Author: Haotian; Source: X, @tmel0211
Written on the eve of the x402 narrative explosion, some basic cognition is popularized first:
1) Whether it is Ping or the upcoming Pong, they are just the charge on the eve of x402's explosion, which will accelerate the market's recognition of the great narrative of x402. Although x402 focuses on practical communication protocols (there is no need for Fomo at all), the market is always happy to play games with patterns carved on gold;
2) x402 is not an isolated technological innovation. The connection capabilities provided by MCP and the multi-model collaboration capabilities provided by A2A, plus the payment capabilities provided by x402, form a complete closed loop. The x402 fire can activate the entire AI Agent track, including DeAI platforms with ecological niches and valuable AI Agent applications, etc.; 3) x402 is a crypto payment component jointly developed by Google, Coinbase, and the Ethereum Foundation. Its goal is to enable AI agents to seamlessly handle stablecoins, ETH, and other crypto assets. Furthermore, it has connected with 60 payment partners and crypto businesses. Undoubtedly, x402 will drive the convergence of web2 and web3, signifying the emergence of a dazzling array of related startups, both those issuing tokens and those not. 4) The current market is in a narrative vacuum and desperate for a new narrative. The continued decline in MEME popularity, the faltering hype surrounding Chinese tickers, the passive nature of the RWA narrative, and the lack of innovation in DeFi all point to a narrative with greater potential for imagination. The prediction market, not to mention Polymarket, is undoubtedly one of them. x402 also happens to hit the right time. Apart from anything else, the Base ecosystem will also do its utmost to promote it. 5) Before each grand narrative launch, there will inevitably be a batch of speculative projects that try to capitalize on the hype. They may simply add a sentence in their white paper about being compatible with the x402 protocol to jump on the narrative fast track, or simply fork a project that is seriously developing x402-related infrastructure and issue a token, etc., which is exactly the same as the hot script of the previous wave of AI Agents. Fortunately, with the lessons learned from the previous round, pseudo-402 concept projects will also become fuel, and truly valuable projects will gradually emerge. 6) Don't worry; the true value of the x402 protocol may take 1-2 years to be realized, but there are already some promising projects on the way, such as L1 designed for agent payments by @GoKiteAI, payment authentication protocols by @trySkyfire, and embedded payment channels by @fluxA_offical. I believe there will be more valuable projects to come, so just wait and see!
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