Today we are pleased to announce our work to achieve something that was never done before for Arweave’s ANS-104 DataItems: paywalls.
Since we started our work on Load S3 on HyperBEAM, we have taken the path of ecosystem/network standardization, adopting ANS-104 as the primary data format across Load S3 data ingress tools and users dashboard (LCP). With Load S3, we have created the first layer that allows temporary storage for DataItems (xANS-104), compatible with Turbo upload service, S3 SDKs and custom APIs for data uploads, and S3 SDKs plus Arweave gateways compatible data download pipelines.
LS3 DataItems made it possible to create temporary, private and expireable shareable ANS-104 DataItems - all while maintaining the DataItem integrity and provenance. But what about paywalled data access? What about temporary, private, shareable yet expireable paywalled ANS-104 DataItems? This is what we are shipping today: feature-complete, creator-first ANS-104 DataItems.
What is the x402 protocol?
The x402 protocol is an open framework that enables machine-to-machine payments on the web by standardizing how clients and services exchange value over HTTP.
Building on the HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code, x402 establishes a clear transaction flow where a server responds to resource requests with payment instructions (including amount and recipient), the client provides payment authorization, a payment facilitator verifies and settles the transaction, and the server delivers the requested resource along with payment confirmation.
This protocol allows automated agents, crawlers, and digital services to conduct transactions programmatically without requiring traditional accounts, subscriptions, or API keys.
By creating a common language for web-based payments, x402 enables new monetization models such as pay-per-use access, micropayments for AI agents purchasing from multiple merchants, and flexible payment schemes including immediate settlement via stablecoins or deferred settlement through traditional payment rails like credit cards and bank accounts.
The x402 Foundation is a collaborative initiative being established by Cloudflare and Coinbase with the mission of encouraging widespread adoption of the x402 protocol.
x402 and xANS-104 DataItems: technical details
What we are shipping today is the result of work at the intersection of x402 micropayments protocol and Arweave’s ANS-104 data format. We have integrated the x402 protocol in Load’s custom HyperBEAM device (~s3@1.0 device), resulting in the first ever expirable, paywalled, privately shareable ANS-104 DataItems. The x402 micropayments have been integrated on the ANS-104 gateway sidecar level of the s3 device. Check out the source code.
At the time of writing there are two ways to create an x402 paywalled private expireable ANS-104 DataItem. The first is for non-technical users via the Load Cloud dashboard which we will showcase in this blog post, and the second is programmatic and DIY (check docs for tutorial).
Introducing 402104
402104 is the gateway (or resolver) that handles the unlocks and displaying of x402-paywalled ANS-104 DataItems, AKA a gateway for 402104 DataItems. The x402 facilitator and the resolver are deployed on Amoy Polygon, to try it out, use the official faucets:
Equipped with testnet tokens, let’s try it out.
Using 402104 with the Load Cloud Platform (LCP)
x402 has been integrated on cloud.load.network, making it possible for LCP users to create x402 paywalled, expirable links for their private objects (ANS-104 DataItems) on Load S3.
The process is pretty simple and straightforward: fill in the parameters of the Create Payment Link request (set expiry, payee EOA, and USDC amount) and the dashboard will generate a ready-to-use x402 expirable DataItem URL.
(…share the resultant link to get paid)
402104 for content creators
Load’s implementation of the x402 protocol inside Load S3 brings creators a super simple way to monetize content directly without any intermediary. Web2 payment rails like Stripe control the market – setting fees (2.7%), requiring KYC, and having the ability to deplatform people they don’t like. With 402104, creators can upload content to a HyperBEAM node, set a price, and share a link to get paid directly in USDC when their audience loads the content.
Since we’re working with ANS-104 dataitems, the provenance and integrity of the data is cryptographically ensured, and can be published to Arweave at any time with one click or API call. Typically in web3, monetization has focused on memecoins and NFTs. This is a roundabout way to monetize by proxy of some other asset. x402 meets the audience on familiar ground, with USDC micropayments instead of creator coins, fan tokens, or NFT access passes.
Most x402 implementations only use crypto for the payment side. Load S3’s integration brings in the data itself, providing long-term storage guarantees beyond centralized servers, so creators can be confident their work will survive and be monetizable into the future.
402104 and ANS-104
You may wonder: is 402104 a new standard derived from Arweave’s ANS-104? No – 402104 is a data layer on top of Load S3’s xANS-104. The beauty of this design is the total integrity with Arweave’s ANS-104 standard.
When your ANS-104 DataItems is stored offchain (on HyperBEAM) on Load S3, you have full control over its access control rules: set expiry, and/or set x402’ payee, and x402’s unlock payment.
As long as the DataItem is living temporary on Load S3, you have some steroids features, you can gate and paywall access to it, you may delete it, or you may anchor it to Arweave while maintaining provenance and data integrity, making it permanent and publicly accessible via over 600 gateways – learn more about xANS-104 data provenance, lineage and governance here.
402104 upcoming networks support
While for the launch we have the x402 facilitator supporting only Amoy Polygon, we are working on custom support for Load Alphanet and mainnet deployments such as Base and Solana.
Why x402 for micropayments?
x402 is an open protocol – an emerging standard built by industry leaders such as Coinbase and Cloudflare. Built around the HTTP 402 status code, x402 is a no-fees, blockchain-agnostic, instantly-settled, frictionless micropayments protocol enabling users to pay for resources via API without registration, emails, OAuth, or complex signatures.
The reason why x402 works perfectly with Load is the EVM intersection; x402 requires the micropayments being in the ERC-20 tokens that implement the EIP-3009 standard. So it’s not a USDC-only protocol, but EIP-3009-only (token wise), and the reason behind EIP-3009 requirement is its features, such as fees abstraction, one step payment (no multiple approvals), and its integrity with the facilitator architecture. Learn more about token requirements here.
x402 and HyperBEAM NIF
The x402 facilitator has been integrated on the s3_nif level, more precisely in the LS3 ANS-103 gateway sidecar, and deployed on our micro-modular HyperBEAM node s3-node-1.load.network (gateway: gateway.s3-node-1.load.network).
The gateway has the ability to resolve public and private offchain DataItems, create access control, JWT tokens, and validate x402 paywall payments. The beauty of HyperBEAM micro-modularity is that it allows us to pack all of the necessary functionalities as “sidecars”, in the same location as the HyperBEAM node, and with the possibility to expose its functionality to the node’s http client module.
Load it up [ ^^]
Today’s ship marks a very important phase in the evolution of ANS-104 DataItems tools and usecases. DataItems stored temporarily on Load S3 can be anchored to Arweave by a single click, can be public, can be private, can be shared with expirable links, and can be shared with expireable yet-paywalled links – anything you need as a creator!
Try it out in Load Cloud or read the docs to roll your own.