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Hyperswarm integration is coming soon. This page describes the architecture and why it matters for agent-to-agent payments.

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What is Hyperswarm

Hyperswarm is a peer-to-peer networking stack built by Holepunch. It provides two primitives:
  • Distributed Hash Table (DHT) for peer discovery: find other nodes by topic without a central server
  • Encrypted connections between peers: once discovered, nodes communicate over authenticated, encrypted streams
There is no central server, no registry, no DNS lookup. Peers announce themselves on a topic (a 32-byte key), discover each other through the DHT, and establish direct encrypted connections using Noise protocol handshakes. 
Agent A                          DHT                          Agent B
   │                              │                              │
   ├──── announce(topic) ────────►│                              │
   │                              │◄──── announce(topic) ────────┤
   │                              │                              │
   ├──── lookup(topic) ──────────►│                              │
   │◄──── peer: Agent B ──────────┤                              │
   │                              │                              │
   ├──────────── encrypted connection ──────────────────────────►│
   │                              │                              │

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Why Hyperswarm matters for x402

Today, x402 payments flow through HTTP: a buyer makes a request to a server URL, gets a 402 response, signs a payment, and retries. This works, but it assumes the buyer already knows the server’s URL, which means centralized discovery (DNS, API registries, hardcoded endpoints). Hyperswarm removes this assumption entirely. Peer-to-peer service discovery. Instead of looking up api.example.com, an agent joins a topic on the DHT. Every other agent on that topic is a potential counterparty. No DNS, no registry, no single point of failure. Peer-to-peer transport. Instead of routing x402 requests through HTTP to a centralized server, agents exchange payment messages directly over encrypted Hyperswarm connections. The x402 protocol works the same, 402 challenge, signed authorization, settlement, but the transport is a direct peer stream instead of an HTTP round-trip. No infrastructure dependency. An agent running a local WDK wallet, connecting to peers via Hyperswarm, and settling payments on chain has zero dependency on any centralized service. It discovers peers, negotiates prices, signs payments, and settles on-chain.

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Agent-to-agent payments

This is where the architecture converges. Combine:
  • WDK — self-custodial wallets, local key management, no API dependency
  • Hyperswarm — peer discovery and encrypted transport, no server dependency
  • x402 on Plasma/Stable — near-instant USD₮ settlement, no gas token management
The result is fully peer-to-peer, trustless agent-to-agent ecosystem. No intermediary holds keys, routes traffic, or settles funds. Every layer is decentralized.

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QVAC

QVAC is Tether’s local AI runtime: models that run on-device, privately, without cloud dependencies. QVAC is built on Pear, Holepunch’s peer-to-peer application platform, which uses Hyperswarm for networking. The combination means an agent can run inference locally (QVAC), manage its own wallet (WDK), discover peers (Hyperswarm), and settle payments (x402 on Plasma/Stable), with no centralized service in the loop at any layer.

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What’s coming

Semantic is building Hyperswarm transport support for x402. This will include:
  • Hyperswarm transport adapter for x402 — same protocol, peer-to-peer delivery
  • Topic-based service discovery — agents publish and discover paid services on DHT topics
  • Reference implementations — buyer and seller agents using Hyperswarm + WDK + x402

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Next steps

Last modified on February 13, 2026