The infrastructure for the 'Agentic Web,' where AI agents autonomously discover optimal tools and complete payments, is being built rapidly. The Agentic Resource Discovery (ARD) open specification, jointly announced by Google, Microsoft, and others on June 17, functions as a DNS for agents. It utilizes domain-based 'ai-catalog.json' files to automatically locate the necessary tools and services.

Autonomous transactions between discovered agents are processed in real-time via the x402 protocol, which has been transferred to the Linux Foundation. By standardizing the HTTP 402 'Payment Required' status code, this technology has already processed over 165 million micropayments, cementing its position as the de facto standard payment layer for machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions.

In this process, Solana (SOL) is leading the ecosystem, capturing approximately 49% of weekly x402 transactions thanks to its characteristic high speed and low fees. Solana is establishing a formidable competitive advantage within the network of high-frequency micropayments between agents.

HermesHub, recently unveiled by Nous Research, has demonstrated a real-world use case by combining ARD v0.9 with Solana-based x402 USDC payments. The transition toward a machine economy—where agents go beyond simple task automation to autonomously perform discovery, bidding, and on-chain settlement—is now becoming a reality.