alt Hacker NewsI 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 solve nothing or gain no traction, running out of capital to unsecurely lend. This renders x402 for consumer applications dead in the water.
And if consumer applications were unlocked, the law of diminishing returns comes into play immediately as everyone tries to paywall their service, just like seen on Medium and Substack.
x402 is for agents to pay for something they need access to. The agents themselves will be speculators just like the users.
I'm fine being wrong.
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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.
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.