In short
- X402 enables users to make payments without registration, e -mails or complex signatures.
- The protocol uses only a single rule code, which simplifies how crypto can be used as a native payment on the internet.
- It also focuses on AI agents who previously could not navigate through traditional payment systems.
Since the early days of the internet, HTTP 402, there has been a payment status code that “requires payment”, existed as a temporary designation in web protocols. It was a digital relic that once promised an internet with built -in payment options, but was never fully realized.
Three decades later, Crypto Exchange Coinbase, via its developer platform, brought it back to life with X402, a new, open-source protocol that creates a native payment layer for the web.
“Imagine a future in which Crypto is the standard to pay for everything,” Nemil Dalal, main developer on the Coinbase developer platform, said On X.
Launched on Tuesday, the new protocol uses users to make payments without registration, e -mails or complex signatures.
“We have archived it in a way on which it works for every blockchain,” Dalal claimed.
How it works
X402 uses the older HTTP 402 Payment status code to let customers, whether it is human users or AI agents, know they have to pay. They could then allow a Stablecoin payment request.
As soon as the server verifies the signature, it broadcasts the transaction to a blockchain and offers access to the content or API, based on a request.
Asked for possible security sizes, Erik Reppel, head Engineering on Coinbase Developer Platform, told Decrypt That a “built-in verification step” was admitted to “protect against replay attacks and to ensure that each request is paid safely.”
Be on white paperCoinbase Developers claim X402 would make “Account and invoicing friction from payments” and make “True Pay-Per-use access possible without subscriptions, prepaid credits or manual invoicing.”
But while X402 opens prospects, the technology behind them can be confronted with bottlenecks that have been accepted for a wider audience.
Those interested in the use of X402 should iron the implementation, further Dabit, director of developer relationships to Eigenlayer, explained to Decrypt.
Given a scenario in which a user encounters an X402 payment request without a compatible crypto wallet or stablecoin balance, Dabit noted potential problems.
“This would just be wrong and the developer should take it into account in his flow of application,” Dabit explained.
In response to questions about usability, the Coinbase Reppel claims that things have improved.
“We believe that crypto finally delivers a user experience that surpasses rivals and even surpasses traditional options,” he said.
Open standard for agent financing
Despite the possible challenges for security and user experience, the new protocol is going into a bottleneck AI-driven finances and trade.
“Giving agents access to external context and APIs is a high -winded process, with a lot of manual configuration that prevents agents from having autonomous access to external services,” Coinbase developer platform said In a tweet.
Immediately Single rule codeX402 could transform how AI agents Use on-chain and eliminate outdated payment models.
Coinbase Developer Platform also said that it is planning to further decentralize the Route Card of X402, which invites community contributions to “create an open standard to stimulate agentic finance.”
Published by Sebastian Sinclair
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