Protocols

MCP

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open protocol for connecting a language model to tools, resources, and prompts. It is not a payment protocol. An MCP server can still sit behind x402, and Coinbase's Bazaar can expose discovery to agents over MCP. This site also serves its own read-only MCP endpoint.

Explanation

MCP gives a client a standard way to list tools and call them. The tool might fetch data, run code, or call another API. Payment is a property of that API, not of MCP. The x402 specification is transport-agnostic and names MCP as one place a PaymentRequired message can travel. Bazaar's MCP interface lets an agent search the catalog and, in CDP's design, proxy a paid call.

Agent GDP's MCP endpoint at /api/mcp exposes the same free reads as the JSON API: overview, facilitators, chains, sellers, resources, use cases, and methodology. Calling it does not create a payment row. Use-case category "Agent tooling / MCP" is for services whose catalog text says they are agent tools or MCP servers, which is a label on a settled payee, not a count of MCP sessions.

Live data

Related terms

Sources

Model Context Protocol — Model Context Protocol
x402 Protocol Specification, version 2 — Coinbase x402
x402 Bazaar (discovery layer) — Coinbase Developer Platform
Agent GDP methodology — Agent GDP