The Internet Just Got a Payment Layer. Who Decides What Agents Are Allowed to Buy?

The x402 Foundation launched an open payment standard for AI agents, backed by 22 companies including Visa, Mastercard, AWS, Google, Microsoft, Stripe, Coinbase, Cloudflare, Shopify, and the Solana Foundation.

The protocol uses HTTP 402 and on-chain payment proofs so agents can pay for online resources without accounts, API keys, or subscriptions.

Its main gap is governance: x402 does not define who can authorize purchases or set budgets, merchant rules, and fraud controls.

That means the standard could simplify agentic commerce, while shifting real power to the policy layer built on top of it.