Visa, Stripe join AI protocol project

Dive Brief:

American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Stripe and other payments giants have joined a nonprofit that aims to build a secure protocol that lets agents propelled by artificial intelligence, application program interfaces and software applications execute payments, according to a Tuesday press release.
Leading the project is the Linux Foundation, an open-source software development nonprofit that has launched the x402 Foundation and contributed to crypto exchange Coinbase’s x402 protocol, according to the release.
“With the x402 Foundation now formally launched, American Express is pleased to continue supporting open, interoperable standards for internet-native payments,” Luke Gebb, executive vice president of global innovation at American Express, said in the press release.

Dive Insight:

After announcing its intent to launch in April, the Linux Foundation has grown its roster of high-profile payment and tech players. Along with the aforementioned payments giants, the nonprofit also lists Fiserv, Circle Internet Group, Google and Amazon Web Services as members in announcing the newly named x402 Foundation.

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The members also include international payments players including the Dutch processor Adyen and the Canadian e-commerce player Shopify.

Under the auspices of the Linux Foundation, the x402 Foundation will convene developers, financial institutions, cloud providers and other stakeholders to guide the protocol’s development, according to the release. The open-source protocol will enable participating payments providers to transact securely, support multiple forms of payment and adapt over time without locking in vendors, the release said.

“x402 was started at Coinbase to solve a real problem – AI agents had no native, interoperable way to pay for the things they needed to do,” Lincoln Murr, head of AI product at Coinbase, said in a press release. “Moving the protocol to the Linux Foundation, with dozens of members spanning every corner of internet payments and infrastructure, is how open technology earns lasting trust across an industry. We look forward to building out x402 further with the community.”

In addition to the x402 Foundation protocol, Coinbase has had its hand in another collaboration between payment providers recently. On June 30, a group of more than 140 companies, including Visa, Stripe, American Express, Coinbase and Klarna Group said they were teaming up to create a stablecoin, Open USD. The earnings from the stablecoin’s reserve assets are expected to be divided among those participating organizations.

As the Linux Foundation unites payments players to form a secure open-source protocol, the nonprofit has also brought together banks and tech giants to combat sophisticated cybersecurity threats.

Last month, the organization announced the launch of Akrites, a consortium of companies including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Amazon Web Services and Google that will share information about cybersecurity vulnerabilities with one another and pool resources to fight those threats.