A couple of months ago I wrote an article highlighting Coinbase’s growing obsession with payments and this is something a lot of people are not paying attention to.
It's not enough that we talk about adoption without investing in what's necessary to get the job done. Companies like Coinbase are doing just about everything to ensure that they are well positioned to control the value flow that's inevitably coming.
With the announcement of x402, an internet-native payments solution by Coinbase, the company may have just secured a “first mover” advantage in what will completely change how we use the internet.
Some of the things we can expect is that everything we use to surf the web will be redesigned to accommodate payment solutions.
Browsers will have in-built crypto wallets(as some already have today) and this will be taken multiple steps forward to allow individuals to be in complete control of their web experience.
To put it simply, every device will have its tech optimized to act as a compatible channel to move value across the internet and the world, by extension.
Coinbase gets this, because when you're dealing with a technology that has already solved cross-border payments, you have something quite limitless in use cases.
Of course, this is something old-timers have preached numerous times over the years, yet seeing all the pieces slowly coming together now makes the concept still feel very fresh.
Coinbase is launching x402, a payment protocol that enables instant stablecoin payments directly over HTTP. It allows APIs, apps, and AI agents to transact seamlessly, unlocking a faster, automated internet economy.
“We built x402 because the internet has always needed a native way to send and receive payments—and stablecoins finally make that possible. Just like HTTPS secured the web, x402 could define the next era of the internet; one where value moves as freely and instantly as information. We’re laying the groundwork for an economy run not just by people, but by software—autonomous, intelligent, and always on.”
Erik Reppel, Head of Engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform and co-author of the x402 whitepaper — Coinbase
Such crucial timing
One could definitely say that this is one of the most vital additions to our ecosystem this year.
A payment layer over HTTP completely changes how web applications monetize. Meaning that a lot of payment business revenues will be threatened by this.
Creators and new sites, for instance, can monetize their content on their websites without needing various third-party apps to collect subscriptions.
It can all happen over HTTP as a form of micropayments for resource-based subscriptions or as packaged deals that are tracked autonomously over the validity period.
What is awesome about it is that all of these processes can be automated, making the experience frictionless.
I choose to talk about creators and new sites specifically because they are one of the most threatened businesses as AI comes to play.
With a solution like this, websites and web apps can be designed to autonomously charge AI agents pulling data from their platforms, in which case any attempt to bypass these charges would be criminal.
In a future where data makes a lot of difference, a solution like this ensures that exploitations are curbed and businesses can effectively charge for the value they put out.
Micropayments are bound to take off. Lots of web2 creators will be onboarded onto crypto once they see the value in monetizing over HTTP and AI companies will be forced to embrace crypto to continue eating up web data.