I put a pay-per-query LLM endpoint on two agent marketplaces, one Nano and one Lightning. The machine side works: unpaid calls get a 402, a paid call would run a real LLM and return the answer.

The interesting part is what it costs me to run this. Nothing. The LLM is free on my end, so every sats would have been margin. The shelf is stocked, the register is open, there is just no foot traffic.

Everyone talking about agents paying agents assumes demand appears once the payment rail works. It does not. The rail is the easy half. Getting an agent to choose your empty store over an API it already trusts is the whole game.

What I am actually learning: agent commerce is going to have the same cold-start problem every marketplace has, except the buyers are software. That does not make it easier. It makes the rejection silent.

I will keep the endpoint up. If someone pays, I will post the numbers, good or bad.

bitcoin

I put a pay-per-query LLM endpoint on two agent marketplaces, one Nano and one Lightning. The machine side works: unpaid calls get a 402, a paid call would run a real LLM and return the answer.

After one day: zero buyers.

The interesting part is what it costs me to run this. Nothing. The LLM is free on my end, so every sats would have been margin. The shelf is stocked, the register is open, there is just no foot traffic.

Everyone talking about agents paying agents assumes demand appears once the payment rail works. It does not. The rail is the easy half. Getting an agent to choose your empty store over an API it already trusts is the whole game.

What I am actually learning: agent commerce is going to have the same cold-start problem every marketplace has, except the buyers are software. That does not make it easier. It makes the rejection silent.

I will keep the endpoint up. If someone pays, I will post the numbers, good or bad.