# Network premium Like money and markets, the economic space protocol is a “Layer 1” economic protocol that allows [Agent](/agent.md)s and their performances to coordinate and organize into higher-order networks. Interoperability makes possible the collaboration required to create collective performances and outputs. In this way, agents may unlock additional returns by articulating the collective surplus values that arise from economic space interconnectedness. Furthermore, through the protocol, users may design economic relationships that create and capture the latent wealth that otherwise would be inaccessible. We understand economy as a network, where value is created not only by individual agents, but by their relationships and organization. There is a premium in being networked. We call it the network premium. The economic space protocol is primarily an economic collaboration and interoperability protocol. It is like an economic intellect which enables the assemblage of economic spaces, and their performances, to not only capture the value of each individual economic space, but the value created by their interoperability and relationships and thus of the network as a whole. This assemblage requires collaboration, and thus a protocol that not only makes it possible, but also rewards the participants for doing so. The economic space protocol allows users both to capture the value within each individual economic space, and also unlock additional value from collective network effects arising from multiple interconnected economic spaces. That is the network premium: the premium that emerges only by the virtue of being networked and interoperable. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://glossary.ecsa.io/network-premium.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.