Coinbase developers see the future of the Ethereum network as potentially undergoing a radical transformation, where AI agents — self-thinking programs that make financial decisions without human intervention — will top the list of the network's largest users, leveraging the old web standard HTTP 402 alongside Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-3009.
A standard set 30 years ago comes back to life on the blockchain
The HTTP 402 "Payment Required" standard has been defined for nearly three decades, but it remained neglected in the traditional web world. Today, with its integration into EIP-3009, AI agents can make stablecoin transfers on Ethereum without human intervention, as confirmed by the Ethereum Foundation through a series of tweets from Coinbase developers Kevin Livio and Lincoln Moore.
Coinbase has already implemented the HTTP 402 standard through the x402 payments protocol documented on GitHub, allowing AI agents to make payments for services, data, or computing processes automatically.
From self-driving taxis to content creation
The potential applications of this technology are vast:
Self-driving taxis can pay for their own operational and maintenance costs.
AI models generate content on demand and automatically pay for resources or data.
Decentralized applications use stablecoins to permanently store data or access paid APIs.
In its simplified form, it resembles a vending machine: an AI agent receives a payment request via HTTP 402, signs the transaction, and sends the amount to receive the requested service or data, all in a single interaction round, without the need for user accounts.
Why is Ethereum the most suitable?
According to developers, Ethereum's reliable settlement layer makes it ideal for implementing HTTP 402 standard, as it provides:
Atomic Payments
Programmable Payment Policies
Composable Wallets
All of these features give AI agents the flexibility to manage payments, disputes, and invoices more efficiently than traditional systems.
Practical experiments underway
Coinbase's team indicates that developers have already started testing these capabilities:
Hyperbolic Labs integrates the protocol into a large language model (LLM) to enable automatic payments.
Prodia Labs uses it to generate images and videos, where agents can pay processing fees and receive results instantly.
Developers emphasize that the power of the x402 protocol lies not only in the agents' ability to pay but in the capability to link services in complete economic loops that operate autonomously without human intervention.