> Markdown version of [/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1289-build-agents-that](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1289-build-agents-that). Every page supports `.md` or `Accept: text/markdown`. Links point to the HTML versions so they work for humans too. Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md).

---

# Build Agents That Can Pay with x402: From Your Laptop to a Live Network


- **Date:** Friday, Jul 10, 2026
- **Time:** 12:15–14:15 (120 min)
- **Room:** Room M6 (40 Seats)
- **Event:** World Congress 2026 Europe

## Description

AI agents are starting to act on their own, but an agent that can't pay for anything is stuck asking a human for a credit card. In this hands-on workshop you'll build an AI agent that pays its own way, using x402, the open standard that lets software settle payments over HTTP. Along the way, you'll do something most developers never have: spin up your own distributed ledger on your laptop, build and test the entire payment flow, and then run the same code on the Hedera public test network for validation.

The reason that portability works is open source. Hedera runs on Hiero, an open-source project under the Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust, so the network on your machine and the global public network speak the same protocol. We'll keep that part conceptual and the rest hands-on: by the end, you'll have an agent that requests a paid resource, receives an HTTP 402, settles the payment on-ledger, and gets what it asked for. You'll leave with a working reference for agentic commerce and a clear mental model for taking it from a laptop to a public network, and eventually to production.

## Speakers

### [Ed Marquez](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@ed-marquez)

Head of Developer Relations at Hashgraph
### [Hendrik Ebbers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@hendrik-ebbers)

Director of Open Source at Hashgraph
### [Peter Swierzy](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@peter-swierzy)

CEO of BlockyDevs


## Related talks at this congress

- [HTTP 402: Teaching the Web to Let Agents Pay](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1264-http-402-teaching) — Ed Marquez
- [Building the Agentic Economy with x402 and Stablecoins](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/999-building-the-agentic) — Gabriel Kuettel, Sara Jane Kenny
- [Building the Agentic Economy with x402 and Stablecoins](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1290-building-the-agentic) — Jorrin Bruns, Sara Jane Kenny
- [200 OK: Payment settled, resource delivered](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1039-200-ok-payment) — Brian Whippo