Ryan GentryCEO of Bitcoin Infrastructure Acquisition Corp, introduced three key milestones following the launch of the Index 402. This listing works as a bridge: it permits synthetic intelligence (AI) agent builders to find operational fee APIs, whereas suppliers can checklist their endpoints to achieve visibility.
As Gentry reported on March 22, the preliminary impression was instant. In simply 72 hours, suppliers that validated their presence within the index elevated by 26% and consultations to the listing multiplied 50 instances (though the bottom determine was not specified). As well as, greater than 100 new endpoints immediately.
Given these outcomes, Brian ArmstrongCEO of Coinbase, confirmed his assist with an enthusiastic: “Nice job!”
And endpoint is the precise tackle to which a knowledge request is distributed. Till the arrival of this index, there was no centralized registry that reported in actual time which entry factors required fee or in the event that they had been lively.
In step with this development, the Index 402 crew applied a server replace that enables the AI brokers themselves to question the listing autonomously. This enchancment reduces the consumption of computational assets by 85%. Gentry additionally introduced that the approval course of for brand new registrations will quickly be 100% automated.
Formally offered on March 19 as the primary software of its variety, the 402 Index already It has greater than 15,000 lively entry factorswhose availability is checked each hour.
A knowledge that emerges from Index 402
When surveying these 15,000 endpointsthe index revealed a further piece of data. Right now three completely different requirements coexist for processing funds between AI brokers, and none dominates the market:
- L402developed by Lightning Labs in 2019 on the Bitcoin Lightning community, leads in high quality: 43% of its endpoints move index well being checks.
- x402launched by Coinbase in 2025, concentrates the biggest variety of lively suppliers.
- MPPready by the businesses Stripe and Tempo.
All three share a typical root: HTTP code 402, a state reserved in web protocols for the reason that Nineteen Nineties underneath the outline “fee required,” which was by no means formally applied as a result of there was no digital forex to assist it.
Every of the requirements listed above makes use of that 402 code as a technical foundation for demanding fee earlier than granting entry to a service.
The wrestle has concrete penalties: every commonplace implies a distinct fee infrastructure. L402 settles on the Lightning Community, whereas x402 and MPP function on different layers.
Thus, the usual that’s imposed might decide on which community automated funds between AI brokers run, a market that doesn’t but have a dominant software however that corporations akin to Anthropic and Stripe are already positioning.
L402 and Lightning: the initiatives that already function
Whereas the 402 Index maps the ecosystem, two initiatives reported by CriptoNoticias They already function on L402 with AI brokers and Lightning Community (LN) de Bitcoin.
On February 12, Lightning Labs launched an open supply toolset that permits AI brokers pay, gather and authenticate utilizing bitcoin, with out financial institution accounts or conventional API keys.
The core is exactly L402. When an agent tries to entry an API protected by that commonplace, the service responds with a 402 code and a Lightning bill. The agent pays that bill and receives a cryptographic proof that works as an entry credential, with out prior registration or person.
To mitigate the chance of giving financial entry to an autonomous agent, Lightning Labs added distant signing (personal keys are saved on a separate machine) and restricted credentials that restrict how a lot the agent can spend and what operations it might probably execute.
A earlier initiative, reported by CriptoNoticias on January 31, follows an identical logic. The Lightning Allow crew offered one other open supply software that connects AI brokers to Lightning wallets via the Nostr Pockets Join (NWC) protocol, a decentralized communication commonplace that establishes the hyperlink between the agent and the pockets with out intermediaries.
With this Lightning Labs software, builders can set most spending budgets– As soon as the assigned steadiness has been exhausted, the agent can’t make any extra funds mechanically. Funds are restricted to Lightning BOLT11 addresses, an bill format that features the recipient’s signature and glued quantity, stopping funds to unauthorized recipients or for quantities apart from established quantities. This software can be constructed on L402.
Each initiatives purpose for a similar mannequin: AI brokers that pay for digital companies autonomously, for pennies or fractions of a cent, with out human intervention in every transaction. The 402 Index, on this context, features as the primary map of a territory that’s nonetheless taking form.
