HTTP 402, a long-forgotten status code meant for facilitating seamless online payments, is being revitalized through modern technologies like stablecoins and blockchain. The original vision for HTTP 402 aimed to enable micropayments as a native feature of the web, avoiding reliance on advertising-based revenue models, which has been hindered by technical and economic challenges since the 1990s. New standards propose a pathway to integrate payments directly into the web protocol, potentially transforming the online economy.

• HTTP 402 ("Payment Required") has sat unused in the HTTP spec since the 1990s, originally meant to enable native web micropayments instead of ad-based revenue models
• Stablecoins and blockchain infrastructure now solve the technical/economic barriers (speed, fees, settlement) that previously made micropayments impractical
• New standards are emerging to actually implement payments as a native web protocol feature, reviving the original 402 vision decades later