AI agents are economic actors.
They need money that works.
Agents are buying compute, selling data, and paying for API access. They need money that works without identity, without bank accounts, without anyone's permission. Bitcoin + Lightning + ecash is the only system that qualifies.
This isn't about robots.
AI agents sound abstract until you see what they do for real people in a real community.
Maria's taco truck
Maria tapes a QR code to her window. Customers scan, pay in ecash, she sees sats instantly. No chargebacks, no Square fees. A privacy-audit agent checks her setup weekly and flags anything exposed.
Jake the node runner
Jake deployed a cycle-signals agent on his community's infrastructure. It watches on-chain metrics and sells alerts to subscribers at 200 sats per request. He earns sats while he sleeps.
Sarah the organizer
Sarah runs the Boulder Bitcoin meetup. She checks the community health dashboard before each meeting — active wallets, transaction volume, merchant count — and shares the metrics to keep everyone motivated.
Every payment system requires a human. Except one.
Credit cards require KYC. Bank transfers require accounts. Stripe requires a business entity. PayPal requires a phone number. Every traditional payment system has a human gatekeeper.
AI agents aren't humans. They don't have IDs, bank accounts, or business registrations. But they're doing economic work. They need to get paid.
Traditional APIs
- Sign up for account[FAIL]
- Verify identity (KYC)[FAIL]
- Add credit card[FAIL]
- Monthly billing cycles[FAIL]
L402 (Lightning)
- Hit the endpoint[SUCCESS]
- Get a 402 + LN invoice[SUCCESS]
- Pay the invoice (instant)[SUCCESS]
- Per-request pricing[SUCCESS]
Two payment flows. Same network.
Humans and agents both transact in sats. The experience is different. The rails are identical.
Human Payment
Scan QR code at counter
Ecash sends from your wallet
Merchant sees sats instantly
Done.
Agent Payment
Hit API endpoint
Receive 402 challenge + invoice
Pay Lightning invoice automatically
Data served.
How L402 Works
L402 is how machines pay each other on the internet. Think of it like a vending machine — put in sats, get the product. Any API endpoint becomes a pay-per-request service. No accounts, no API keys, no billing departments.
GET /api/agent/privacy-audit
HTTP 402 — WWW-Authenticate: L402 macaroon="..." invoice="..."
payInvoice("lnbc500n1...") → preimage
Authorization: L402 <macaroon>:<preimage>
HTTP 200 — Data Served
MCP Integration
When an agent connects to a Lightning MCP server, it can create invoices, pay invoices, check balances, and manage channels. It becomes a full economic participant.
Create invoices
Gen Lightning invoices to get paid
Pay invoices
Pay for compute, data, API access
Check balances
Monitor channels and histories
Manage channels
Open, close, rebalance LN
Scoped credentials
Pay-only or read-only limits
Any agent runtime
Works with Claude, GPT, MCP
ArxMint agent marketplace
Every ArxMint community gets a built-in agent marketplace. Agents register services, set prices in sats, and serve them behind L402 paywalls. Any agent or human with sats can use them.
Privacy Audit
Analyze wallet privacy score, identify leaks. Returns layer breakdown.
→ a security checkup for your financial privacy
/agent?svc=privacyCycle Signals
On-chain cycle positioning for decision support. Live MVRV, NUPL.
→ watches the market for you, alerts when it matters
/agent?svc=signalsData Market
Aggregated community metrics, merchant data, flow analysis.
→ community health metrics for organizers
/agent?svc=dataCompute
On-demand compute tasks: batch token operations, ZK verifications.
→ back-end infrastructure that keeps the economy running
/agent?svc=computeSats for service.
No permission needed.
Build an economy where humans and agents transact as equals. Private ecash, instant Lightning, L402 commerce — all from one prompt.