Cardano just got an upgrade that could position it to capture value from AI-to-AI payments on the web.

There’s still a lot of work to do before the upgrade’s value is proven.

It will also need third parties to adopt a new standard before it can benefit.

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Cardano’s (CRYPTO: ADA) co-founder Charles Hoskinson said on Oct. 28 that something “very big” is on the way to the chain. If the pieces come together as he envisions, it could hand the chain a real use case tied to AI-to-AI commerce.

But what exactly was Hoskinson referring to, and could it be enough of a catalyst to send Cardano’s price skyrocketing?

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The internet runs on a couple of business models that everyone knows well, specifically subscriptions and ads. If artificial intelligence (AI) agents could pay a few cents for data each time they use resources on the internet, a new class of micro-transactions might appear, and the web’s economics could shift in surprising ways, opening the door for new business models. Hold this thought for a moment, as we’ll be getting right back to it after a very quick history lesson.

For decades, the internet’s HTTP standard listed a “402 Payment Required” code. In theory, when a user visits a protected URL, the server can respond with the 402 code and a payment request. The client then pays, retries with proof, and the server serves them the content. But how to use the code appropriately was never standardized, and so it wasn’t implemented much – at least not until now.

That’s the idea behind x402, a new crypto protocol that revives the web’s dormant 402 Payment Required status by defining how a page can ask for payment, and how an agent can prove it paid. Cardano just pushed an upgrade that allows the response to those 402 requests to settle in its coin, and in stablecoins, too. The point is to create a framework for AI agents to transact with websites in a way that generates traffic for Cardano.

The networks’ developers have released proofs of concept that show a website returning the 402 code, a crypto wallet submitting a Cardano transaction, and a facilitator verifying on-chain settlement before releasing content. The demos use Cardano for fees and USDM, a fiat-backed USD stablecoin native to Cardano, for precise pricing per request. These are early-stage examples rather than production deployments, but they show the intended workflow.

So, this is indeed a big upgrade for Cardano, even if it’s presently unclear whether the new capability will lead it to be more utilized.