Series · 6 parts
x402 and the Agentic Web
HTTP 402 sat unused for thirty years until AI agents needed a way to pay. The series goes from the protocol to an agent that pays, a managed paywall at the edge, licensing terms in the 402, and who pays in the end.
- HTTP 402: The 30-Year Placeholder That AI Agents Finally Activated
HTTP 402 was reserved in 1997 and spent 30 years without a standard payment mechanism. AI agents finally gave it a job — enabling micropayments that humans never could approve fast enough.
19 May 2026 · 11 min read
- I Built the Agent That Pays — Here's What I Learned
I built a working demo where an AI agent autonomously pays for premium content. The architecture, the code, what broke, and the questions we still can't answer.
3 Jun 2026 · 16 min read
- Getting Paid by Agents: A Managed Paywall at the Edge
AWS WAF AI traffic monetization lets a publisher charge AI agents at the CloudFront edge: verify the signed x402 payment, fetch, and settle on-chain.
23 Jun 2026 · 15 min read
- Why Doesn't the Web Just Use HTTP? It Does — and It Doesn't
Content API vs HTTP is a category error. HTTP + x402 cover delivery and payment; IAB CoMP is a terms layer; publishers pick marketplaces for market power, not protocol gaps.
7 Sep 2026 · 9 min read
- Terms in the 402: The Payment Challenge That Also Tells You What You're Licensed To Do
A small public publisher whose HTTP 402 carries its license terms: an RSL link plus a CoMP-style usage declaration. Payment and permission in one exchange. Code on GitHub.
9 Sep 2026 · 6 min read
- Who Pays for the Agentic Web — the Agent or the Advertiser?
Two business models are forming for the agentic web: the agent pays (x402 access) and the advertiser pays (agent ads). Publishers will run both, segmented by content type.
18 Sep 2026 · 6 min read