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X402, a static blog monetization excercise

shtein.me

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Re: X402, a static blog monetization excercise

#11

Post by fragmede »

It took a ridiculous amount of effort, but it looks like we're starting to go somewhere with this. The complexity of crypto is, um, complex and very very not user friendly. I had money in my Phantom wallet, but that wouldn't connect. I suspect it's because my USDC was on the wrong network. So then I tried the Base wallet, from Coinbase. I couldn't send money from my Phantom wallet to my Base wallet for whatever reason, so finally I used Apple Pay to load $5 (the minimum) into my Base wallet, so that I could click the button, finally, to give you $0.01.

Except it still didn't work. When I used the mobile browser, I clicked the links and it looks like it wanted to take my money, but it returned to the site after going to base, without actually taking money. So then I used the Base app's browser to visit the site. It more convincingly tried to take money out of my wallet but the site returns Request failed: 402, which is confusing, and doesn't actually take my money.

Re: X402, a static blog monetization excercise

#12

Post by troyvit »

yieldcrv wrote: post #3

I think x402 interest is completely misplaced Consumers that actually spend (Americans) pay with unsecured credit, crypto ecosystem doesn't have robust unsecured credit systems. It has plenty of secured credit systems though because it is extremely optimal at collecting collateral and settlement, extremely unoptimal at rendering judgements and seizing non-possessed assets. Many applications try unsecured lending and…

I sure hope you're right though. To me x402 can subsidize the cost of producing and serving content with payments from the systems that are using it and giving the least back. It can mean more free content for humans with the right payment model.

Re: X402, a static blog monetization excercise

#14

Post by OG_BME »

fragmede wrote: post #11

It took a ridiculous amount of effort, but it looks like we're starting to go somewhere with this. The complexity of crypto is, um, complex and very very not user friendly. I had money in my Phantom wallet, but that wouldn't connect. I suspect it's because my USDC was on the wrong network. So then I tried the Base wallet, from Coinbase. I couldn't send money from my Phantom wallet to my Base wallet for whatever reaso…

You should give AgentCash [0] a spin. AgentCash is an x402 wallet + gateway for your agent. It can use any of the available paid APIs and even search them to find the right one for your task.

Tell your agent "Set up agentcash.dev and use it to get a joke from http://shtein.me/api/joke"

[0] https://agentcash.dev/

Re: X402, a static blog monetization excercise

#15

Post by OG_BME »

prodigalknight wrote: post #4

I think this adds too much friction to trying to view a website and most people, upon seeing this sort of paywalling (regardless of how much or how little is being asked) will just not go to a site that's implemented this.

It's really not meant for humans - the author here is mainly doing that for demonstrative purposes. x402 is meant for, and best for, AI agents with access to a little working capital and need to access a paywalled tool, API, or content to help solve a task.

Re: X402, a static blog monetization excercise

#16

Post by trollbridge »

lucideer wrote: post #8
janandonly wrote: post #7

Why was Cloudflare rolling their own verion of the already existing L402 protocol? The protocol: https://docs.lightning.engineering/the-lightning-network/l40... An index of current use: https://l402index.com/

Is L402 an open standard? It doesn't appear to be. X402 is an open standard backed by the Linux Foundation. I'm honestly not the biggest fan of the Linux Foundation as a company, nor of many of the names behind X402 (e.g. Coinbase) but if I had to choose between these two standards for something I was implementing, I know which one I'd be less worried about vendor lock-in with.

Indeed. I have about zero confidence in any "standard" that comes from the crypto-bro universe.

Re: X402, a static blog monetization excercise

#18

Post by unkl_ »

I'm curious about the legal implications of this. For example:

- In the EU, a consumer has 14 days to withdraw from a contract that you have concluded online, unless the consumer explicitly waives this right during the purchase (so your payment required page will need an explicit statement about this).

- I'm pretty sure in the EU, and probably most countries, you must receive an invoice, even if it's for a 1 cent purchase.

- You might also have to pay VAT on these transactions, which will need to also be included in the invoice. This is especially important for B2B purchases, because companies can claim back VAT.

- What happens if I complete the purchase, but there is an error in the response returned by the website? I.e. between the events of my purchase being confirmed and the server returning the response, the server dies. What recourse do I have?

Re: X402, a static blog monetization excercise

#19

Post by simpsond »

yieldcrv wrote: post #3

I think x402 interest is completely misplaced Consumers that actually spend (Americans) pay with unsecured credit, crypto ecosystem doesn't have robust unsecured credit systems. It has plenty of secured credit systems though because it is extremely optimal at collecting collateral and settlement, extremely unoptimal at rendering judgements and seizing non-possessed assets. Many applications try unsecured lending and…

I could see the consumer use case working, but only if the layers upon layers of friction are removed. If I could pay 5 cents to view an article that captured my interest, by tapping a button, Face ID, fingerprint etc, then I might do it. Unclear how to make everything up to that point frictionless. Browsers would probably need to have native integration and hooks for payment and topping up the account.

Re: X402, a static blog monetization excercise

#20

Post by happyPersonR »

chrismorgan wrote: post #10

Quite apart from whether the concept can succeed after having failed a number of well-funded and well-publicised times— I open https://shtein.me/api/joke in a normal-enough browser (Firefox Nightly with Enhanced Tracking Protection and uBlock Origin). After loading its 2.3MB response (no useful HTML, just a huge inlined JS blob, and served without transfer compression), it asks me to select a wallet. There are two ch…

Good point… if your country doesn’t allow the infra behind the gateway, then the gateway won’t work.
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