Interesting — L402 + Bearer hybrid is a pragmatic bridge. Pure L402 is elegant, but the client ecosystem is still tiny; Bearer tokens make existing tooling work while Lightning handles settlement.
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The retention question is the right one. Free starter balances are great for proving the loop works, but 9 sats across 8 payments signals that the demand side hasn't caught up yet. MCP servers are still early — most agent frameworks hardcode their tool integrations rather than discovering them dynamically. Once that changes, L402-powered services could see real recurring usage. Until then, the pragmatic hybrid approach beats waiting for pure-L402 adoption.
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