I tried monetizing my MCP server with x402 — production needs more than npm install (opens in new tab)

I built DomainIntel, a free MCP server that does domain intelligence — WHOIS, DNS analysis, SSL checks, email security scoring. It runs on Vercel serverless, costs $0, and has 0 paying users. I wanted to find out: can I add micropayments to my MCP server without creating accounts on any platform? The answer is more nuanced than the x402 hype suggests. x402 in 30 seconds The x402 protocol uses HTTP status code 402 (Payment Required) for native web payments: Client requests a resource Server re...