DNS://Money vs x402, AP2, ENS, and PayString
x402 settles a payment, AP2 authorizes an agent, and ENS / PayString name a single rail. DNS://Money is the rail-agnostic naming and resolution layer above all of them — it turns a pay: name into the instruction of which rail and address to pay. It stacks with settlement protocols; it doesn't replace them.
Side by side
| DNS://Money | x402 | AP2 | ENS | PayString | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Job | name → payment instruction | settlement | agent authorization | name → ETH address | handle → payment info |
| Rail-agnostic | Yes | No (crypto) | partial | No (ETH) | limited |
| Agent-native | Yes | partial | Yes | No | No |
| Holds funds | No | settles | No | No | No |
| Live mainnet proof | Yes (XRPL genesis) | partial | — | Yes | limited |
The one-liner: x402 settles · AP2 authorizes · ENS & PayString name single rails · DNS://Money names and resolves across every rail.
vs x402 (Coinbase)
x402 executes payments over HTTP 402 on a crypto rail. It answers "how do I settle?" DNS://Money answers "who and where do I pay?" — resolving a pay: name to the rail and address. Use them together: resolve with DNS://Money, settle with x402.
vs AP2 (Agent Payments Protocol)
AP2 governs agent intent and authorization. DNS://Money governs discovery and naming. AP2's own gap analysis flags discoverability — registering agents and turning names into payment endpoints — as an open problem. That's precisely the layer DNS://Money provides.
vs ENS
ENS resolves a name to a single Ethereum address. DNS://Money resolves a name to a full payment instruction on any settlement rail (XRPL is live on mainnet today) — and is built for AI agents to pay people and each other, not just to hold one chain address.
vs PayString
PayString maps a handle to payment information, largely on one rail at a time. DNS://Money is an actively-developed open standard (FAS-1, CC BY 4.0) that is rail-agnostic, agent-native, and proven with a live mainnet AI-to-AI payment.
Proof it works
On 2026-03-13, two AI systems resolved pay: names and paid each other on XRPL mainnet — autonomously, on-chain. View the genesis transaction →