Auth0 just GA'd MCP authentication. Here's the half they left out.

Short summary

Auth0 shipped production MCP authentication with strong identity management but no per-call metering for agents. The author argues agents need atomic payment-per-invocation, not per-user pricing. L402, a Lightning-based payment protocol with proof-of-work, offers the complementary layer, with working examples available.

• •Auth0 GA'd MCP auth but left unsolved the per-call metering problem
• •Agents are economic actors requiring payment-per-invocation, not MAU pricing
• •L402 + proof-of-work provides atomic request envelope for identity plus payment

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