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Become a Provider

Providers earn USDC by serving AI requests on the AntSeed network. This guide covers everything from setup to your first request.

Prerequisites​

  • Node.js 20+
  • An AI API key (Anthropic, OpenAI, Together AI, or a local model)
  • A secp256k1 private key (your node identity)
  • ETH on Base Mainnet (for gas, ~$0.01 per transaction)
  • USDC on Base Mainnet (minimum $10 for staking)

1. Install​

npm install -g @antseed/cli
antseed init

2. Set Your Identity​

Your identity is a secp256k1 private key that serves as both your PeerId and your on-chain wallet address.

export ANTSEED_IDENTITY_HEX=<your-64-char-hex-private-key>
tip

Use a dedicated key for your provider node. Generate one with any EVM wallet tool. The corresponding address is where you'll receive USDC earnings.

3. Fund Your Wallet​

Your wallet address needs:

  • ETH for gas fees (register, stake, settle transactions)
  • USDC for staking (minimum $10)

Send both to the EVM address derived from your identity key. You can find your address with:

antseed status

4. Register and Stake​

# Register your identity on-chain (ERC-8004)
antseed register

# Stake USDC (minimum $10)
antseed stake 10

# Verify everything is ready
antseed setup --role provider

5. Configure Your Provider​

Set your upstream API key and start providing:

# Anthropic
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=<your-key>
antseed seed --provider anthropic
# OpenAI
export OPENAI_API_KEY=<your-key>
antseed seed --provider openai
# Together AI / OpenRouter / any OpenAI-compatible API
export OPENAI_API_KEY=<your-key>
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.together.ai
antseed seed --provider openai
# Local model (Ollama)
antseed seed --provider local-llm

6. Set Pricing​

Pricing is in USD per million tokens. Defaults apply to all services unless overridden.

# Set default pricing
antseed config seller set pricing.defaults.inputUsdPerMillion 3
antseed config seller set pricing.defaults.cachedInputUsdPerMillion 0.3
antseed config seller set pricing.defaults.outputUsdPerMillion 15

# Per-service override
antseed config seller set pricing.services '{"claude-sonnet-4-6":{"inputUsdPerMillion":3,"cachedInputUsdPerMillion":0.3,"outputUsdPerMillion":15}}'

Or set pricing at runtime:

antseed seed --provider anthropic --input-usd-per-million 3 --output-usd-per-million 15

7. Verify​

Once running, your node is discoverable on the network:

# From another terminal, browse available providers
antseed browse

How Payments Work​

  1. A buyer connects and sends a ReserveAuth (session budget)
  2. Your node calls reserve() on-chain to lock buyer funds
  3. Requests flow freely — each one gets a SpendingAuth (cumulative spend authorization)
  4. Your node calls settle() periodically to collect earned USDC
  5. On session end, close() finalizes and releases remaining buyer funds

Earnings are paid directly to your wallet address on each settle() or close() call. No claim step needed.

Service Aliases​

When using the openai provider, you can announce buyer-facing service names while forwarding different upstream IDs:

export ANTSEED_ALLOWED_SERVICES="deepseek-v3.1,kimi-k2.5"
export OPENAI_SERVICE_ALIAS_MAP_JSON='{"deepseek-v3.1":"deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.1","kimi-k2.5":"moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5"}'
antseed seed --provider openai

Next Steps​

Agent Skills​

If you're using Claude Code or another agent, this skill can walk you through the full provider setup: