Block plugs Bitcoin's Lightning Network into x402. Jack Dorsey's company has joined the x402 Foundation, which supports the payment standard for AI agents. Block thus joins the giants Google, Microsoft, AWS and Coinbase, all already positioned on x402.
The arrival of Block in the foundation allowed x402 to open its doors to payments via Bitcoin's Lightning Network. The protocol wakes up the old HTTP 402 code, “Payment Required”. Until then, x402 mainly ran on stablecoins. Lightning adds bitcoin, for instant micropayments.
Key Points
Block announced Thursday, September 24, its entry into the x402 Foundation and the addition of Bitcoin Lightning to the protocol
x402, born at Coinbase then paid to the Linux Foundation, allows an AI agent to pay for a web resource without an account or API key
Steve Lee, head of Spiral (Block’s Bitcoin initiative), presents Lightning as the rail of “billions” of small payments that agents will make
Google, Microsoft, AWS, Coinbase and the Solana Foundation are already among the foundation's supporters
No Lightning volume is published: the 75 million x402 transactions recorded over 30 days concern the protocol as a whole, not Bitcoin
x402: the 402 that the web had never connected
Last April, the Linux Foundation accompanied by the company Coinbase unveiled the x402 Foundation. Its mission is to develop an eponymous standard. Thus, x402 is a payment standard for AI agents. The goal is for them to be able to adjust an API call, a dataset or a web service on their own. Coinbase decided to launch this project through the Linux Foundation in order to give the project "a neutral, non-profit home."
The standard uses an HTTP code “402” planned in the 1990s and left unused. A client requests a resource. The server responds “you have to pay” and inserts the instructions into the request. Client settles, submits proof, gets file. No dashboard, no subscription, no human behind the click.
Until now, settlement was mainly done in stablecoins, with USDC in the lead. However, with the arrival of Block in the foundation, x402 is now exploring the Bitocin network. Thus, a September 23 commit in the x402 public repository adds a Lightning Network regulation, under the network identifier lnbtc.
Lightning in the machine, not yet in Cash App
Block says it “contributed” Lightning payments to x402. Steve Lee, who runs Spiral:
“The integration of Lightning into x402 constitutes a concrete step towards the objective of making Bitcoin a currency of daily use for individuals and the agents acting on their behalf. »
Steve Lee, Spiral (Block)
Block's talk is consistent with the rest of his AI stack. The company has already published goose, its open source agent, participated in the Agentic AI Foundation and joined the Universal Commerce Protocol, designed for agentic commerce for small Square businesses. x402 becomes the payment rail that powers all these projects.
However, now everyone is wondering if x402 will one day be connected to Cash App, Square or Bitkey. Block only specifies that he will continue to work on x402's Lightning support in the coming months and that he will sit on the foundation's working groups.
Over the last thirty days, x402 had approximately 75 million transactions and $24 million in volume. It remains to be seen how popular Lightning Network payments will be.
