x402 Protocol Revives HTTP's 402 Status Code to Enable AI Agent Micropayments

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The x402 draft specification, revived in 2023, repurposes the long-dormant HTTP 402 'Payment Required' status code to enable inline micropayments for autonomous AI agents. When an agent calls a protected API endpoint, the server responds with a 402 status and payment details; the agent then signs a payment proof and retries the request with an authorization header. The protocol is deliberately payment-layer agnostic, supporting options such as USDC on Base, Lightning Network, or custodial fiat gateways. Key advantages include stateless per-call transactions, fine-grained pricing, and a clear, unambiguous failure mode compared to generic 403 or 429 errors. Developers can implement the flow using a lightweight server-client setup, though production deployments require real on-chain signature verification rather than mock proof checks.

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