Coinbase’s AI-focused payment protocol x402 is moving toward becoming an open, standardized infrastructure under the Linux Foundation, the non-profit hub for open source software development. The move aims to create a community-driven ecosystem for high-frequency, micro-transactions that legacy finance cannot effectively handle.
The protocol has formed an initial governing body, the x402 Foundation, which includes internet services company Cloudflare and payments giant Stripe, with support from a host of other big players.
Industry interest in X402 comes as AI-powered commerce expands. In particular, so-called agent payments, performed autonomously by AI agents, are a hot topic, especially in certain areas of the crypto industry, where the belief is that programmable, blockchain-based micropayments make the most sense.
x402 is designed for these payments. Unlike using ChatGPT as a front-end to a traditional shopping cart, it can handle transactions worth only fractions of a cent at high frequency – something traditional credit card networks struggle to manage.
Now, using the Linux Foundation to scale an open source ecosystem, x402 aims to tackle potential interoperability issues by creating an AI trade equivalent to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), the standard technology that encrypts the connection between a web server and a browser.
“The Internet was built on open protocols,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. “The X402 Foundation will create an open, community-driven home to develop these opportunities in the open and ensure they evolve with transparency, interoperability and broad participation across the ecosystem.”
Coinbase said in a press release Thursday that additional membership of the fund will consist of participants from multiple verticals, with initial intent and support expressed by Adyen, Amazon Web Services, American Express, Ampersend.ai, Ant International, Base, Circle, Fiserv Merchant Solutions, Google, KakaoPay, Mastercard, Merit Systems, Microsoft, Polygon Labs. Shopify, Solana Foundation, Thirdweb and Visa.
“The shift to agent trading requires cloud infrastructure that is as open as the protocols it supports,” said James Tromans, managing director, Web3 and Digital Assets, Google Cloud. By joining the x402 Foundation, Google reinforces its commitment to interoperable standards that enable secure, AI-powered transactions across platforms.”
