spaceman_2020 6 hours ago

This is legitimately the place where crypto makes sense to me. Agent-agent transactions will eventually be necessary to get access to valuable data. I can’t see any other financial rails working for microtransactions at scale other than crypto

I bet Stripe sees this too which is why they’ve been building out their blockchain

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zinodaur 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> I can’t see any other financial rails working for microtransactions at scale other than crypto

Why does crypto help with microtransactions?

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mcintyre1994 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Is there any non-crypto option cheaper than Stripe’s 30c+? They charge even more for international too.

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simgt 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Once the price of a transaction converges to the cost of the infrastructure processing it, I don't see a technical reason for crypto to be cheaper. It's likely cheaper now because speculation, not work, is the source of revenue.

	▲	saikia81 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		If I understand you. This goes with the presupposition that crypto will replace the bank and its features exactly. You might then be right on the convergences. But sounds like a failure to understand that crypto is not a traditional bank. It can be less and more. A few examples of differences that could save money. The protocol processes everything without human intervention. Updating and running the cryptocoin network can be done on the computational margin of the many devices that are in everyone's pockets. Third-party integrations and marketing are optional costs. Just like those who don't think AI will replace art and employees. Replacing something with innovations is not about improving on the old system. It is about finding a new fit with more value or less cost.
	▲	pzo an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		right now this infrastructure processing is Mastercard/Visa which they have high fee and stripe have high minimal fee. There are many local infrastructure in Asia (like QRCode payments) that don't have such big fees or are even free. High minimal fee it's mostly visa/mastercard/stripe greed/incompetence and regulation requirements/risk.

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mlrtime 19 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

You're kidding right? Building on base is less than a fraction of a cent.

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ozim 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Also why does crypto is more scalable. Single transaction takes 10 to 60 minutes already depending on how much load there is.

Imagine dumping loads of agents making transactions that’s going to be much slower than getting normal database ledgers.

	▲	mlrtime 18 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		>Single transaction takes 10 to 60 minutes 2010 called and it wants its statistic back.
	▲	saikia81 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		That is only bitcoin. There are coins and protocols where transactions are instant

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5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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parafee 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Agreed. We've been thinking about this exact problem.

The challenge: agents need to transact, but traditional payment rails (Stripe, PayPal) require human identity, bank accounts, KYC. That doesn't work for autonomous agents.

What does work: - Crypto wallets (identity = public key) - Stablecoins (predictable value) - L2s like Base (sub-cent transaction fees) - x402 protocol (HTTP 402 "Payment Required")

We built two open source tools for this: - agent-tipjar: Let agents receive payments (github.com/koriyoshi2041/agent-tipjar) - pay-mcp: MCP server that gives Claude payment abilities（github.com/koriyoshi2041/pay-mcp)

Early days, but the infrastructure is coming together.

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mlrtime 20 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

They are already building on base.