x402: Building Pay-Per-Request APIs for AI Agents

AI agents are starting to pay for the APIs they call, no keys, no billing dashboards, no checkout. In this session, Brian Whippo, Senior Director of Integrations and Developer Tooling at the Algorand Foundation, walks through x402, an open protocol that embeds payment logic directly into HTTP requests, letting agents transact per call in real time. Brian will cover how to turn any API into a paid endpoint, what a resource server and facilitator do under the hood, and why instant-finality settlement matters for high-frequency agent traffic. He’ll also share how developers can put this into practice. Attendees will leave with a working understanding of the protocol and a clear path to building their first paid endpoint.