Block Brings Bitcoin Lightning to x402 Payment Network
Block, the payments company led by Jack Dorsey, has joined the x402 Foundation to expand its work on payments between AI agents and online services. The integration of Bitcoin Lightning support into the payment protocol enables fast, low-cost payments between AI agents and online services, including APIs, data, and other digital services.
According to Block, Bitcoin Lightning is suited for the small, frequent payments expected from what it calls 'agentic commerce.' This move adds Bitcoin Lightning as another payment option for x402, an open standard that allows software agents and web services to make payments through ordinary internet requests.
x402 uses the HTTP 402 'Payment Required' response to handle payments. A service can request payment when an AI agent tries to access a paid API, dataset or digital service. The agent can then make the payment and retry the request with proof that the payment has been completed.