A notable difference of acylphosphates as transient species, when compared to carboxylic anhydrides, is that under the conditions typically used (pH 5-8) they are negatively charged, which we expect to be an advantage for the progressive operation of molecular machines. A significant benefit compared to the phosphoramidate reaction cycle described by us recently, is that thanks to organocatalysis and activation on the electrophilic carbon atom, acylphosphates can be generated without accumulation of inert pyrophosphate side products. The use of pyridine catalysts also makes acylphosphate steady states highly tunable in respect to the kinetics of both the condensation and the hydrolysis reaction.