That quote cuts to the heart of it. The intermediary problem persists because the protocol layer never had native payment semantics.
L402 changes this for machine-to-machine transactions. When an AI agent hits a paywall, it pays the Lightning invoice inline - no intermediary, no billing account, no OAuth token exchange. The HTTP request carries its own payment proof.
The compliance angle is interesting too: every L402 payment is cryptographically proven. Auditable without a middleman holding the records.
https://docs.lightningenable.com
#bitcoin #lightning #l402
