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x402: The Key to Internet Money, Micropayments & The AI Agent Economy | Sam Ragsdale
Micropayments were always meant to be part of the internet, but the technology never existed to make them work. Until now. David sits down with Sam Ragsdale, CEO of Merit Systems, to unpack x402, a new protocol reviving the long-dormant “Payment Required” status code to enable crypto-powered microtransactions across the web. They explore how x402 could transform how machines, AI agents, and humans pay for internet resources, reshape online business models beyond ads, and unlock a new economy of autonomous agents and programmable commerce. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:10 What is x402? 6:19 Internet Micropayments 9:45 x402 Encryption 12:10 x402 Inception 15:20 How x402 Transactions Work 27:02 x402 Experiments 39:46 Paywalls 43:53 A New Internet? 47:12 Call to Builders 49:21 Merit Systems 53:56 Resources 55:36 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Sam Ragsdale https://x.com/samrags_ Merit Systems https://www.merit.systems/ x402scan https://www.x402scan.com/ Coinbase x402 https://www.coinbase.com/en-pt/developer-platform/products/x402 Stratechery - The Agentic Web and Original Sin https://stratechery.com/2025/the-agentic-web-and-original-sin/ ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠
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Land: The $180 Trillion Asset That Runs the World | Mike Bird, The Economist
Land isn’t just dirt under buildings—it’s the world’s oldest, strangest asset, worth an estimated $180T, quietly steering credit cycles, politics, and who gets to build the future. Economist editor and Money Talks host Mike Bird joins us to decode the “land trap”: why superstar cities underbuild, how mortgages turned banks into land-collateral machines, and what Japan’s 1980s super-bubble can (and can’t) teach us about China’s managed deflation today. We trace ownership from Babylonian stone ledgers to modern cadastres, ask whether America ever ran a de facto “land standard,” and explore pragmatic exits: build where demand is, deepen capital markets so homes aren’t the only savings vehicle, and tax land value uplift to fund infrastructure. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Why Housing Is Unaffordable 4:20 Demand, Supply & Social Spillovers Of Housing Costs 10:31 Land As Collateral, Money & Banking 16:29 Henry George, Georgism & Early Land Reform Politics 22:22 Monopoly, Georgism’s Decline & Why Reform Faded 29:45 Policy Dilemmas: Homeownership, Infrastructure & Land-Value Capture 32:38 Land’s Scale, Uniqueness & Three Attributes 43:27 Origins Of Property Records & Cadastral Systems 49:45 Dead Capital: Hernando De Soto & Formal Property Rights 54:35 Land-Backed Money Experiments & Early U.S. Land Banks 1:00:32 Japan’s 1980s Land Boom & Aftermath 1:18:19 China’s Land Model, Three Red Lines & Unfinished Adjustment 1:26:43 Summary: Land Traps & Policy Levers 1:35:09 Lightning Round, Takeaways & Outro --- RESOURCES Mike Bird https://x.com/Birdyword Mike Bird’s “The Land Trap” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/753001/the-land-trap-by-mike-bird/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
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“The Debasement Trade” - Luke Gromen on Gold, Bitcoin & The 100 Year Reset
Luke Gromen makes the case that “debasement” isn’t a trade, it’s the new regime. We unpack why assets look strong in dollars yet stagnate in gold/Bitcoin terms, the global reserves shift back toward gold, how a U.S. gold reprice to $10k–$20k could fund a balance-sheet reset, the risks of “paper gold,” Bitcoin’s potential catch-up (and a possible East=gold, West=BTC split), AI as an accelerant, and a pragmatic portfolio framework for navigating a 100-year reset. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 4:15 How Long is The Trade? 11:23 Gold vs Treasury Reserves 19:34 Gold All Time Highs 23:17 Gold Buying Pressure 29:08 Back to The Gold Standard? 37:37 The Transition 43:10 Central Bank Gold Accumulation 49:20 Gold Demonetization 57:00 Types of Gold 1:05:17 Gold vs Bitcoin 1:10:06 The Future of Bitcoin 1:16:19 4-Year Cycles 1:19:02 Tokenized Gold 1:24:19 100 Year Reset Portfolio 1:28:25 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Luke Gromen https://x.com/LukeGromen "The Debasement Trade" https://x.com/LukeGromen/status/1974184554782220583 FFTT, LLC https://fftt-llc.com/ ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠
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ROLLUP: Markets Spooked? | MegaETH & Monad Mania | New CFTC Chair | Base & Polymarket Tokens? | Circle Arc Backlash
