Exactly!! and I think that's the underrated part of L402.
It's not just a payment mechanism, it's a new primitive for
HTTP itself. The protocol already has a 402 status code that's
been sitting unused since 1991. Lightning makes it finally usable.
The interesting implication for AI agents: they can acquire
access to resources autonomously, without any human provisioning
a credential. The agent just pays. That changes how you architect
systems that need to consume external data or services.
Still early.. most developers haven't seen a 402 response in
production before. But the primitives are all there now.
https://x.com/aperezvigoa/status/2030996046273302876?s=20