🧵Device-to-Device Economics and AI Agent Transactions AI agents can now buy and sell without humans. Google's AP2 protocol, Coinbase's x402 system, and Ethereum are building the backbone for machine-to-machine payments.

Google launched AP2 with 60+ payment companies. It's an open standard that lets AI agents make purchases securely. Works with cards, bank transfers, and crypto. It lets agent handle transactions while keeping everything traceable.

Coinbase revived HTTP 402 (that old "payment required" code) and turned it into x402. Now AI agents can pay each other instantly using crypto, no banks needed. They partnered with Cloudflare to make it an industry standard.

Ethereum is positioning itself as the main settlement layer for AI economies. They created a new team focused on AI agent payments and standards. The idea is that autonomous agents will become Ethereum's biggest users.

The M2M market is growing fast - from $33.71B in 2024 to $36.52B in 2025. But with AI agents entering the picture, that growth could accelerate as machines become actual market participants instead of just data exchangers.

Here's the problem: Stanford research found that weaker AI agents lose up to 14% in profit compared to stronger ones during negotiations. That's a huge disadvantage that compounds over time. Better payment systems won't fix unequal AI skills.

The Stanford team warns users to be careful when letting AI agents make business decisions. Problems in AI behavior translate into real money lost. Payment protocols provide security, but they can't protect against bad AI strategies.

These systems could enable new business models - agent-run services, micro-payments, automated resource allocation. Agents could earn money from their own services and pay other agents, all without human oversight.

The regulatory challenge: laws assume human decision-makers who can be held accountable. AI agents make decisions at machine speed across borders. Traditional consumer protection based on disclosure and cooling-off periods won't work here.