/spec), add-ons, credits, usage limits, customer portals, webhooks, ArcenAuth delegation, Verify-Then-Settle escrow, and x402 agent micropayments.
What ArcenPay does
ArcenPay gives your app three connected loops:Ways customers & agents pay
Embedded subscription checkout
Customers choose a plan in your app, approve the plan’s stablecoin, activate recurring access, and receive plan-based entitlements.
Hosted payment links & /spec
Dual-mode checkout: human customers pay a hosted URL, while AI agents fetch
/spec to pay autonomously.ArcenAuth & Agent Mandates
Autonomous agents execute payments bounded by cryptographic mandates, monotonic scope narrowing, and on-chain revocation invariants.
Verify-Then-Settle Escrow
Commit-reveal payment escrow for agent task completion with automatic cryptographic challenge windows and refunds.
Feature entitlements
Your app checks whether a company or user can access a feature, usage limit, credit balance, or gated component.
x402 agent payments
Agents and API clients pay per request using session balances and x402-compatible payment responses.
How a payment becomes access
1
You configure what can be sold
In the dashboard, you create plans, add-ons, credits, feature entitlements, usage limits, billing components, and payment links.
2
Your app identifies the customer
The SDK or API connects the current company, user, wallet, and external customer ID to the billing state ArcenPay should resolve.
3
The customer pays
The customer completes the right payment path: embedded checkout, hosted payment link, checkout session, invoice payment, add-on purchase, or funded agent session.
4
ArcenPay updates billing state
ArcenPay verifies the payment, updates invoices or balances, records lifecycle state, and emits the related billing events.
5
Your app checks access
React hooks update the UI, while your backend uses server-side entitlement checks before running sensitive or billable operations.
6
Your systems stay in sync
Signed webhooks and lifecycle events let your backend update provisioning, CRM, support, analytics, and accounting workflows.
Access pattern
Use the React SDK to keep the interface responsive. Use the Node.js SDK or API for decisions that protect paid data, metered usage, exports, AI actions, or premium API routes.Subscription lifecycle example
The billing cycle below shows how the recurring subscription flow works. It is one flow inside ArcenPay, but it is the most common path for SaaS teams selling plan-based access.
The diagram uses Arc Testnet and Circle USDC as the illustrative network. The same lifecycle runs on every supported chain — production settles on BOT Chain Mainnet (
677) and Solana Mainnet (9100000), development on Arc Testnet, Base Sepolia, Stellar Testnet, and Solana Devnet.1
Customer activates a plan
The customer uses
ArcenEmbed or a checkout session to buy a recurring plan. ArcenPay records the subscription and grants the plan’s entitlements.2
Billing can change over time
Upgrades, downgrades, renewals, cancellation, and recovery flows update the subscription lifecycle without replacing the rest of the platform model.
3
Access follows entitlements
Your app should check entitlements rather than assuming access from the last checkout screen. This keeps subscription, add-on, credit, usage, and proof-based access consistent.
Agent lifecycle example
Autonomous agents run on the same platform without a browser or a human in the loop. The diagram below shows one agentic settlement path — budget guardrails, ArcenAuth policy, x402 vouchers, payment links, and commit-reveal escrow — resolving into the same entitlement layer human customers use.
1
Configure the agent with bounds
Initialize
ArcenAgent with a chainId, a per-request ceiling (maxAutoApprove), a rolling budget (maxDailySpend), and a persistent store so nonces survive restarts. A controller can additionally issue a signed Autonomous Agent Mandate that caps spend and scopes the tokens, chains, recipients, and resource domains the agent may touch.2
Agent discovers what it can pay
The agent resolves a machine-readable spec (
GET /public/payment-links/:slug/spec) or hits a protected endpoint and receives 402 Payment Required with a priced challenge. Discovery never spends funds.3
Guardrails and mandates authorize
Every payment is checked against
maxPrice, maxAutoApprove, and maxDailySpend, then against the mandate scope and the deterministic policy engine (root co-sign → explicit deny → explicit allow → default deny). Anything over the threshold is rejected or dispatched to a human for approval.4
Agent signs and pays
The agent signs a payment voucher — EIP-712 on EVM, Ed25519 on Stellar and Solana — and settles through the right rail: an x402 voucher replayed in the
X-PAYMENT header against the session vault, a direct on-chain transfer for a payment link, or a commit-reveal reservation for escrowed work.5
Settlement or escrow verification
The facilitator verifies and settles the payment. For escrow, the agent autonomously verifies the deliverable against its cryptographic commitment (
exact_hash, schema_conformance, or attestation) and either releases the funds or files a dispute for an automatic refund.6
Access stays in sync
Settlement emits the same lifecycle events as human billing, so invoices, entitlements, and signed webhooks update your backend identically — regardless of whether a human or an agent paid.
Related
- Architecture — system layers, contracts, settlement, and x402 routing
- Checkout, payment links, and sessions — payment entry points beyond subscriptions
- Subscriptions — recurring plan lifecycle and webhook events
- Entitlements — runtime access from plans, add-ons, usage, traits, and proofs
- Agent payments — autonomous payment flows for bots and agents
- ArcenAuth & mandates — bounded agent authority and delegation
- Verify-Then-Settle escrow — commit-reveal settlement for agent deliverables