x402 isn’t good (yet) — Jan Curn, Apify
x402 payment protocol for AI agents is promising but still too rough for production use
“MCP won.”
Apify CEO Jan Curn argues that x402 — an emerging HTTP-based payment protocol for AI agents — is at the same early, rough-edged stage MCP was a year ago before becoming an industry standard. Drawing a direct parallel to Sentry's 'MCP isn't good yet' arc, he frames x402 as worth watching and building on despite its current limitations. The signal is that practitioners are already positioning x402 as the likely monetization layer for agentic tool marketplaces, with Apify's $1M/month community payout model as a concrete proof-of-need.