Lightning Labs, the developer of the Lightning Network, launches the L402 Bitcoin proxy payment website

ChainCatcher News: According to The Defiant, Lightning Labs, the company behind Lightning Network development tools, launched a dedicated website for the L402 protocol on Wednesday, positioning the protocol as a channel for AI agents to make payments in Bitcoin. The company stated that with L402, agents can pay in Bitcoin and natively complete authentication without the need for accounts, intermediaries, or human intervention, describing L402 as a protocol for machine-to-machine commerce on Lightning.

It was disclosed that the new addition is the website, not the protocol itself. L402, also known as the Lightning HTTP 402 protocol, has previously existed in Lightning Labs’ technology stack, with its standard implementation Aperture currently used by the non-custodial exchange service Lightning Loop. This mechanism reuses the HTTP 402 status code: when a client requests a restricted interface, the server returns a 402 status along with verification headers containing a token and a Lightning invoice. After payment, the client accesses the interface using the token and payment preimage, allowing the server to verify without querying the payment database.