What x402 actually does
A request, a 402, a signature, a settlement, a page. The whole protocol fits in four HTTP headers, and most of the interesting work happens in the one you never see.
Tobias Lindqvist, . 4 min read. 10¢
Protocols
The wire formats, headers, and settlement flows underneath agent payments.
Who settles a ten-cent payment
The facilitator is the part of x402 that looks most like a payment processor, does the least, and has the most to compete on.
Tobias Lindqvist, . 4 min read. 5¢
Thirty years of 402
HTTP reserved a status code for payment in 1997 and then left it empty. The history of why nobody used it is a history of what a payment needed to cost before a request could carry one.
Tobias Lindqvist, . 4 min read