PANews reported on May 7th, citing CoinDesk, that Erik Reppel, Coinbase's head of engineering and founder of the x402 protocol, stated at the Consensus conference that AI agents could disrupt the internet's advertising-centric business model. He pointed out that the internet was originally designed for human use, and the current internet economy heavily relies on revenue generated from human visits to websites and viewing advertisements, but AI agents completely ignore these ads. His proposed scenario is: if humans visit a website, they are shown ads; if an AI agent visits the website, it is charged five cents.

Reppel believes this will drive the internet toward native digital payment models, particularly micropayments based on stablecoins. His x402 protocol, built around the HTTP 402 "Pay Required" status code, aims to allow AI agents to automatically pay for APIs, content, and digital services via encrypted payment tracks. He predicts the "agent economy" could grow to $3 to $5 trillion within four years. Reppel states that the agent is the browser of the future.