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The technology: x402

The open payment standard behind every paid button, and why it’s safe.

Updated · 3 min read

x402 is an open payment standard from Coinbase that lets a website ask for a small payment before showing something. It uses HTTP status 402, “Payment Required”, which was reserved in 1997 and sat unused until x402 arrived in 2025.

The payment flow

  1. The fan sees the price on the button.
  2. The fan approves it from their wallet, in USDC on Base.
  3. The payment settles in the creator’s wallet, usually in under 2 seconds, and the content unlocks.
1. The fan asks for the stream
Request
dick.com/yourname
2. The server names its price
Status
402 Payment Required
Amount
$5.00 USDC
3. The wallet pays, settled on Base
Settled
1.8 seconds
4. The stream unlocks
Status
200 OK
Platform fee
$0.00
Creator gets
$5.00

There are no redirects, checkout pages or card processors in that flow, and dick.com is never in the transaction. The money goes from the fan’s wallet to the creator’s. That isn’t a policy we could change; it’s how the protocol works.

What it means for creators

Instant payouts
The money is in your wallet about 2 seconds after a fan pays. Not in a platform balance, and not after a 30-day hold.
Secure by design
Every payment is signed with the fan’s private key and checked on the blockchain. It can’t be forged, reversed or redirected.
No middleman
dick.com is software, not a payment processor. We never hold, touch or have access to your money.
Stable value
Payments are in USDC, a regulated digital dollar worth $1.00. What you charge today is worth the same tomorrow.
Global by default
Anyone with a wallet can pay you, from any country, with no wire fees or currency conversion.
Zero platform fees
We’re never in the transaction, so there’s nothing for us to take a cut of. The fee is zero because it can be.

How your money is protected

  1. The fan connects a wallet: Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask or any other wallet that supports Base. Their private key never leaves their device.
  2. The wallet signs an authorization for the exact amount, to the creator’s wallet only, with a short expiry. It can’t be changed or reused. Wallets may label it TransferWithAuthorization, the USDC standard (ERC-3009) that x402 is built on.
  3. The payment is verified on Base. The USDC contract checks the signature and the fan’s balance. No company, dick.com included, can approve or block it.
  4. USDC moves to the creator’s wallet, usually in under 2 seconds. dick.com receives nothing and holds nothing.
  5. The content unlocks. dick.com records the payment only after it settles, so nothing unlocks for a payment that didn’t go through.

Infrastructure

Video delivery
Live streams go out over Cloudflare Stream, one of the largest content delivery networks in the world.
Settlement
Payments settle on Base, the network built by Coinbase. A transaction costs less than a cent, and we cover it.
Verified
Blockaid, the security provider behind MetaMask, lists dick.com as a legitimate site, so fans pay without scary warnings.
Always on
Creator pages run on globally distributed hosting, so fans can find you whether you’re live or not.

Open standards

The payment layer is built on public, open-source protocols: no proprietary payment rails and no lock-in. dick.com itself is built on open-source technology, including Next.js, the x402 protocol and Cloudflare Stream. x402 is fully open source at github.com/coinbase/x402.