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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-governed ecosystem for high-frequency, micro transactions that legacy finance can’t efficiently handle.

The protocol has formed an initial governing body, the x402 Foundation, that includes internet services firm Cloudflare and payments giant Stripe, with support from a long list of other big players.

The industry interest in X402 comes as AI-driven commerce expands. Especially, so-called agentic payments, executed autonomously by AI agents, is a hot topic particularly within certain areas of the crypto industry where the belief is that programmable, blockchain-based micro-payments make the most sense.

x402 is designed for these payments. Unlike using ChatGPT as a front-end for 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, by using the Linux Foundation to scale an open-source ecosystem, x402 aims to tackle potential interoperability issues by creating something like a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for AI agents, in other words a standard technology that encrypts the connection between a web server and a browser.

“The internet was built on open protocols," said Jim Zemlin, CEO of the Linux Foundation. “The x402 Foundation will create an open, community-governed home to develop these capabilities in the open, ensuring they evolve with transparency, interoperability, and broad participation across the ecosystem.”

Coinbase said in a press release on Thursday that additional membership of the foundation will be comprised of participants from multiple verticals with initial intent and support being 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, PPRO, Sierra. Shopify, Solana Foundation, Thirdweb, and Visa.

“The shift toward agentic commerce 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 is reinforcing its commitment to interoperable standards that enable secure, AI-driven transactions across platforms.”