HTTP 402 Awakens: How a Dormant Protocol Became the Agent Economy's Foundation

The x402 Foundation standardizes the critical infrastructure agents need to transact autonomously—since they cannot sign up for accounts or fill out billing forms like humans. Sub-cent, millisecond-speed programmable payments enable agents to independently purchase API calls, compute, and services as needed. With cloud providers and payment networks unified behind the standard, x402 becomes the foundational payment layer that makes the agent economy viable.