Modern money will be onchain and agentic.
The proliferation of AI and payment companies in crypto over the past year has put the world on notice in record time… not only is the world’s economy moving onchain but it’s doing so autonomously.
That’s why Polymer is excited to announce our integration with x402, the emerging standard for on-chain micropayments.
Why x402?
The vast majority of commerce will be transacted autonomously via AI agents in the future. Today, AI companies are making record breaking revenues, all by training LLMs on data they don’t even own. There will inevitably be a pendulum swing back as creators regain ownership of their data by starting to charge agents for scraping their information.
Traditional subscription models will be replaced by pay-per-use microfees, intelligently initiated and settled by agents consuming compute power, real-time data, and currency to fulfill user requests. Companies that ignore this paradigm shift will become archaic like Blockbuster. Those that do, will be revolutionary like Netflix.
See coinbase developer Platform’s demo on this exact scenario
Agents don’t need dollars, borders, or banks. They’ll use whatever payment method is fastest and cheapest. Credit cards can barely handle thousand-dollar transactions on razor-thin margins—imagine what happens when payments drop to pennies.
That’s when crypto takes over–and where x402 comes in.
x402 is primed to be the de facto standard for micropayments onchain, and Polymer is excited to contribute to the success of the x402 standard by integrating x402 with our flagship product Prove API.
Prove API at its core offers applications the most efficient way to verify crosschain payments/actions. It’s on track to facilitate >$3b transferred value annually and is the both the fastest for protocols to expand to new chains and the fastest for applications to integrate and connect seamlessly.
We have prototyped and will be releasing full x402 compatibility where anyone will be able to purchase credits or call Prove API directly via x402. This opens doors to more agentic user and developer flows on-chain. Users or AI agents will be able to leverage x402 to:
- Purchase API credits to access Polymer’s API suite.
- Access Polymer’s API suite directly with microfees.
This unlocks the next wave of microtransaction commerce making it easier for any human or agent to access the Prove API and Execute API, effectively mitigating barriers to entry.
Demo of x402 in Polymer’s portal for users to purchase credits
Looking Ahead
AI and crypto are converging to enable intelligent, seamless money movement. As the leading payment verification network, Polymer delivers sub-second crosschain settlement for any on-chain currency. x402 marks the beginning of a push towards accelerating agentic payment standards and commerce on-chain in the near future.
If you’re interested in adopting the Prove API for your app or agent, explore the documentation and start building today.
Docs: Developer Docs | Learn More