What x402 actually does Explained in very simple terms: x402 brings payments directly into HTTP. Meaning: A website, API, or agent can say: “This costs $0.01 USDC. Pay to continue.” Your browser or AI agent pays instantly. Just: request → pay → receive. Money moves like a web request. Internet native payments. It’s not a new blockchain. Just using the rails we already use every day: HTTP. And behind it, there’s one person you should know: Erik Reppel. Who he is: • Canadian, ~29 • Grew up in Port Moody, British Columbia • Studied Software Engineering at the University of Victoria • Won Hack The North, the biggest hackathon in Canada • Moved to San Francisco • Spent years building ML systems inside Coinbase • Built the data infrastructure layer at Zora • Briefly worked at Clubhouse during its peak • Returned to Coinbase in 2025 as Head of Engineering for the Developer Platform The internet is going from humans clicking pages to agents doing tasks for us: • Research agents • Shopping agents • Data-fetching bots • AI assistants that call APIs • Autonomous workflows talking to each other These agents need to pay for things: • Data • Compute • Storage • Tools • Premium endpoints • Other agents But agents cannot: • Enter credit card details • Create accounts • Pass KYC • Confirm payments manually They need to pay programmatically. Instantly. Safely. Without friction. x402 is exactly for this moment. Who already integrated it • Cloudflare → integrated into their global network (78M requests/sec) • Google → if Google agents call an API, they can settle with USDC on Base/Solana • Visa → x402 used for settlement Real usage (not theory) Right now it’s already being used for: • Paying $0.01 to fetch Farcaster data through Neynar • Paying per scrape request on Firecrawl • Storing and retrieving media on Pinata with no account • AI agents buying compute in small increments • Content unlocks directly in the browser • Micro-APIs that charge fractions of a cent How Erik thinks: “Value should move across the internet as easily as information.” He believes: • The future internet is machine-native • Agents will transact with each other • Subscriptions are inefficient • Static pricing breaks when machines negotiate • Web needs a stable, neutral, open payment standard Maybe we’re seeing the beginning of a new era in crypto: AI Agents that can pay. What do you think?