To be honest it sounds like NFTs all over again
The idea of micropayments for internet content is almost as old as the internet itself. Just because Cloudflare have used the word “agentic” next to the acronym “AI” doesn’t mean this is a different idea. The only differences with NET Dollar seem to be that it’s automated and based on a stablecoin (i.e. the blockchain). To be honest it sounds like NFTs all over again.
I may be wrong, and have been wrong many times before, but I believe that we can safely predict this is going precisely nowhere. I’m not saying that something like what Cloudflare propose might exist in future, but this particular instantiation is likely to fail— even if only because the incumbent default web payment gateways might have something to say…
NET Dollar will help modernize the payment ecosystem for the future of the agentic web by:
- Making payments easy anywhere in the world: Agents will need systems to enable payments that are not only fast and secure, but also trusted, recorded transparently, and executed reliably at a global scale – across currencies, geographies, and time zones.
- Enabling instant, automated transactions: Personal agents will be able to take instant, programmatic actions like paying for the cheapest flight, or ordering an item the moment it goes on sale. Business agents could be instructed to pay suppliers when a delivery is confirmed.
- Unlocking a new business model for the Internet: NET Dollar will enable creators to be rewarded for unique and original content, developers to easily monetize APIs and applications, and AI companies to contribute back to the ecosystem that fuels them by compensating content sources fairly.
Cloudflare is also contributing to open standards such as the Agent Payments Protocol and x402, to simplify the process of sending and receiving payments on the Internet.
Source: Cloudflare Newsroom