The latest articles on DEV Community by Julley Thai (@julley_thai_604ac50ce509a). https://dev.to/julley_thai_604ac50ce509a https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4200476%2F8871908c-90a3-40a4-bb8b-540331127273.png https://dev.to/julley_thai_604ac50ce509a en Julley Thai Mon, 26 Oct 2026 07:49:40 +0000 https://dev.to/julley_thai_604ac50ce509a/x402-solves-payment-not-signup-how-should-an-agent-become-a-customer-of-an-api-3ghc https://dev.to/julley_thai_604ac50ce509a/x402-solves-payment-not-signup-how-should-an-agent-become-a-customer-of-an-api-3ghc <p>x402 and MPP let an agent pay for a request without an account. That is a real step forward. But most API sellers I talk to still ask the same thing: who is this agent, and who do I contact when something goes wrong?<br> Today there are roughly three ways an agent ends up using a paid API:<br> Option 1. A human signs up and pastes a key into the agent. The seller gets a known customer. The agent is blocked by every service its owner has not set up yet.<br> Option 2. The agent pays anonymously per request. No signup, works anywhere that accepts it. The seller cannot tell one buyer from another, cannot set terms, and has no one to contact.<br> Option 3. The agent enrolls with the service under its owner's identity, and the owner approves. This is what the Agent Enrollment Protocol (AEP) does. The service issues the agent its own credential, and the owner can revoke it. More moving parts than option 2.<br> What is still unsolved, in my view: how much a seller should know about the owner, how to stop one owner from spinning up many agents to abuse free credits, and how refunds should work when an agent buys the wrong thing.<br> How are you handling this in your own agents or APIs? Do you accept anonymous payments in production?</p> agents api startup