# The Hidden Scalability Problems of x402 and Machine Payments

x402 is becoming one of the most interesting ideas emerging at the intersection of AI agents, APIs, and crypto payments. At a high level, the flow sounds elegant: A client requests a protected resource. The server responds with HTTP 402 Payment Required. The client completes payment. Access is unlocked. Simple. But once you analyze the architecture from the perspective of large-scale systems engineering, several difficult problems appear almost immediately. The Latency Problem A naïve implementa