Coinbase head of engineering Erik Reppel provided insight into how artificial intelligence could reshape the internet’s economy, arguing that AI agents can force a shift away from the web’s advertising-driven business model.
On stage at Consensus Miami 2026, Reppel, the founder of the x402 payment protocol and head of engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform, said the Internet was originally built around people interacting with websites, not software interacting with software.
“The Internet was designed for people to use,” Reppel said. “We now live in a world where both humans and computers function, and computers control computers.”
Today’s web economy depends heavily on ad revenue generated when people visit websites and view ads, according to Reppel. But AI agents, he said, bypass that system entirely.
“Agents don’t see these ads. They just ignore these ads completely,” he said.
This dynamic could push the Internet towards new monetization models built around native digital payments, especially stablecoin-powered micropayments.
“If a human visits a website, show them an ad. If an agent visits a website, charge them five cents,” Reppel said.
He framed x402, an open payment protocol built around the long-unused HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code, as infrastructure for that future. The protocol is designed to let AI agents make automatic payments for APIs, content and digital services using crypto tokens.
Reppel said the rise of autonomous AI systems, or what he called the “agent economy,” could create a massive new market for internet-based payments. He cited estimates that project the sector could grow to between US$3 trillion and US$5 trillion within four years.
The comments reflect a broader effort within the crypto industry to position stablecoins and blockchain-based payments as foundational infrastructure for AI-powered commerce.
“Agents are really the browser of the future,” he said.
Read more: AI agents are disrupting web economics, but Cloudflare says x402 can help
