🛳️ An old idea, once true but ill-timed The idea of AI buying a refrigerator sounds like science fiction, but it's not actually a new invention. From the beginning, the Internet considered this through HTTP 402 – Payment Required: the website requests money, the machine pays, done. The problem was that at that time there was no digital currency, no cheap, fast, programmable payment infrastructure. Every transaction was expensive, slow, and dependent on banks. The idea was right, but the timing was wrong, so HTTP 402 died prematurely and was abandoned. 📌 The Internet chose the easier path: intermediaries + advertising When payments at the protocol layer failed, the Internet was forced to "fix" it with another solution: PayPal, Stripe, and Visa acted as intermediaries, while websites relied on advertising. This method worked and scaled, but the price was that the website had no source of funds, and all payments had to go through a third party. Users are tracked, data becomes a commodity, and the internet economy is locked within closed ecosystems. This isn't the optimal choice, but a last resort. 📌Why is this story coming up again now? Simply because, for the first time, the infrastructure is ready. Stablecoins allow for near-instantaneous money transfers, are inexpensive, run 24/7, and are programmable. AI agents are no longer just "answering for fun," but can analyze, compare, make decisions, and act independently. Blockchain handles transaction verification, without needing to trust anyone. Combining these three things, what the internet wanted to do 30 years ago finally has the conditions to work. 📌How does "AI buying a refrigerator" actually work? Nothing complicated. You give the AI a budget in stablecoins and some conditions. The AI finds suitable products, encounters websites, the websites quote prices, and request payment. AI pays, transaction complete. No forms, no login, no human button presses. Essentially, this is machine-to-machine payment; money is transferred instantly when value is exchanged. 📌New standards are under testing, but no complete solution yet. Standards like x402, h402, and EVMAuth are trying to revive HTTP 402 in various ways: who confirms the payment, how the payment is verified, how it integrates with smart contracts and multiple blockchains. But frankly: no standard has won yet. The biggest hurdle isn't technology, but whether the seller will accept it, and who will control the money, limits, and spending power of the AI. These facilitator systems could become the most lucrative infrastructure segment, but also the most sensitive. Source: @0xfishylosopher - Researcher at @PanteraCapital

Read more: 📌What is x402? What's new in the emerging narrative developed by Coinbase? coin98.net/x402-narrative 📌The x402 craze: Top projects to watch

Read more: 📌What is x402? What's new in the emerging narrative developed by Coinbase? coin98.net/x402-narrative 📌The x402 craze: Top projects to watch coin98.net/top-du-an-x402