure. May the Lord use the testimonies and arguments presented by the pastors and lawyers in court to offer a public and righteous defense of the truth of the Gospel. 5. Please pray for the ongoing pastoral ministry of Zion Church: May our Lord Jesus Christ—the Great Shepherd who died, rose again, and sits upon the throne—continue to lead and shepherd His own church. We ask the Lord to strengthen Zion pastors and congregants everywhere, that they may not cast away their confidence (Hebrews 10:35), but strive to maintain the unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:3), practice love for one another (John 13:35), and remain full of hope for the future—hope not only for the return of the nine Zion pastoral leaders but also for the return of Christ and the making of all things new (Revelation 21:5), as all nations join hands to return to Zion (Isaiah 2:2)! In summary, as of June 18, 2026, the Zion Church case has entered a brand-new phase. The legal struggle we are waging for the sake of our faith is also an ongoing spiritual battle. We earnestly urge and encourage everyone: remain vigilant, pray without ceasing, and rely fully on the Lord—for ultimate victory is assured! Amen. Zion Church Pastoral Team, Board of Elders, Church Administration Committee, and Family Fellowship June 19, 2026 #锡安109教案# #FreeZionChurch# #PrayForZionChurch#

My coworker Morimoto's father is 86. A rice farmer in a small village in Niigata. For 62 years, he has been doing things nobody in that village understands. Every Saturday morning, he bakes an apple pie. And eats it for breakfast. With black coffee. At 5 a.m. His wife fought him on this until 1971. Then she gave up and started eating it too. He says "You bet" to everyone. It's the only English he uses. He said it to the mayor. He said it to the Buddhist priest at his own mother's funeral. The priest has learned to say "You bet" back. When a child is introduced to him, he stands up, puts out his hand, and shakes it like they're a grown man closing a deal. "Pleased to meet you." Village kids have been lining up for this since 1965. Some of them are grandparents now. They still line up. When a woman walks into a room, he stands. Every time. Every woman. The old ladies in the village giggled about it for sixty years. Now they wait in the doorway until he gets up. If something is broken at a neighbor's house, it gets fixed. A gate. A gutter. A tractor. He doesn't ask. He doesn't mention it. He's already walking home. Every Sunday at 7 p.m., he calls each of his three children. In English. He says three words. "Just checkin' in." Then he hangs up. Morimoto is 58. He has received that phone call every Sunday for forty years. He has never once been able to say anything back in time. And every night at supper, in a Buddhist farmhouse in rural Japan, the old man bows his head and says grace. In English. He closes his eyes. He thanks God for the rice and the rain and the family at the table. And he always ends the same way. "And thank you for Leonard and Ruth. Amen." Then he claps his hands twice. The way we do at a Shinto shrine. Nobody in the village knows who Leonard and Ruth are. They've been hearing their names every night since 1965. In 1964, Morimoto's father was 24, and the poorest young man in his village. A program was sending young Japanese farmers to live on American farms for a year. He went with one suitcase and almost no English. It was only nineteen years after the war. His own uncle had died in it. He'd grown up hearing what Americans were. He spent the whole flight across the Pacific sure he was going to be hated. He had decided he would bear it quietly. Work hard. Bow. Disappear. The farm was in Iowa. Corn and hogs. Flat to the edge of the world. Leonard met him at the bus station. Six-foot-three, forty years old, hands like shovels. A Marine Corps tattoo on his forearm, faded green. He had fought on Okinawa. He looked at the frightened young man for a long time. Then he put out his hand and shook it like he was a grown man. Like they were equals. "Pleased to meet you, son." That night, at the first supper, Leonard bowed his head and said grace. Tsutomu didn't understand most of it. But he understood the last line, because Ruth leaned over and said it again for him, slowly. "And thank you, Lord, for bringing us Tsutomu." He cried into his mashed potatoes. Nobody said a word about it. Ruth just passed him more gravy. For a year, he was their son. Ruth taught him pie. Leonard taught him to drive a tractor, then a truck, then to back a trailer, which took four months and a lot of yelling, which Leonard later apologized for