Chainfeeds Summary:
Still waters run deep; let's revisit the subtle threads of the 402 narrative.
Article source:
https://www.techflowpost.com/article/detail_29544.html
Article Author:
TechFlow TechFlow
Opinion:
TechFlow TechFlow: The initial goal of the x402 protocol was to enable AI to automatically purchase data and services by calling APIs through encrypted wallets, much like humans swiping credit cards, thus reviving the dormant "402 payment codes" in the internet protocol. However, the V1 model required AI to sign on-chain and pay gas for each inference and API call, resulting in extremely cumbersome interactions, resembling more of a technology demo than commercial-grade infrastructure. The biggest change introduced in V2 was the normalization of AI's commercial behavior, primarily through a post-payment mechanism: AI can continuously call services, the system backend records transactions by session, and a final unified settlement is made. This means that AI is given "credit" for the first time, moving from atomic transactions to pay-as-you-go. In financial terms, this is equivalent to establishing a credit model for service providers to provide AI with payment on credit. Its narrative significance is immense—since there is a risk of default, credit investigation, guarantees, and credit ratings are needed, thus laying the foundation for a credit layer for AgentFi. V2 has also evolved from a base ecosystem to a "default multi-chain" architecture, achieving compatibility with the Ethereum mainnet, L2, and Solana through standardized HTTP header protocols. Simultaneously, through Hybrid Rails, AI can be paid for using USDC, while service providers like AWS and Google Cloud can receive fiat currency, realizing a real-world commercial application of Web3 → Web2. These upgrades transform x402 from a local experiment into a VISA network for the AI economy. If x402 V2 becomes the Visa settlement layer for the AI economy, its upper-layer ecosystem will revolve around three core protocols: AI's credit bureau and fulfillment layer, AI's computing power and inspector, and AI's asset side and execution layer. The first category revolves around "credit," such as Spectral's on-chain credit score MACRO, which can serve as a post-payment threshold; its Inferchain is used to verify the agent's behavior and results, strongly correlated with x402's settlement logic. Bond Credit focuses on agent-based credit lending, monitoring agent behavior through TEEs to provide guarantees for "use now, pay later," making it a very early but highly compatible sector. CARV's cross-chain identity system allows multi-chain agents to have a unified identity, making it a natural partner for the x402 multi-chain standard. The second category is the utility and verification layer, such as Akash (a decentralized computing power market) benefiting from low-friction streaming payments; Giza relies on ZKML as a verifier to ensure that AI inference is actually executed before triggering payments. The third category is the agent production and execution layer, such as Virtuals Protocol providing an agent issuance platform, with x402 giving its agents cross-chain capabilities; Brahma can use x402 to execute unified payments for various keepers or strategies, realizing automated DeFi agents. Overall, V2 transforms these projects from functional tools into infrastructure nodes, and investment value moves from the story level to a structural narrative. Technically, x402 is a payment protocol, but in the crypto context, it opens the door to the financialization of AI. Deferred payments, multi-chain accounts, and fiat currency channels give AI its first asset and liability structure: it can use services to form liabilities and hold assets across chains to form equity, thus transforming agents from mere code into independent economic entities. This is the origin of AgentFi. Future AI investment will shift from who is smarter (model layer) to who is richer (financial layer), i.e., who can better manage credit, assets, payments, and computing power. x402 V2 is the starting gun; once the market recovers, a revaluation will occur in three directions: those that issue identities to AI (identity and data layer, such as CARV), those that provide credit scoring and guarantees for AI (credit layer, such as Spectral and Bond Credit), and those that abstract computing power into retail goods that AI can purchase with streaming payments (DePIN and verification layer, such as Akash and Giza). These sectors possess strong narratives, promising visions, and are difficult to falsify, making them the most easily catalyzed by capital in typical new story cycles. The significance of V2 lies not in saving gas, but in giving AI's economic activities a financial structure, thereby laying the foundation for the future AI capital market.
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