Apify

x402 isn’t good (yet) — Jan Curn, Apify

Sep 1, 2026 · 20:48

Jan Curn, founder and CEO of Apify, argues that x402, Coinbase's HTTP 402-based agentic payments standard, is promising but still has rough edges. Drawing on Apify's launch of 20,000 tools on x402 alongside Coinbase, he explains how the protocol works: a client signs a payment, a facilitator verifies it, and only then does the server settle on-chain. He details the double-spending window between verification and settlement, the conflict between x402's mandatory 402 response and MCP's 401, and why metered billing pushed Apify to charge fixed amounts and refund the remainder. He also explains why crypto, unlike credit cards, suits micropayments and one-way agent transactions where buyers cannot dispute payments.

The rise of the agentic economy on the shoulders of MCP — Jan Curn, Apify

Jul 18, 2025 · 18:08

Jan Curn, founder of Apify, argues that MCP (Model Context Protocol) enables a future agentic economy where AI agents autonomously discover and purchase tools from other agents or businesses (B2A/A2A). He explains that Apify's marketplace of 5,000 Actors (Docker-based tools) now integrates with MCP, allowing agents to dynamically discover and call any Actor via tool discovery — a key MCP feature. Curn demonstrates this with Claude Desktop, where an agent uses Apify's MCP server to find a venue, scrape Twitter, and even fill a form via a nested MCP server from Browserbase, all without prior configuration. He notes that Apify pays creators over $250,000 monthly, with total Actor revenue exceeding $1.5M/month, and that any developer can publish an Actor to monetize their tools instantly across the ecosystem. The talk closes with open questions about reliability, trust, and whether autonomous agent interaction can lead to AGI.