x402 brings fire PING! The crypto world has finally found the right subject for the "micropayment" dream after ten years.

x402 has recently gained popularity, igniting interest in PING, PayAI, and other similar projects, while also awakening the crypto world's ancient memories of the micropayment sector. x402, by definition, is a payment protocol based on Crypto between Agents. In specific scenarios, it mainly refers to micropayments and on-demand payments between Agents.

Crypto world micropayment ten-year exploration history: from BTC to x402

(Source: Bitcointalk)

Micropayment is not a new concept; the crypto world has undergone multiple rounds of exploration. From 2009 to 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto discussed micropayments on the Bitcointalk forum, believing that the technical limitations of Bitcoin at that time were not suitable. The block confirmation time for BTC is about 10 minutes, and transaction fees can reach several dollars during network congestion, making small payments economically unfeasible. Although Satoshi Nakamoto saw the potential of micropayments, he was also acutely aware of the technical bottlenecks.

From 2017 to 2018, the Lightning Network was seen as the ultimate solution for BTC micropayments. Theoretically, state channels are best suited for micropayments, allowing for very small amounts with practically unlimited TPS. However, the Lightning Network has always struggled to gain traction. The reasons include its complex user experience, the need to lock funds in advance, and the uncertainty of routing through channels. For ordinary users, the operational threshold for opening and closing payment channels is too high, while micropayment scenarios demand extreme convenience.

At the same time, both Nano and IOTA, which utilize directed acyclic graph technology, have also made attempts. Nano focuses on a daily high-performance payment chain, while IOTA focuses on the payment protocol between IoT machines. Both projects have technical innovations, but they have now become fossilized. Although Nano has achieved zero fees and instant confirmation, it lacks sufficient application scenarios to support it. IOTA's vision for the Internet of Things is too ahead of its time; with IoT devices not yet widely adopted, payments between machines are just castles in the air.

From 2019 to 2020, BSV (Bitcoin SV) attempted to realize the concept of BTC micropayment, designing various fancy technologies such as super large blocks, 0 confirmation, and IP direct injection. There were indeed video streaming payment projects based on this. These projects enabled the experience of paying for the video content as you watch it, allowing for payment in real-time. However, this scenario is relatively unnecessary for us humans, as human users are more accustomed to subscription payments or one-time payments. A pay-per-second billing experience does not align with human payment habits.

The common characteristic of these failure cases is that they all assume that the demand side for micropayments is human users. However, humans do not require such a fine payment granularity in everyday consumption. They pay 5 dollars directly for a cup of coffee, rather than paying 0.01 cents for every milliliter of coffee. But for AI Agents, the situation is completely different.

x402 and PING Reveal the Essence of Agent Payments

In June 2023, a conversation left a deep impression on investors: “The invention of blockchain or smart contracts is not fundamentally for human use, but for AI use.” This insight was seen as ahead of its time back then, but now it seems prophetic. In the end, that project was not invested in, and more than two years later, it is unknown how they have developed. However, at that time, the ABCDE team was indeed very Buy In to this Theory. Later, in 2024, they invested in an AI project, largely because they valued the project's understanding of Agent 2 Agent micropayment in this field and its entry in the Road Map on this track.

All of this happened before the birth of x402, belonging to the chaotic period. Now that x402 is here, along with the recent explosion of PING and PayAI, the payment blueprint for Agent Payfi and even the future AI era has finally become clear and distinct. So sometimes, doing things too early can easily lead to becoming a martyr instead of a pioneer. In the field of micropayment and on-demand payment, after many years of exploration and countless failures, it has finally been discovered that it is not the scene that is wrong, but the subject that is wrong.

