Show HN: NickelJoke – Pay a Nickel to Get a Joke Using X402 Micropayments (github.com)

NickelJoke is an open-source web app that mints personalized jokes on demand by charging tiny USDC payments via the x402 micropayments protocol. Built from the x402 AI Starter Kit on Next.js 15, it ties an AI joke-generation endpoint to Coinbase CDP wallet/payment infrastructure and the Base network (Base Sepolia testnet by default). The front end is mobile-first and playful — scratch-to-reveal joke cards, confetti, social sharing, and smart topic suggestions — and uses TypeScript, Tailwind, Framer Motion, Radix UI, and Wagmi for wallet integration. This project is significant because it demonstrates a practical, end-to-end pattern for pay-per-request AI services using real micropayments rather than subscriptions or API quotas. Key technical takeaways: x402 handles HTTP micropayments, Coinbase CDP provides payment keys and faucets for testnet USDC, and the stack shows how to wire wallet UX, server-side AI endpoints, and deployment (Vercel) together. For developers it’s a ready-to-run example (repo, env variables, testnet workflow) illustrating how tiny on-chain payments can monetize AI outputs with low friction — highlighting new business models, UX considerations for microtransactions, and the operational needs (funded wallets, monitoring, mainnet vs testnet) to move from demo to production.