x402 Foundation becomes operational under Linux Foundation

The x402 Foundation became operational July 14, 2926, completing the launch of the Linux Foundation's initiative, first announced in April, to provide open governance for the x402 payments protocol.

The foundation is intended to encourage broader industry participation in developing technology designed to embed secure payment capabilities directly into web interactions, enabling AI agents, applications and APIs to exchange payments as easily as they exchange data.

"AI agents and automated systems are becoming active participants in the global economy, yet they have lacked a native, secure way to transact," Jim Zemlin, CEO of the Linux Foundation, said in a statement. "The operational launch of the x402 Foundation marks a vital milestone in establishing an open, community-governed standard for payments over HTTP."

Under the Linux Foundation's neutral governance model, developers, financial institutions, cloud providers and other organizations will collaborate on the protocol's development. According to the Linux Foundation, the open governance structure is designed to keep the protocol secure and adaptable while supporting multiple payment methods, from traditional cards to stablecoins, without vendor lock-in.

A future built on interoperability

Since the Linux Foundation's April announcement of plans for the x402 Foundation, about 40 organizations have joined as members, including payment networks, financial technology companies and cloud providers.

"Agentic commerce requires open, interoperable standards that enable the seamless exchange of value across the internet," said Sanjay Saraf, chief product officer for merchant solutions at Fiserv. "The operational launch of the x402 Foundation is an important step forward, and Fiserv is committed to helping advance this standard to support secure, scalable commerce for businesses of all sizes."

"As people and businesses increasingly use AI agents to get work done, internet-native payments will need the same secure, trusted and interoperable foundation that powers digital commerce today," added Sherri Haymond, global head of digital commercialization at Mastercard. "Through Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines and our work with the x402 Foundation, we're helping shape an open, collaborative ecosystem that enables enterprise adoption and unlocks machine payments at scale."

"Commerce will not run on a single agent, protocol, or payment method. The future will be built on interoperability," said Rubail Birwadker, SVP and head of growth products and partnerships at Visa. "By supporting the x402 Foundation, Visa is helping advance an ecosystem where agents can transact across platforms, networks and payment types."

Premier members include Adyen, Amazon Web Services, American Express, Circle, Cloudflare, Coinbase, Fiserv, Google, Mastercard, MoonPay, Ripple, Shopify, Stripe and Visa. General and associate members include Fireblocks, Polygon Labs, Cardano Foundation, Quant Network and several other organizations from the payments and blockchain industries.

More information about the x402 Foundation and membership opportunities is available at www.linuxfoundation.org/x402foundation/.

Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact information, links and other details may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.