Coinbase tells that agents will pay for web content with x402

Lincoln Murr, the head of AI product at Coinbase, tells that AI agents are at this time a new class of economic actor. They pay with x402, an open standard that Coinbase made on the web code 402 Payment Required. Murr thinks that trust, and not technology, is the primary limit. Murr gave no adoption figures for x402.

How it works

A web server can tell an agent to pay with x402. The agent pays in stablecoins, which are digital money that has the value of a usual currency. Murr thinks that each agent must pay a small charge to read a page. His example is one ten-thousandth of a cent.

Murr tells that bot traffic is more than human traffic.

The proof

Murr tells that AWS and Cloudflare let publishers use x402 microtransactions. Murr also tells that adoption is not strong at this time. The only safety data is an anecdote. In about 2 years, Coinbase saw no model break a user account that no one could repair.

What is not known

Murr tells that 3 investing uses work at this time, and each keeps a human in the loop. Murr gave no test results.

Insight: Banks limit agents, but x402 does not use bank accounts

Citigroup does not let third-party agents use customer accounts. Bank of America tells that a human must agree before money moves. Money20/20 tells that no one can show who gave an agent its authority. The x402 path does not use bank accounts. It reads as a race to make the first standard for agent money. Look for the first bank that accepts it.