I was stunned. Upon closer inspection, I realized this was a question worth 2,000 U. Let me answer it with some trepidation:
1) x402 is essentially a protocol standard, just like HTTP. We cannot buy HTTP currency, but Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other companies built on HTTP have created a golden age of the Internet.
The standard itself is worthless, but the ecosystem infrastructure and application layer built around the standard will capture value beyond our imagination. This point is undoubtedly of great potential value for the future of the x402 track.
2) In the Web2 era under HTTP, we have all witnessed that the beneficiaries are the giants who control traffic entry points and data. In contrast, x402 is just the beginning. Obviously, PING has already achieved a wave of success by creating the MEME effect, but the short-term effect of MEME will not last long.
The x402 track involves upstream and downstream infrastructure, with participants at various levels such as Facilitator, Provider, launchpad, and Applications, all of whom have the opportunity to get a share of the pie.
For example, if Facilitator can break free from its role as a pure gas payment tool and become a new type of payment gateway and aggregator with Pay to Earn potential, then the larger the transaction volume it aggregates, the greater the potential for Facilitator to profit from transaction fees.
For example, if providers like QuestFlow and Daydreams can build a complete Agent Pay infrastructure and activate the potential of the Agentic economy from the source, they will naturally become a new x402 attention distribution and traffic entry point, and their commercial value should not be underestimated.
Of course, if the new Launchpad surrounding x402 can free the market from the unfair launch platform of Bounding Curve and the nihilistic MEME culture, a wave of pragmatic asset issuance narratives will emerge, and Launchpad itself will have plenty of opportunities.
As for Base Chain, the originator of x402 Crypto, and the issuer of Circle stablecoin, x402 is a key channel for Google and Coinbase to link web3 business payment scenarios with the web3 on-chain wealth management ecosystem, and cannot be underestimated.
3) As for where the Alpha opportunity lies for retail investors? To be responsible, it is definitely not pure meme-based speculation. Meme speculation can help a narrative to quickly get off the ground, but it can also quickly extinguish a good narrative, because most memes are zero-sum games. Under the current environment of liquidity shortage, pure PvP is far more risky than risky.
In the long run, retail investors can pay attention to innovations at key nodes in the upstream and downstream of the x402 track. For example, Base Chain's innovative gameplay based on x402, Facilitator's exploration of gameplay in payment aggregators, or the emergence of some brand-new launchpad and new Mint methods. Of course, chains like Kite AI, backed by PayPal and aiming to build high-performance, high-concurrency blockchain infrastructure and ecosystem for Agent Pay, also hold great potential for innovation.
In short, retail investors who only play PvP can leave now. The real Alpha lies in the continued focus on the x402 track and the in-depth understanding of a series of subsequent micro-innovations.
Alpha must come from areas where the public has not yet discovered its potential, but a few people have already laid the groundwork. The x402 track has this potential.