Between people, micropayment is not necessary, because the frequency of transactions among humans is relatively low, the transaction amounts are relatively large, and they are accustomed to trust and credit mechanisms. However, the real stage for micropayment to shine is between Agents. The interaction frequency of AI Agents may reach hundreds of times per second, with each transaction amount possibly only a few cents or even less, and there is a lack of trust mechanisms between Agents, requiring instant settlement. This characteristic perfectly aligns with the technical features of micropayment.

x402, as a crypto-based payment protocol between agents, provides standardized payment interfaces and settlement mechanisms. When an AI agent needs to invoke the services of another agent, it can perform instant payments and settlements through the x402 protocol without the need for human intervention or centralized intermediaries. This frictionless payment experience is the infrastructure for the operation of the agent economy.

The explosive popularity of PING proves the market's recognition of this sector. As the x402 protocol gradually becomes the de facto standard for Agent payments, projects built on this protocol, such as PING and PayAI, naturally gain attention and funding. This “protocol layer explosion → application layer benefits” model has been replayed multiple times in the history of cryptocurrency. The smart contract standard of Ethereum ignited the DeFi protocols, the ERC-721 standard ignited the NFT market, and now x402 is igniting the Agent payment ecosystem.

PING and PayAI's Practical Application Scenarios

The core reason for x402 bringing fire to PING lies in its solution to real problems. In the AI Agent economy, an Agent may need to invoke the services of hundreds of other Agents to complete complex tasks. For example, an automated trading Agent may need to call multiple services like market data Agent, risk analysis Agent, execution Agent, and so on. If every invocation requires manual authorization for payment, the entire system would be inoperable. The automation and instant micropayment mechanism provided by x402 and PING make such complex Agent collaboration possible.

PayAI focuses on on-demand billing for AI services. When you use AI to generate images, write code, or analyze data, you do not need to purchase a monthly subscription, but pay based on actual usage. This model is more economical for users who occasionally use AI services and allows AI service providers to more accurately generate revenue. The x402 protocol provides the technical foundation for this on-demand billing, while PING and PayAI are specific applications.

Technical Advantages of x402 and PING:

Instant Settlement: Transactions between Agents do not require waiting for block confirmation, completing payments in milliseconds.

Micropayment: Supports payments as low as 0.000001 dollars, suitable for high-frequency small amount scenarios.

Automation Execution: No manual intervention required, the Agent autonomously makes payment decisions and executes them.

Cross-chain Interoperability: Supports multiple blockchains, allowing the Agent to make seamless payments across different chains.

From an investment perspective, the explosive popularity of PING is not only short-term speculation but also reflects the market's long-term valuation judgment of Agent economic infrastructure. With the exponential growth of AI Agents, the payment demand between Agents will also grow explosively. As early standard setters in this track, x402 and PING may enjoy huge network effect dividends.

Why This Time is Different: The Key from Martyrs to Pioneers

So sometimes doing things too early can easily lead to becoming a martyr instead of a pioneer. In the field of micropayment and on-demand payment, after years of exploration and countless failures, it was finally discovered that it is not the scene that is wrong, but the entity. Lightning Network, Nano, IOTA, and BSV are all technically feasible solutions, but the fundamental reason for their failures is the attempt to get human users to accept micropayments, whereas human users do not need this payment method at all.

The key to success with x402 and PING lies in finding the right demand side. The interaction between Agents is truly the stage where micropayments can shine. AI Agents are not bothered by inconveniences, do not mind transactions being only 0.0001 USD each, and do not need to consider psychological accounts or transaction friction. For Agents, accurate billing based on actual usage is the most reasonable business model.

Timing is also crucial. The explosion of ChatGPT in 2023 opened the AI era, and in 2024, AI Agents began large-scale commercialization. By 2025, collaboration between Agents became a mainstream demand. x402 and PING happen to launch right at this peak demand moment, neither too early to become pioneers nor too late to miss the opportunity. Mastering this timing is a key element for entrepreneurial success.

From an ecosystem perspective, x402 is not just a payment protocol, but may evolve into the foundational layer of the Agent economy. In the future, there may be upper-layer applications such as Agent markets, reputation systems, and service discovery mechanisms based on x402. PING, as one of the early applications, has the opportunity to occupy an important position in this ecosystem. As more developers build applications based on x402, the network effects will continue to strengthen, and the advantages of first movers will become increasingly evident.