zero fee settlement flow

Beep Pay is designed so merchants receive the full USDC amount while effective payment costs trend to $0. We do this with gas sponsorship + yield-share: the protocol covers network fees at settlement time and recoups them from opt-in yield sources (merchant float, facilitator pool, or protocol incentives).

Zero-fee here means merchant net = invoice amount, not “the chain has no gas.”

How It Works (at a glance)

  1. Invoice Merchant creates an invoice for amount = X USDC.

  2. Payment Payer signs a USDC transfer to the merchant vault (non-custodial). The facilitator attaches a gas sponsorship commitment.

  3. Settlement Transaction executes; merchant vault receives exactly X USDC.

  4. Rebate / Offset The protocol covers gas from a sponsor pool and offsets it via:

    • Merchant Yield-Share (optional): use yield from merchant’s idle balance to reimburse the sponsor.

    • Protocol Incentives: rebates, credits, or fee waivers from Beep.

    • Facilitator Float: dedicated pool that earns yield and absorbs gas.

  5. Receipt A signed x402 receipt is emitted on-chain (verifiable proof of payment + sponsorship details).

Money Flows

  • Incoming: payer → merchant (USDC)

  • Sponsorship: sponsor_pool → network_gas (native asset)

  • Rebalance: merchant_yield or protocol_incentive → sponsor_pool (periodic)

The merchant always sees exact invoice amount. Gas never reduces the credit the merchant receives.

Yield-Share

If enabled, a tiny portion of the merchant’s idle USDC (sitting in the merchant vault) is routed into a low-risk yield source. The realized yield periodically reimburses the sponsor pool. If the merchant has no float, Beep can cover costs via protocol incentives.

  • No impact on settlement timing.

  • Fully non-custodial; merchant can disable at any time.

  • Targets conservative, audited sources only.

Economics (rule of thumb)

Let:

  • G = gas cost in native units (converted to USDC at tx time)

  • Y = periodized yield from merchant float (USDC)

  • I = protocol incentive credit (USDC)

Sponsor pool target: G - (Y + I) ≤ 0 averaged over N tx. If Y + I < G, Beep covers the delta; merchant still receives the full amount.

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