Lightning Labs launches pi402: coding agents pay for inference with bitcoin per token
RSync25 · x · 2026-11-13
Lightning Labs announced pi402, a way for coding agents to pay for their own AI inference over the Lightning Network in bitcoin.
- How it works: when a model call returns a 402 (payment required), the agent's built-in wallet pays instantly over Lightning and the request goes through, settling in seconds.
- No friction: no accounts, no buyer-side API keys, no cards — usage is billed per token in msat.
- The thesis: inference is irreversible — GPU energy spent can't be recovered, so selling inference on cards makes you a lender exposed to chargebacks, fraud checks and signup walls. Instant-final micropayments match inference economics better.
- Shipped as an extension for the Pi coding agent, with a self-hostable setup and a live simulated demo on the site.
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