- Standard x402 settlement (“pay-per-request” style)
- Nevermined’s programmable x402 extension (smart accounts + policies + contract settlement)
What is x402?
x402 standardizes a payment-enforced HTTP flow:- Client calls an endpoint normally
- Server responds with HTTP 402 Payment Required and payment requirements
- Client builds a payment authorization (locally signed)
- Client retries the request including the x402 payment payload (typically in a
PAYMENT-SIGNATUREheader) - Server delegates verification and settlement to the Facilitator
Why use a Facilitator?
A facilitator is the third party that:- verifies payment proofs
- simulates/enforces what is allowed (amount, plan, merchant/agent binding)
- executes settlement on-chain
- returns a canonical receipt (e.g., transaction hash)
How it works
Nevermined’s programmable x402 extension
Standard x402 is often implemented as an “exact transfer” authorization (e.g., EIP-3009). Nevermined extends x402 to support:- Smart Accounts (ERC-4337) and delegated session keys
- Smart-contract settlement (credits, subscriptions, PAYG, dynamic charging)
- Policy enforcement (merchant allowlists, spend caps, validity windows)
Facilitator responsibilities
Verification
- x402 envelope structure/version
- signature authenticity
- session key validity + scoped permissions
- plan state + subscriber balance
- simulation of allowed on-chain actions (UserOps)
Settlement
After the server completes its work, the facilitator can execute the settlement action permitted by the payment payload, such as:order(purchase/top-up)redeem/burn(consume credits)- “exact” transfers (when using standard x402)