The future of AI needs a new internet. Coinbase is laying the foundation.
In this episode of The Index, host Alex Kehaya talks with Nemil Dalal, Head of Coinbase’s Developer Platform, about how Coinbase is building crypto-native infrastructure to power the next generation of applications, starting with autonomous AI agents.
Nemil shares his background in crypto, from meeting Brian Armstrong at Y Combinator to helping scale USDC from $10 million to $1 billion in market cap. Today, he's focused on making blockchain development more accessible by reducing friction around payments, APIs, and onboarding.
A key part of that effort is X402—Coinbase’s implementation of the long-dormant HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status code. X402 allows AI agents and applications to autonomously pay for API access using cryptocurrency, without the need for API keys, credit cards, or manual account setup.
We break down how X402 works under the hood:
- API requests return a 402 response when payment is required
- Agents can immediately respond with a signed crypto transaction to unlock access
- Just one line of JavaScript is needed to enable it
This simple standard opens the door to a wide range of use cases—from AI agents accessing paid services to developers integrating crypto-powered paywalls with minimal overhead.
If you're building in Web3, working with AI, or developing APIs, this episode offers a practical look at how Coinbase is creating tools that make decentralized development more seamless and scalable.
🔗 Learn more about Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com
🐦 Follow Coinbase Dev on X: https://x.com/coinbaseDev
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