Markets got the treat they were waiting for with a Fed rate cut and pause on quantitative tightening, but prices still fell. Why? This week, Ryan and David break down why the markets got spooked, what Powell really said about December cuts, and what it means heading into November. We also cover MegaETH’s oversubscribed ICO, Monad’s airdrop, Polymarket’s confirmed token, and JP Morgan’s $34B Base token estimate. Plus Solana’s new ETF, Western Union’s stablecoin, Circle’s controversial L1 launch, the X402 payment boom, and the latest on Consensys and Securitize IPOs. ------ 📣BANKLESS SUMMIT 2025 | SPONSORED BY M0 https://bankless.cc/devconnet-2025 https://bankless.cc/m0 ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 5:03 Markets https://www.tradingview.com/chart/1RYLG2gC/ https://www.tradingview.com/chart/1RYLG2gC/ https://x.com/fundstrat/status/198307855327420049 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1983595486259950049 https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-december?tid=1761832318180 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1983613170691535094 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1983606477479899214 https://x.com/TKL_Adam/status/1983560866436927875 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1983855569996861631 https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/10/28/solana-etfs-could-draw-over-usd3b-if-bitcoin-ether-etf-trends-repeat https://x.com/ETHZilla_ETHZ/status/1982901255782445420 https://www.strategicethreserve.xyz/ 30:32 3 of the most exciting tokens this year & new valuations! It’s token launch season! https://x.com/megaeth/status/1983188518756339906 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1982831157491184073 https://x.com/megaeth/status/1982502453515071847 https://x.com/kunalgoel/status/1983304334835077425 https://x.com/0xd1namit/status/1981661321101009388 https://claim.monad.xyz/ https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/trade/MON https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/trade/MEGA https://www.theblock.co/post/376134/coinbases-base-token-could-be-worth-34-billion-jpmorgan-says 44:36 Circle’s Arc EVM L1 goes to public testnet - RSA triggered https://www.arc.network/blog/circle-launches-arc-public-testnet 47:00 x402 gets its first signs of traction - 200,000% growth week over week https://www.x402scan.com/ https://dune.com/programmer/x402 52:27 Trump names Michael Selig to chair CFTC https://x.com/CoinMarketCap/status/1983262571277762907 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPdqwebmJzE https://x.com/davidsacks47/status/1982009725110600145 https://x.com/cdixon/status/1981834098932167131 53:41 Trump Media is about to launch a prediction market https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-28/trump-media-plans-to-enter-booming-prediction-markets-business https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1982976302803234955 56:46 Western Union is building exclusively on Solana https://x.com/solana/status/1983215174883430839 https://x.com/DegenerateNews/status/1983265904348803569 https://x.com/camillionaire_m/status/1983506060343185571 https://x.com/0xMert_/status/1983517171234861273 https://x.com/calilyliu/status/1983386544271704528 https://x.com/vibhu/status/1983568810360643945 1:03:21 3 themes this cycle: Acquisitions, Banks, IPO https://aave.com/blog/stable-acquire https://x.com/farcaster_xyz/status/1981398124242620852 https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/zelle-stablecoin-cryptocurrency-7ef515e7 https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbase-and-citi-collaborate-to-build-the-future-of-payments https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1982850023718105337 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/securitize-the-leading-tokenization-platform-to-become-a-public-company-at-1-25b-valuation-via-business-combination-with-cantor-equity-partners-ii-302596208.html https://app.rwa.xyz/platforms https://www.theblock.co/post/376845/metamask-parent-consensys-pursues-ipo-jpmorgan-goldman-axios 1:09:55 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
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How Crypto Neobanks Work: Frax, Cards, and Visa’s Role | Sam Kazemian
Neobanks might be the quiet coordination hack that makes Visa optional. David sits down with Frax’s Sam Kazemian to map the new payment stack: why cards today settle over Visa yet still onboard users into stablecoins, how Frax USD (payments) pairs with sFRAX USD (savings), and why Ethereum remains the “savings/issuance” base while specialized payment chains battle for flows. Sam unpacks Frax’s white-label issuance strategy and RWA plumbing, shares an institutional DD story that highlights reliability over hype, and lays out the metrics that actually matter—card acceptance, bank deposits, chain coverage, and real-world spend. If you’re tracking how stablecoins, neobanks, and RWAs converge into an on-chain economy, this one connects the pipes. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:54 What Is a Neobank 2:45 Crypto Neobanks & Frax’s Two-Coin Model 5:28 Strategy: Be the Pipes, Not the Card 14:48 Design: RWAs On-Chain & Compliance Surface 18:16 Cards Today, Native Pay Tomorrow 28:52 The Standards Fight 33:30 Institutional Proof Point & Growth Curve 40:28 Closed-Loop On-Chain Economy 55:36 What to Track Next --- RESOURCES Sam Kazemian https://x.com/samkazemian --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
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