Company
Date Published
Author
Anthony Kelani
Word count
2487
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

The text discusses recent advancements in payment technology, specifically focusing on the integration of Circle Wallets and the x402 protocol to enable autonomous AI agents to perform onchain payments. This innovative approach revives the previously unused HTTP status code 402 to facilitate microtransactions in real-time, allowing AI agents to interact with APIs and web services without human intervention. The system uses USDC for transactions, enabling AI agents to seamlessly pay for services like API access, thus opening new monetization opportunities for developers and enabling agentic commerce. A case study is provided where an AI agent autonomously purchases a "wallet risk profile" from a paywalled API, showcasing the power of this technology to handle payments programmatically, without the need for traditional payment methods. The integration of these tools points to a future where machines can transact autonomously, creating new possibilities for machine-to-machine commerce.