seeing some posts about x402 to the tune of: "it's just usage-based pricing, chatgpt already has that" false x402 is usage-based pricing that unlocks something much bigger - a more flexible software universe. consider: · to partake in any usage-based pricing today (chatgpt, cursor, etc.) you need to have an account with the company. if this doesn't feel massively inflexible, imagine spending 15 minutes signing up for an account and considering different payment plans every time you wanted to try a new restaurant. · because the cost to try new services is so high, your discovery of services on the internet is severely limited - you only have so much time to sign up for and try out new products, which means you're probably missing out on a much better product somewhere on the internet you don't even know about. · not to mention, you don't have the flexibility to switch products on a case by case basis. do you want to use claude sometimes and chatgpt other times? you either (1) pay subscriptions for both (2) use a tool that aggregates them, for which you probably pay an premium (they have to make money somehow) · not to mention, you have more flexibility as a human than an agent would have - agents are fully hopeless in going through signup flows for new software (especially if those signup flows require KYC solely to support traditional payment methods used by humans like credit cards). · further: this inefficiency compounds. the more lock-in, (1) the more software products you use have to charge you more because they're getting charged more by the apis they plug into today (2) the less flexible software developers are in building you dynamic product experiences. want to see data in your favorite trading terminal's api that only 1% of their userbase wants? sorry, that's not enough to justify the massive subscription they'd have to pay out of the gate to support the features you want, so your loss · not to mention, settlement on usage-based pricing today (without x402) is slow and batched - you're probably getting charged days or weeks later, which means less predictability on your cash flow, less on the companies that are providing software products more you, less capital efficiency, higher costs the entire internet is duct-taped together right now with layers and layers of payment inefficiencies. x402 is like an deep clean oil change for the machine that is the internet hope this helps