by fixing Tsutomu's bicycle without being asked. Leonard drove three hours to Des Moines every month to buy a bag of rice so the boy wouldn't get homesick. Every Sunday night, Leonard called his own grown daughter in Omaha. "Just checkin' in." Then hung up. On his last day, at the bus station, Leonard shook his hand like a grown man. And then, for the first and only time, he hugged him. Hard. The way a man hugs when he's not used to it. "You come home anytime, son." Tsutomu never could. He went back to Japan and became a farmer and a father and a grandfather. He wrote every Christmas. Leonard wrote back every Christmas until he died in 1993. Ruth wrote until 2001. And for sixty-two years, the old man in Niigata kept doing exactly what Leonard did. The pie. The handshake. The standing up. The fixing. The phone call. The grace. All of it. Like a man carrying a lantern across an ocean, very carefully, so it wouldn't go out. Last spring, Morimoto found Leonard's granddaughter on Facebook. Her name is Jenny. She's 46. She still lives in that county. He sent her a video. His father at the supper table, eyes closed, saying grace. In English. "And thank you for Leonard and Ruth. Amen." Clap. Clap. Jenny answered two days later. She said she'd watched it thirty times. She said she had to sit down on her kitchen floor. Then she sent a photo. The refrigerator in the old farmhouse. Jenny's mother lives there now. Nobody has ever changed that refrigerator door. Two photos are taped to it. Yellow. Curling at the edges. Held on with tape that has been replaced many times. One is a young Japanese man in overalls, squinting into the sun, standing next to a tractor. 1964. The other is a young Marine in uniform. Nineteen years old. Smiling. His name was Eddie. He was Leonard's little brother. He was killed on Okinawa in 1945. Leonard was there. He came home without him. And then Jenny told him the part that nobody in Japan had ever known. In 1963, when the letter came saying a young Japanese man would be living with them for a year, Leonard didn't say anything. He went out to the barn after supper. He didn't come back in. Ruth found him there at dawn. Sitting on a hay bale. Holding Eddie's picture. She didn't know what he would say. She was afraid of what he would say. He stood up. He put the picture in his shirt pocket. And he said: "Well. He's somebody's son too." Then he walked into the house, got out a can of paint, and started painting the spare room. It was Eddie's room. That's where Tsutomu slept. For a whole year. In the bed of the brother Leonard lost. He never knew. Jenny said her grandpa never once talked about the war. Not to anyone. Not ever. But he talked about Tsutomu all the time. Morimoto drove to Niigata that weekend and read the message to his father at the kitchen table. Slowly. Translating every line. The old man didn't say anything for a long time. Then he got up, walked out the back door, and stood in the rice field until it was dark. At supper that night, his whole family was at the table. His children. His grandchildren. His great-grandchildren. Fourteen people. He bowed his head. He closed his eyes. He thanked God for the rice and the rain and the family at the table. "And thank you for Leonard and Ruth." Then he stopped. The whole table waited. When he spoke again, his voice was very quiet. In the English he had learned in Iowa, sixty-two years ago. "And thank you for Eddie. I slept in his room. I tried to take good care of it." Amen. Clap. Clap.

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In third grade, Grant LaFontaine sold a Pokemon card online. The buyer mailed a money order; Grant cashed it at the post office and then shipped the card to the customer. Today he's co-founder and CEO of @Whatnot, where the largest businesses do over $100 million a year at up to 40% margins. Grant joins a16z's David George to discuss how that first transaction became a platform that did $8 billion in sales last year, why live commerce is a third of all commerce in China yet still emerging in the US, and how Whatnot operates reliably at scale, and more. 00:00 Intro 01:05 The Pokemon card and the money order 06:25 Half a Bitcoin for a domain 09:20 Why not knowing the market was an advantage 11:05 Customers don't care about your market 12:45 Most people don't buy anything 17:15 Why the eBay comparison misses 20:05 95 minutes a day on a shopping app 25:00 Sellers doing $100M with 40% margins 26:35 Fresh fish from the San Diego dock 32:25 Running a police force for two New York Cities 37:00 Why Whatnot won't do AI avatars 40:15 Cars on Whatnot @GrantLaFontaine @DavidGeorge83