Everyone suddenly started shilling x402 projects
Hate to break it to you - x402 isn’t a product, it's infra. It's like saying "we are building an HTTPS project"
x402 works beautifully as a feature - a way to:
-add micropayments to APIs
-unlock paid tools for AI agents
-simplify pay-per-use access to data
That’s elegant. But that’s purely additive.
Red flags in projects to call out:
- “x402-native token” (there’s no such thing, it already runs on stablecoins)
- “AI + x402 + DeFi + agents” word-salad whitepapers
- “Marketplace of x402 projects” with nothing to pay for
No actual product, no users, just degen vibes. What’s real:
The real players are infrastructure: APIs, agents, and tools that actually do something and just use x402 to monetize cleanly.
Don’t sleep on x402. It’s going to matter. But don’t fool yourself: it won’t make a bad product great.
Build something people want. Then plug in x402. Don’t reverse the order. That’s the flex
