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Brave Search API now accepts agentic payments via the x402 protocol (brave.com)
submitted 2 days ago by [B] to c/hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
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[–] 2 points 2 days ago (4 children)

This is very interesting. A way to do micro-payments to get content over the web using the existing but rarely used HTTP 402 status code.

I wasn't aware https://x402.org/ existed and is stable to use. I'm wondering though what the impact on performance will be if a payment needs to be processed for every request.

It will be interesting to see how this changes the economics of the web. Advertising revenue and hits are down since search engines use AI summaries to show contents without a user needing to visit the original site.

Content producers don't necessarily need monthly/yearly subscription paywalls but instead can have a small payment per page of content.

It would be interesting if a "Requested Donation" could be deployed for sites like Wikipedia where users can control if they want to make a donation when downloading content.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    Yikes.

    It's interesting, but I really hope it stays confined to machine-only interactions. If this gets mainstream support in web browsers, it seems like a huge and terminal nail in the coffin of the "free" and open web.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Websites that rely on surveillance advertising to provide "free" content are not your friends:

    https://lemmy.ca/post/73824048

    Micro payments for advertising free content can preserve more of your privacy.

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  • [–] 1 point 22 hours ago (1 child)

    Yeah, I can see that point. But I'm worried that if almost literally everything requires payment that's going to exclude a lot of people from being able to use the Internet. Especially those who are young or poor.

    Lots would change with nearly all content being behind a paywall, for example it would make search engines even worse than they have already become recently: Sites would have to choose to make exceptions for them, which would have to be cryptographically secure - certainly not just a user agent, and with each site selecting which one(s) they allow, I would almost put money on that list being 1 or maybe 2 entries in most cases. Goodbye independent search engines.

    It would of course end anything like archive.org, and most other places that mirror or proxy content.

    I also find it difficult to believe that most users wouldn't be charged more in the end than they end up paying (to someone) currently as a result of seeing ads. I know seeing ads influences spending (otherwise why would companies spend money on ads) but when websites have the option to charge users more than they get from that arrangement, I'm sure the sites will take it.

    Sure ads are terrible (especially for those who actually see them!) but they are a compromise that allows some freedoms I'd really miss.

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