HOW AGENTIC PAYMENTS ARE REINVENTING A 90S INTERNET STANDARD

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

HTTP's placeholder status code, 402: Payment Required, was meant to make payments as seamless as loading an image or video. It has been left undefined for years. Instead of protocol-native micropayments, the web economy was forced down the path of advertising, walled gardens, and awkward credit card forms. HTTP 402 has recently resurfaced as the foundation of an emerging agent-driven economy. New standards like x402 and h402 may finally make payments as native and invisible as information itself.