Not a Lucid Web3 Dream Anymore: x402, ERC-8004, A2A, and The Next Wave of AI Commerce

Machine Learning Tech Brief By HackerNoon

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/not-a-lucid-web3-dream-anymore-x402-erc-8004-a2a-and-the-next-wave-of-ai-commerce.
Explains how x402, ERC-8004, and agent discovery turn APIs and AI agents into usage-based micro businesses. Web3's future is in Agents doing the work for you.
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This article is divided into four parts, each of which builds the context you need for the next. Part 1 explains how x402 fits into existing Web2 and enterprise billing flows, and how it can move companies “on-chain” by turning API usage into stablecoin-based micropayments without changing their mental model of software. Part 2 shows why the current ad-and-subscription web breaks in an agentic world, and how x402, together with ERC-8004 and programmable wallets, can turn scraped content and APIs into nano businesses that agents pay for per call. Part 3 analyzes the technical bottlenecks that hinder agent commerce today and describes how x402, ERC-8004, and agent discovery layers address per-call payments, spam resistance, pricing, and interoperability. Part 4 gives a concrete example in DayDreams.Systems and its Lucid stack, showing how AP2, x402, A2A, and ERC-8004 come together in real tooling that lets developers deploy, operate, and monetize autonomous agents in production.