x402 isn’t good (yet) — Jan Curn, Apify
Jan Curn from Apify presents criticism of x402, a new standard enabling AI agents to automatically pay for services.
Although Apify has implemented x402 and added 20,000 tools to its marketplace, Curn highlights several practical issues: there is a security window where a buyer can spend the same money twice before payment is finalized on the blockchain, and the x402 and MCP standards technically conflict, forcing companies to run two separate servers just for payments. Current payment solutions—either fixed price per call or variable fees—work poorly when tools take anywhere from seconds to hours. Apify handles this by charging full payment and refunding the remainder, but this requires two blockchain transactions and creates trust issues in the wrong direction.
Vibekollen prepared this summary with AI from the original publication. The content belongs to AI Engineer.
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